Levantine Arabic

Note: this page is a handy summary, but for more detail and more examples see the FuSHa to Shami PDF. In Levantine إن is restricted to classicisms and dialectalisms, but the distinction between اذا iza and لو law that fuSHa has is largely maintained. The syntax, however, is a bit different. Open conditionals: iza As in fuSHa, iza is used for ‘open conditionals’ like ‘if it rains, we can go’ or ‘if he’s not happy, let him come and see me’. Unlike fuSHa, any tense form can appear in the conditional clause: ...

As we all know from fuSHa, two or more nouns can be put into a possessive structure by simply sticking them alongside one another in iDaafe (اضافة), literally ‘addition’ and fiddling about with the case and tanwiin suffixes. The absence of case suffixes and tanwiin makes this much simpler in Shami. Nouns that do not end with the suffix ـة do not typically change at all when placed into iDaafe with another noun, other than predictable addition of helping vowels: ...

Object pronouns The object pronouns are pretty similar to fuSHa, especially if you’ve been taught the less literary variants used in many readings of MSA. They are also almost identical to the possessive pronouns: ana: -ni inte: -ak/k inti: -ek/ki huwwe: -o/h hiyye: -(h)a ni7na: -na intu: -kon, -kum hinne/hum: -(h)on, -hom The forms -hom and -kum are only used in Jor/Pal, whilst -hon and -kon are not used in Jordanian. In Syr/Leb, -ha and -hon often lose their h. ...

Shami has a few more complex structures that do not involve simply conjugating verbs. Future There are various ways to express the future. One is by using the simple present with b- on its own: بروح معك bruu7 ma3ak ‘I’ll go with you’ One is by using bédd- (literally ‘want’): بدي امرق لعندو بكرا béddi émro2 la-3éndo bukra – I’m going to go to his house tomorrow Another common way is with the particle رح ra7(a)- or the prefix حـ ‭‭7a-: ...

For a much more detailed explanation of participles see the PDF. Participles (اسم فاعل واسم مفعول) are much more broadly used in Shami than in fuSHa. Often described lazily as equivalent to the English continuous, this is only sometimes the case and learning to use them properly (and understand their meaning) is very important to understanding normal speech. Formation Passive participles are basically the same as in fuSHa, except that those which are formed with a mu- prefix are usually formed with a m(é)- prefix instead (مكسر mkassar ‘broken’). Form I hollow participles are regularised (مبيوع mabyuu3 ‘sold’, not مباع) and in Syr/Leb – though not in Jor/Pal – form I defective participles are prefixed with me-, not ma- (مطفي méTfi ‘switched off’). ...

The formation of the imperative (فعل الأمر) is one of the major dividing lines between Jor/Pal and Syr/Leb. However, the differences are exclusively in form 1 (‘simple’) verbs. For non-form-1 verbs, the imperative is simply the present form with the prefix removed: تتعلم té-t3allam > تعلم t3allam ‘learn!’ (masc) تعلمي t-3allm-i > علمي ‭3allmi ‘teach!’ (fem) تشتغلو té-shteghl-u > اشتغلو shtéghlu ‘work!’ (pl) Sometimes, especially where it appears in fuSHa writing, the initial ا may be written in forms in Shami before consonant clusters. This does not mean it is necessarily pronounced. ...

The form in Shami that looks more like the fuSHa present tense (and the present tense in lots of other dialects), without b-, is very similar in behaviour to subjunctives in European languages. Conjugation The b-less present conjugates almost identically to the forms with b-: درس daras ‘study’ ana é-dros (a-dros) ادرس انا inte té-dros (ti-dros) تدرس انت inti té-dros-i (ti-dros-i) تدرسي انتي huwwe yé-dros (i-dros) يدرس هو hiyye té-dros (ti-dros) تدرس هي ni7na né-dros (ni-dros) ندرس نحنه intu té-dros-u (ti-dros-u) تدرسو ...

One of the first differences you discover between fuSHa and Shami (or indeed fuSHa and Egyptian) is that the present tense you’re used to seeing in fuSHa is always appearing with a mysterious b- prefix. It’s difficult to miss, since it appears all over the place. Of course, present tense verbs can also appear without b-, and often do – but in this case, they are typically doing something vaguely subjunctive-y which we will discuss in more detail later. ...

The past tense in Shami is basically pretty similar to FuSHa in its uses and structure. Conjugation The suffixes used for conjugating all past tense verbs are as follows: درس daras ‘study’ ana daras-t درست انا inte daras-t درست انت inti daras-ti درستي انتي huwwe daras درس هو hiyye dars-et (dars-at) درس هي ni7na daras-na درسنا نحنه intu daras-tu درستو انتو hinen daras-u درسو هنن As you can see, they generally line up with fuSHa but without the final vowels, except -et. In Palestinian -at and not –et is used, as in fuSHa. There are no dual forms and no plural feminine forms, and the forms for ana and inte are identical and can only be distinguished by context. The consonant cluster at the end of darast is often broken up with a helping vowel: daras@t. ...

In fuSHa numbers are famously terrible and impossible to master. In Shami, they are much better. One The number one has two forms: واحد waa7ed (in Jor/Pal waa7ad) and واحدة waa7de/wa7de. As in fuSHa, this typically follows the singular noun as an adjective to emphasise ‘one’: في شلغة واحدة بس fii shéghle waa7de bass ‘there’s just one thing’ With certain collective nouns (like foods and currencies) it can be placed before as a counter: ...