تاخرت عالاجتماع مشان الزحمة.

It is Levantine Arabic.

A few clues:

• مشان is a very common Levantine word for because of / for / so that
• عالاجتماع is a spoken-style contraction of على الاجتماع
• تاخرت is an informal spelling of تأخرت

A more Standard Arabic version would be something like:

تأخرتُ عن الاجتماع بسبب الازدحام

So this sentence sounds natural in everyday Levantine speech.

Because the meaning shown to you gives the context.

By itself, تأخرت / تاخرت in normal unvoweled writing can mean:

• I was late
• you were late to a man

That is very common in Arabic: the spelling can be the same, and context tells you which one is meant.

So in this sentence, you understand it as I was late because that is the intended meaning.

No. If it means I was late, it does not show gender.

Both a man and a woman can say:

تاخرت

So the sentence does not tell you the speaker’s gender.

تأخرت is the more careful/formal spelling.

تاخرت is a very common informal spelling in chats, texting, and casual dialect writing, where people often leave out the hamza.

So:

• تأخرت = more standard spelling
• تاخرت = casual Levantine-style spelling

As a learner, you should recognize both as the same word.

Because Arabic often leaves the subject pronoun out when the verb already makes it clear enough.

So instead of saying:

أنا تاخرت

people often just say:

تاخرت

Adding أنا is possible, but it usually adds emphasis or contrast, like:

• أنا تاخرت، مو هو = I was late, not him

So the version without أنا is very normal.

عالاجتماع = على + الاجتماع

So it is basically:

• على = on / for / to, depending on context
• الاجتماع = the meeting

In fast everyday speech, على الـ often becomes عالـ.

So:

• على الاجتماع
• becomes
• عالاجتماع

This is very common in Levantine Arabic.

Because prepositions do not match word-for-word between English and Arabic.

In Levantine, with تأخر, using على for be late for is very natural.

So you should learn the whole pattern:

• تأخر على شيء = to be late for something

Do not translate على too literally here. It is just the preposition this dialect commonly uses in this expression.

Here, مشان means because of.

So:

• مشان الزحمة = because of the traffic / because of the congestion

This word is very common in Levantine, and it can have a few related meanings depending on what follows it:

• with a noun: because of / for
• with a verb: often so that / in order to

Examples:

• مشان الشغل = because of work
• مشان أروح = so that I go / in order to go

A more formal equivalent would often be بسبب.

زحمة means crowding, congestion, jam.

In this sentence, it most naturally means:

• traffic
• a traffic jam
• road congestion

So مشان الزحمة is a very natural everyday way to say because of the traffic.

Depending on context, زحمة can also refer more generally to a place being crowded, not only cars on the road.

Because Arabic often uses the definite article in places where English also uses it, or sometimes where English would not.

Here الزحمة means something like:

• the traffic
• the congestion

It sounds natural because the traffic is understood as a specific situation causing the delay.

So مشان الزحمة is the normal way to say because of the traffic.

Because ز is a sun letter.

When ال comes before a sun letter, the l sound is not pronounced separately. Instead, the next consonant gets doubled.

So:

• written: الزحمة
• pronounced roughly: iz-zahme / ez-zahme

This is a general Arabic pronunciation rule, not something special about this one word.