Msa

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: ...

Adjectives work pretty similarly to fuSHa, but are simpler. Masculine, feminine and plural Adjectives typically only have three or four forms in colloquial – a masculine singular, a feminine singular, and a plural which does not distinguish gender. In most adjectives the feminine is formed through addition of -a/e, sometimes dropping an unstressed short vowel: كبير كبيرة kbiir kbiire – big شاطر شاطرة shaaTer shaaTra – clever مشهور مشهورة mashhuur mashhuura – famous ...

Whenever a poorly-written Wikipedia article wants to demonstrate the differences between dialects or dialects and fuSHa, it usually lists the forms of the pronouns, the question words, the negative particle and a few basic items of vocabulary to illustrate their diversity. Shami is not the furthest dialect from fuSHa here, but there are important differences. Pronouns The independent (منفصل) pronouns in Shami are as follows: انا ana انت inta/inte ...

Vowels The actual exact pronunciation of the vowels in Levantine is, as in English, one of the many indicators of regional dialect. The most important thing for an initial learner is trying to approximate the sounds and keep the various different vowels distinct. You can worry about getting them closer to native pronunciation later when you have people to imitate. Length One of the most important things to worry about is length – you have to make your long vowels longer than your short vowels. The five long vowels are aa ii uu ee oo (ee and oo correspond to ay and aw in fuSHa and probably sound to you, if you are a native English speaker, like the vowels in ‘late’ and ‘wrote’ and should not be confused with our vowels in ‘beet’ and ‘boot’). ...

If you’ve already learnt the basics of fuSHa – as most Arabic learners who start studying dialect have – then you already have a decent basis from which to approach colloquial Levantine (Shami). In many respects Levantine is closer to fuSHa than other dialects – the stress system is very similar, the sound systems are close to one another and there often isn’t that much difference between a Levantine word and its fuSHa equivalent. ...