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

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A last example with this construction comes from the character Faraḥ:<br />

'anā lā bitḥaddā wa-lā bitšəjjar “I don’t provoke, nor argue.” We can see here<br />

that lā is used before two imperfective verbs: bitḥaddā “I provoke” bitšəjjar “I<br />

argue/ fight”.<br />

The particle lā can also ren<strong>de</strong>r the pronom<strong>in</strong>al adjective “any”, <strong>in</strong><br />

sentences that we have a double negation:<br />

Serje: layla, il-'uṣṣa mīš hōn. “Layla, this is not the problem.”<br />

Layla: il-'uṣṣa mīš wu-lā maṭṛaḥ. “There isn’t any problem.”<br />

Another usage <strong>of</strong> lā, also found <strong>in</strong> Mo<strong>de</strong>rn Standard <strong>Arab</strong>ic, is lā used to<br />

negate species, <strong>de</strong>not<strong>in</strong>g categorical negation:<br />

Layla: lā ḥada ġayry biy c arif. “No one except me knows.”<br />

Particle lā also appears <strong>in</strong> sentences, <strong>in</strong> which we already have another<br />

particle <strong>of</strong> negation, but this other particle, doesn’t actually express a negation <strong>in</strong><br />

this context, but adds an extra mean<strong>in</strong>g to the sentence, for example <strong>in</strong> the next<br />

sentences it adds an <strong>in</strong>terrogatory one:<br />

Šahīd: mīš lā btis'al hiye c annī 'awwal an ? “Isn’t she the first not to ask<br />

about me?”<br />

2.1.2. Particle mā<br />

The particle mā can prece<strong>de</strong> an imperfective or a perfective verb to negate<br />

the action expressed by it.<br />

Examples:<br />

- Negat<strong>in</strong>g a past action: Tamara: lā, hēk mā ittafa'nā. “No, this way<br />

we didn’t reach any agreement.”<br />

- Negat<strong>in</strong>g a verb express<strong>in</strong>g the past cont<strong>in</strong>uous tense: Amelia: lā,<br />

mā kēnū c am biḥkū. “No, they weren’t talk<strong>in</strong>g.”<br />

- Negat<strong>in</strong>g a present action: Tamara: mā bi'dir li-'annī bikrah ilkezəb.<br />

“I can’t, because I hate lies.”<br />

- Negat<strong>in</strong>g a verb express<strong>in</strong>g the present cont<strong>in</strong>uous tense: Rola: mā<br />

c am bifham šū ṣār ma c ī. “I am not un<strong>de</strong>rstand<strong>in</strong>g what happened to me.”<br />

- Negat<strong>in</strong>g a future action: Faraḥ: mā laḥ iḫud həbūb. “I won’t take<br />

pills.” / Roger: mā raḥ 7 ḫallīki truḥī c a-l-beyt hēk...maġlūbe. “I won’t let you go<br />

home like this...<strong>de</strong>feated.”<br />

7 We can notice here a variation between the alveolar lateral approximant sound l and the<br />

alveolar trill r, thus result<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> two forms for the same particle that helps us ren<strong>de</strong>r the future: laḥ<br />

/ raḥ.<br />

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