Levantine Arabic

Hi everyone! In this post we’re going to talk briefly about a few negative constructions. If you’ve studied fuS7a – and I’ve generally been assuming you have – you’ll know that in written Arabic there are lots of different negative constructions depending on tense. Although there are a few possible negatives in spoken Arabic, the system is generally simpler. maa As a general rule, all verbal structures can be negated by simply placing ما maa before the verb. This corresponds to لا, لم and لن in fuS7a: ...

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long hiatus. Today we’ll be looking at a distinctive feature of Levantine that fuS7a has no straightforward counterpart to. We’ve already looked at how normal object pronouns attach to verbs. In this post, we’re going to look at another kind of attached pronoun: the -l- forms. What is a -l- form? The -l- pronoun suffixes attach to verbs, just like normal object suffixes. Instead of a direct object noun, however, they generally (but not always) correspond to a noun with the preposition لـ la- ‘for’ or ‘to’: ...

In this post we’re going to talk about relative clauses and how to form them in Syrian. What is a relative clause? A relative clause is a clause that acts like an adjective – that is, it adds extra information about a noun (the ‘head noun’) to which it is attached. Examples of relative clauses in English are things like ‘the man who I saw‘, ‘a key (that) I found in the park‘, ‘a book (that) you heard about‘. ...

Hi everyone! Today we’re going to talk briefly about the imperative. This is formed differently in Syrian and fuS7a. Conjugation The imperatives of Form I sound verbs are a bit complicated. There is usually no prefix. Instead, the imperfective stem is used on its own. When there are no suffixes attached – that is, in the masculine form, with no pronouns attached – the stem vowel is lengthened. Note that the addition of suffixes triggers the merger of stressed u to i: ...

Hi everyone! In the last few posts we’ve looked at various forms of the verb. Today we’re going to look briefly at the direct object pronouns. These are almost identical to the forms used with nouns, with the exception of the first person singular. Verb forms A pronoun attached to a verb marks its direct object, and the same concerns apply (including lengthening and deletion). Note the two sets of forms, one following vowels, one following consonants: ...

Hi everyone! With our last post on the use of participles, we’ve looked at all the important bits of the verbal system proper. But if you’ve been paying attention (or if you’ve just studied fuS7a), you’ll have noticed that there are a few holes in the system. In particular, how do we express continuous or regular action in the past, given that the perfective form can’t be used for this purpose? The answer involves the verb كان kaan ‘to be’. ...

Hi everyone! In the last post we looked at how to form the active participle (اسم فاعل). Most of the information there will have been fairly familiar to anyone who’s studied fuS7a. Active participles in Syrian look pretty similar to their fuS7a counterparts. But their usage is quite different from what you’ll probably have encountered in modern fuS7a texts. Basic meanings Most participle forms are translated with an English verb. Since I’ve already produced a series going into more detail on participle semantics, this will be a fairly brief overview. ...

Hi everyone! Today we’re going to look quickly at one final component of the verbal system: active participles. In this post we’ll look at how to form the participle. In the next post we’ll see how it’s used. Formation Active participles are formed similarly to fuS7a. Form I verbs generally use the pattern faa3el. Note that the doubled forms are regular (the fuS7a form here would be داقّ daaqqun): SOUND كاتب kaateb has written HOLLOW ...

A few posts ago we looked at the independent pronouns: pronoun forms that act as distinct words. Just like fuS7a, Syrian also has a corresponding set of ‘attached’ pronouns, suffixes which can’t stand on their own and have to occur with another word. In this post we’ll be looking briefly at how these pronouns work. Attached pronouns suffix mainly (but not exclusively) to nouns and to verbs. Although the forms are mostly the same, there are a few small differences, so it’s worth looking at them separately. Today we’ll be looking at the forms that attach to nouns. ...

Over the last few posts we’ve looked at the semantics of various verbal forms. Here we’ll briefly talk about the last two central components of the system, the particles 3am (the continuous) and ra7- (the future). 3am (the continuous) The particle 3am is combined with the base imperfective or the b- form of the verb (there’s some variation between speakers on the exact forms used). Its most common use is to express continuous action, meaning it corresponds quite nicely to the English structure ‘be Xing’: ...