Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic 6.4. Special-Use Particles

In this lesson, we will explore some special-use particles that are used in daily spoken Palestinian-Jordanian Levantine Arabic: the vocative يــا (yā), the object إِيَّـــا (’iyyā), the conditional لَــوْلَا (law-la), and the exclamation مـا (mā).

Table of Contents

• The Vocative Particle يــا (yā)
• The Object Particle إيّـا (’iyyā)
  • As a Direct Object Pronoun
  • Meaning ‘Together with’
  • Warning Particle Meaning ‘Beware’
• The Conditional Particle لَـوْلا (law-la)
• The Exclamation Particle مـا (mā)
• Level VI – Advanced II (C2)

The Vocative Particle يــا (yā)

A vocative particle is used to call someone’s attention or directly address a person or group. In English, this is often rendered by the particle “O,” as in “O people …!” or “O son …!”

MSA features several vocative particles, such as:

يَــا yā

أَيُّــهَــا ’ayyuha

وَا wā

أَ ’a

أَيْ ’ay

أَيَـــا ’ayā

Levantine Arabic simplifies this by almost exclusively using يَــا (yā) as a frequent and natural part of daily speech. يَــا (yā) is often placed directly before a proper name or an indefinite noun.

Here are some examples:

يَــا مَــحْــمُــوْد yā maḥmūd O Mahmood	يَــا فَـــاطْــمِــة yā fāṭmeh O Fatima
يَــا حَــبِــيْــب yā ḥabīb O beloved	يَــا شَــبَــاب yā shabāb O young people
يَــا حَـــجّ † yā ḥajj O pilgrim	يَــا جَــــار yā jār O neighbor

^† The expression is often used with older people, in particular if they have performed حَـــجّ (ḥajj) ‘pilgrimage’ to Mecca.

Note that in all the above examples, the vocative particle يَــا (yā) can be dropped because it is understood from the context.

This is not always the case. Some contexts require the use of the vocative particle. For example:

يَــا زَلَــمِــة yā zalameh O man	يَـــا مُــحْــتَـــرَم † yā muḥtaram O respectful person
يَــا جَـــمَــاعَــة yā jamā‘ah O group of people	يَــا رَبّ yā rabb O Lord

† The expression is often used sarcastically.

The noun after the vocative particle can be an مُــضَــاف (muḍāf) ‘annexed’ noun in a genitive phrase. The مُــضَــاف إِلَــيْــه (muḍāf ’ilayh) ‘annexer’ noun can also be an attached pronoun.

Here are some examples:

يَـــا حَـــبِــيْــب اِلْــقَــلْــب yā ḥabīb il-qalb O beloved of the heart	يَـــا جَـــمَــاعَــة اِلْــخِــيـــر yā jamā‘at il-kheyr O group of good people
يَـــا ابْـــن اِلْــحَـــلَال yā -bn il-ḥalāl O son of kindness	يَــا أَبُـــوْ الــشَّــبَـــاب * yā -bu -sh-shabāb O father of the youth
يَــا أَخُــــوْي yā ’akhūy O my brother	يَــا حَـــبِــيْـــبِــيْ yā ḥabībi O my love
يَــا صَـــدِيْـــقِـــيْ yā ṣadīqi O my friend	يَــا رَبِّــــيْ yā rabbi O my Lord

^* A colloquial expression used to address or refer to a young man admiringly.

The Object Particle إيّـا (’iyyā)

The special object particle إِيَّـــا (’iyyā), followed by an attached pronoun, e.g., إِيَّـــاه (’iyyāh), إِيَّـــاهَـــا (’iyyāha), إِيَّـــاك (’iyyāk), etc., often has one of three uses in Arabic:

As a Direct Object Pronoun

Consider the following example which contains a direct object and an indirect object. In Palestinian-Jordanian Arabic, there is no constraint on which object must come first. We begin with the case in which the direct object comes first.

.بَــعَــثْــت اِلــرِّسَـــالِـــة لَـــفَـــاطْـــمِـــة ba‘ath t ir-risāleh la-fāṭmeh I sent the message to Fatima.

.بَــعَــثْــتْــهَــا إِلْـــهَـــا ba‘ath t ha ’ilha I sent it † to her.

^† In Arabic, اِلــرِّسَـــالِـــة (ir-risāleh) ‘the message’ is a feminine noun.

