Demonstratives

Hi everyone! Another fuS7a to shaami redux post. Today we’ll be talking about demonstratives: ‘this’, ‘that’, ‘those’.

While in some respects the Syrian system here resembles that of fuS7a, it diverges enough that it probably needs to be looked at piece by piece. We’ll start with the demonstrative pronouns, which will look fairly familiar, and then move on to other things that have no fuS7a counterpart.

Demonstrative pronouns

The independent demonstrative pronouns are as follows:

Masculine	Feminine	Plural
هاد haad this one (m.)	هاي hayy this one (f.)	هدول hadool these ones
هداك hadaak that one (m.)	هديك hadiik that one (f.)	هدوليك hadoliik those ones

These forms are most commonly used on their own, and typically (although not exclusively) translate structures of the kind ‘X one‘. Note that they can refer to people (in which case the translation usually requires an extra noun: ‘this guy’, ‘that woman’ etc):

هادا مجنون haada majnuun this guy’s mad!

هي غريبة hayy ghariibe this one’s weird

Hal-

The usual way of expressing ‘this X’ or ‘that X’ with a noun is to use the prefix هالـ hal-, whose l- assimilates like the definite article. It has no distinct gender or number forms:

هالبيت hal-beet this/that house	هلمرة hal-marra this time
هلزلمة haz-zalame this guy	هالناس han-naas these people

Note that unlike ⁱl-, hal- can attach to the beginning of an 2iDaafe construction, a number or some other expression of quantity:

هالشوية الفرش hash-shwayyt ilfaresh this bit of furniture	هلتلت أشخاص hat-tlatt 2ashkhaaS these three people
هالغرفة النوم hal-ghirfet innoom this bedroom

Independent forms + a noun

Occasionally the full pronoun forms are used after a noun marked with hal- or – like fuS7a – used before or after a plain definite noun. All these structures are usually used for emphasis or contrast:

هالبيت هاد hal-beet haad this house	هاد البيت haad ilbeet this house
هاي المرة haay ilmarra this time	هالناس هدولة han–naas hadoole these people

heek

Syrian also has a form هيك heek, usually meaning ‘like this’ or ‘like that’, which corresponds to fuS7a هكذا. This is a very widely used form:

مشيت هيك mshiit heek I walked like this	رفاع ايدك هيك rfaa3 2iidak heek lift up your hand like this
ما تحكي هيك maa ti7ki heek don’t talk like that	راحت هيك raa7et heek she went like that

Occasionally heek means ‘this’, usually in reference to a situation. Note the difference between the following:

أحسن من هيك 2a7san min heek better than that/this [situation]

أحسن من هداك 2a7san min hadaak better than that one

heek can be used with an indefinite singular or plural noun to mean ‘such Xes’, ‘Xes like this/that’:

هيك ناس heek naas people like that

هيك شغل heek shighel work like that

That’s all for today. Next time we’ll be looking at the 2iDaafe construction.