12 55 Years of Arab Studies in Romania - Secţia de Arabă

1.1. Particle lā
The particle lā is used with the imperative mood to form the negative
imperative, but it may happen that the particle lā will appear, under the influence
of Modern Standard Arabic, before an imperfective verb to negate a future action,
an undetermined action or a usual, repeated action.
Example: hâdā 'ámr lā yẹḥtaǧ lbẹrhân „this is a thing that doesn’t need to
be proven” / ẹl mwái lā témrǫq (the more popular usuage is ma btémrǫq) c a c ẹṭšân
„water doesn’t flow before the thirsty one.” (Feghali, 1928: 214).
The particle lā although in the Lebanese dialect was almost completely
replaced by its synonym mā, it still appears in some expression that have entered
the dialect directly from classical Arabic. (Feghali, 1928: 215).
The particle lā can be found in both nominal clauses and verbal ones,
where it can negate imperfective or perfective verbs.
The particle lā usually appears in negative phrases, such as lā...wala, with
the meaning “nor...nor”. (Bizri, 2010: 83)
Examples of using particle lā to negate nominal clauses: uhâlẹn lā šáṷr
ulā dastûr balléšt bẹl- c mâṛ. „And immediately, without any advice or
authorisation, I started to build.”
rékbu ṷtâhu lā 'ékl ulā šérb. „They mounted their horses and left without
eating or drinking.”
háįdẹ ba c da bént laį (= lā hῑ) maḫṭûbé ṷla mǧaṷ ṷ zé. „This is still a girl, she
is not engaged, nor married.”
láštā qā c din háṷné lā šáγlẹ ṷlā c ámlé „Why are you staying here, without
any occupation or job?”
mánnu 2 ṣâḥbẹ ṷlánni ṣâḥbu „He is not my friend, nor am I his.” (Feghali,
1928: 215).
Examples of particle lā used to negate imperfective verbs: šáṷftu ḥẹrdân
la byâkǫl ula byéšṛab „he seems unhappy: he doesn’t eat, nor drink.”
mā lī náfs lā qûm ulā nâm ulā 'e c męl ši „I am not in the mood to stand, nor
to sleep, nor to do anything at all.” (Feghali, 1928: 216).
Examples of ways of using particle lā to negate perfective verbs: la ḍṛábnā
ḥáda ṷlā ḥádā ḍaṛábnā „We didn’t hit anyone, and no one hit us.”
2 The first term of the negative phrase in this last example is not lā, but the particle mā followed
by suffix pronoun.
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