Note that the indirect object فَـــاطْـــمِـــة (fāṭmeh) is often preceded by the preposition  … لَـ (la-). As we have learned in Level II, Lesson 7, the preposition is modified to  … إِلـ (il-) when suffixed by an attached pronoun, e.g., إِلِــيْ (ili) ‘to/for me,’ إِلُــه (iluh) ‘to/for him,’ إِلْــهَـــا (ilha) ‘to/for her,’ إِلْــنَــا (ilna) ‘to/for us,’ etc.

Let us modify the same example so that the indirect object comes first.

.بَــعَــثْــت لَـــفَـــاطْـــمِـــة اِلــرِّسَـــالِـــة ba‘ath(i)t la-fāṭmeh ir-risāleh I sent the message to Fatima.

.بَــعَــثْــت إِلْـــهَـــا إِيَّـــاهَـــا ba‘ath(i)t ilha iyyāha I sent it to her.

Note that when both the direct and indirect objects are personal pronouns and the indirect object precedes the direct object, we use the special object particle إِيَّـــا (’iyyā), suffixed by an attached pronoun of the same gender and number of the direct object.

In the above example, the direct object اِلــرِّسَـــالِـــة (ir-risāleh) ‘the message’ is a feminine noun. Thus, we use إِيَّـــاهَـــا (’iyyāha) as the direct object pronoun.

The direct object replaced by the special object particle إِيَّـــا (’iyyā) is often a definite noun or a noun that is well-defined in the context of the speech.

Here are more examples:

.اِشْـــتَـــرِيــت لَـــوْلَادِيْ الــسَّـــيَّـــارَة ishtareyt la-wlādi -s-sayyārah I bought the car for my children.	—>	.اِشْـــتَـــرِيــت إِلْـــهُـــم إِيَّـــاهَـــا ishtareyt  ilhum iyyāha I bought it for them.
.عِــمْــلُــوْ لَـــشَــرِكِــتْــنَــا الْــبَــحْـــث ‘imlu la-sharikitna il-baḥ(i)th They did the research for our company.	—>	.عِــمْــلُــوْ إِلْـــنَــا إِيَّـــاه ‘imlu  ilnaiyyāh They did it forus.
.أَعْـــطِـــيــت † صَـــاحْـــبِــيْ الْــكُـــتُـــب ’a‘ṭeyt ṣāḥbi -l-kutub I gave the books to my friend.	—>	.أَعْـــطِـــيــتُـــه إِيَّـــاهُـــم ’a‘ṭeytuhiyyāhum I gave them tohim.

† Note that the verb أَعْـــطَــى (’a‘ṭa) ‘he gave’ in Arabic does not require the use of the preposition  … لَـ (la-) before the indirect object if the indirect object comes first.

There are two other common cases that require the use of the special object particle إِيَّـــا (’iyyā) as a direct object pronoun:

• Following the pseudo-verb بِــدّ (bidd) suffixed by an attached pronoun to express the meaning of ‘to want (to).’
• Following prepositions suffixed by an attached pronoun to express possession, e.g., عِـــنْــدُه (‘induh) ‘he has.’

Here are some examples:

.بِــــدِّيْ قَـــهْـــوِة biddi qahweh I want coffee.	—>	.بِــــدِّيْ إِيَّـــاهَـــا biddi iyyāha I want it.
.بِــــدُّه الْــكُــتُــب bidduh -l-kutub He wants the books.	—>	.بِــــدُّه إِيَّـــاهُـــم bidduhiyyāhum He wants them.
.بِــــدْهَــا الِــكْــتَــاب bid ha li-ktāb She wants the book.	—>	.بِــــدْهَــا إِيَّـــاه bid ha iyyāh She wants it.
.الْــمَــلَــفَّــات عِـــنْــدُه il-malaffāt ‘induh He has the files.	—>	.عِـــنْــدُه إِيَّـــاهُـــم ‘induh iyyāhum He has them.
مَــعَــك الْــقَــلَـــم؟ ma‘ak il-qalam Do you have the pen?	—>	مَــعَــك إِيَّـــاه؟ ma‘ak  iyyāh Do you have it?

Meaning ‘Together with’

Sometimes the particle وإِيَّـــا (w-iyyā) follows a personal pronoun to mean ‘together with,’ emphasizing companionship or joint action. For example:

.طْــلِــعْــت أَنَـــا وإِيَّـــاه عَ الــسُّـــوق ṭli‘(i) t ana w-iyyāh ‘a -s-sūq I went out, together with him, to the market.

.كَــان هُـــوِّ وإِيَّـــاهُـــم لَــمَّـــا شُـــفْـــتُـــه kān huwwe w-iyyāhum lamma shuftuh He was, together with them, when I saw him.

