In the last few posts we’ve looked at how to form the perfective and the imperfective (‘base form’). But if you know anything about Levantine Arabic, you probably know that most of the time an imperfective form in fuS7a will correspond to a structure with a b- prefix in Levantine:
|
fuS7a |
Syrian |
|
أحب |
بحب b7ibb I love |
| أعتقد 2a3taqidu I think |
بعتقد |
In this post we’ll briefly discuss how this prefix works.
The b- prefix
Last time we saw that there are two sets of imperfective prefixes: one used with stems beginning with a consonant cluster and one used with stems beginning with a single consonant. As you might expect, there are also two corresponding sets of b- prefixes. Note that the b- generally becomes m- before the ‘we’ prefix:
|
Cluster |
Single consonant |
|
بشرب |
بقول b-2uul I say |
| بتشرب b-ti-shrab you (m.) drink |
بتقول |
|
بتشربي |
بتقولي bi-t-2uul-i you (f.) say |
| بيشرب b-yi-shrab he drinks |
بقول |
|
بتشرب |
بتقول bi-t-2uul she says |
| منشرب m-ni-shrab we drink |
منقول |
|
بتشربو |
بتقولو bi-t-2uul-u you (p.) say |
| بيشربو b-yi-shrab-u they drink |
بقولو |
Semantics of the b- form
As the examples I gave above suggest, the b- form mostly corresponds to the English simple present or to the fuS7a indicative imperfective (مضارع). It has three core functions. The first is to express repeated or characteristic action. Note that sometimes this translates to an English adjective (we’ll discuss this more in a later post):
بروح ع ألمانيا كل سنة
bruu7 3ala 2almaanya kill sine
I go to Germany every year
بضحك هالفيلم
biDa77ek halfilem
This film is funny [lit. ‘makes (one) laugh’]
بحب التفاخ
b7ibb ittiffaa7
I love apples
Note that like the English simple present, but unlike its fuS7a counterpart, this form is not usually used for continuous action (in North Levantine dialects, i.e. Syrian and Lebanese), which is expressed with the particle 3am (discussed in this post) or a participle (discussed here).
Its second main use is to describe the future. The meaning here usually corresponds broadly to English ‘will’ and contrasts with the explicitly marked future with رح ra7- , which we’ll discuss in a later post:
برجع السنة الجايه
birja3 issine ijjaaye
I’ll come back next year
بشوفك بكرا
bshuufek bukra
I’ll see you tomorrow
Its third main use, which is related closely to the future, corresponds to English ‘would’. This meaning is sometimes explicitly signposted by the presence of لو law ‘if’, but not always. Often it has to be derived from context:
أنا ما بروح على هيك حفلة
2ana maa bruu7 3ala heek 7afle
I wouldn’t go to that sort of party
لو معي مصاري بعطيك
law ma3i maSaari ba3Tiik
if I had money I’d give you some
That’s all for today. Next time we’ll look briefly at the semantics of the base form (subjunctive clauses).