יַמְבָּה

The word "יַמְבָּה" (yamba) is a Hebrew slang term used to indicate a large quantity, similar to words like "הרבה" (harbe, "a lot") or "המון" (hamon, "plenty"). The word began appearing in Israeli Hebrew in the early 1990s and became especially popular among teenagers. It is documented in Smadar Shir's 1993 book "School is an Akhla Stutz" (a book about Israeli teen slang), where it is mentioned as a common word among students, with the example: "We got yamba homework." The origin of the word is interesting and complex. It likely comes from the Arabic word "يا ما" (yama) or "يمبا" (yamba) in certain dialects of spoken Arabic. This word itself is a compound of the Arabic vocative particle "يا" (ya) and the question word "ما" (ma, equivalent to "what" in Hebrew). The main use of "yama" in Arabic is to indicate a large quantity or to emphasize intensity, as in the phrase "How long I've been waiting for you!" When the word entered Israeli Hebrew, it was shortened to "yamba," perhaps influenced by the Hebrew word "ים" (yam, "sea") which is also used in Hebrew slang to indicate a large quantity ("a sea of money," "a sea of people"). The interchange of letters m-b (replacing "yama" with "yamba") is not surprising from a phonetic perspective, as the consonants m and b are pronounced similarly (both are bilabial consonants).