إِيـــش رَايْــكُــم نِــتْــعَـــاوَن إِحْـــنَـــا وإِيَّـــاكُـــم؟ ’eysh rāykum nit‘āwan iḥna w-iyyākum What do you think if we cooperate, together with you (all)?

Warning Particle Meaning ‘Beware’

If the particle إِيَّـــا (’iyyā)  is at the beginning of a sentence followed by a present verb in the subjunctive mood, it is often used for warning, meaning ‘beware.’

Sometimes a noun can be used after the particle إِيَّـــا (’iyyā). It is common for the noun to be preceded by و (w).

Here are some examples:

.إِيَّـــاك تِـــكْــذِب ’iyyāk tikdhib Beware of lying. (sing. m.)	or		.إِيَّـــاك واِلْـكِـــذِب ’iyyāk w-il-kidhib Beware of lying. (sing. m.)
.إِيَّـــاكِ تِــتْـــأَخَّــــرِيْ ’iyyāki tita’akh khari Beware of being late. (sing. f.)		.إِيَّـــاكُـــم تِــنْـــسُـــوْ ’iyyākum tinsu Beware of forgetting. (plural m.)

The Conditional Particle لَـوْلا (law-la)

The compound particle لَــوْلَا (law-la) ‘if not’ consists of the conditional particle لَــوْ (law) ‘if’ and the MSA negation particle لَا (lā) ‘not.’ It is often translated as ‘if it were not for’ or ‘if it had not been for,’ and can be followed by a noun, attached pronoun, or إِنُّــه (’innuh) ‘that’ followed by a sentence. For example:

.لَــوْلَا الْــمَــطَــر اِلْــيُــوم، كُــنَّــا طْــلِــعْــنَــا law–la -l-maṭar il-yowm kunna ṭli‘na If it had not been for the rain today, we would have gone out.

.لَــوْلَاه مَـــا كُــنْــت رَح أَعْــــرِف law–lāh mā kunt raḥ ’a‘rif If it had not been for him, I would not have known.

.لَــوْلَا إِنُّــه مَــرِّيــت مِــن هُــنَــاك، مَـــا كُــنْــت شُــفْــتُــه law–la ’innuh marreyt min hunāk mā kunt shuftuh If it had not been for the fact that I passed by there, I wouldn’t have seen him.

The Exclamation Particle مـا (mā)

The particle مـا (mā) can be used to express exclamation or surprise when followed by an adjective in the comparative pattern أَفْـــعَـــل (’af‘al). For example:

طَـــوِيْـــل ṭawīl long	—>	أَطْــــوَل ’aṭwal	!مَــا أَطْــــوَل هَــالــطَّـــرِيْـــق mā ’aṭwal ha-ṭ-ṭarīq How long this road is!
كْــبِــيْــر kbīr large	—>	أَكْــبَــر ’akbar	!مَــا أَكْــبَــر هَـــاذَا الْــقَــصْــر mā ’akbar hādha -l-qaṣ(i)r How large this palace is!
سَـــرِيْــع sarī‘ fast	—>	أَسْـــرَع ’asra‘	!مَــا أَسْـــرَع هَـــاي اِلــسَّــيَّــارَة mā ’asra‘ hāy is-sayyārah How fast this car is!

If derived from a root with identical middle and final radicals, the comparative adjective follows the pattern أَفَــــلّ (’afall).

خَـــفِــيْــف khafīf light	—>	أَخَــــفّ ’akhaff	!مَــا أَخَـــفّ دَمُّـــه mā ’akhaff dammuh How funny he is! Lit. How light his blood is!
قَـــلِــيْــل qalīl little	—>	أَقَـــــلّ ’aqall	!مَــا أَقَــــلّ صَــبْــرُه mā ’aqall ṣabruh How little his patience is!

If derived from a root with a weak final radical, the comparative adjective follows the pattern أَفْـــعَـــى (’af‘a).

حِـــلُـــو ḥilu(w) beautiful	—>	أَحْـــلَـــى ’aḥla	!مَــا أَحْـــلَـــى هَــالْـمَــنْــظَــر mā ’aḥla ha-l-manẓar How beautiful this view is!
قَــــوِيْ qawi(y) strong	—>	أَقْـــــوَى ’aqwa	!مَــا أَقْـــــوَى هَــالْــعَـــاصِـــفِـــة mā ’aqwa ha-l-‘āṣifeh How strong this storm is!

Next: Special-Use Pronouns, Nouns, and Words

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