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

The conclusion can only be that in the construction lā/mā ...wa-la, lā
usually still appears in front of the second negation, but can be replaced even
there by mā, especially when the particle comes before a verb.
As refered to mā he stated that he usually uses it in front of verbs, or with
suffix pronouns in front of nouns. However he rephrased one example when mā
precedes prepositions, forming the negation of verbal phrases. Thus he said mā
finī ba'a instead of mā ba'a fiye “I can’t anymore” and ma finī bunṭur, at the place
of ma fiye bunṭur.
The subject also said that mīš or mūš is often heard now between the
Lebanese speakers, but he personally prefers the equivalent construction formed
from mā, the intermediate particle (a)nn- and the suffix pronouns. For example,
he would prefer to say instead of mīš ma c 'ūl “it’s not possible”, mannu ma c 'ul, and
instead of mīš jeye “I am not coming”, mannī jeye. But, although, he stated that
most Lebanese speakers now use in their daily conversations mīš, he said it is not
common in the Arabic of Arjess to use this specific particle in front of a verb, so
he rephrased all the verbal clauses that had mīš as a mean of negation, for
example:
Serge: mīš c am ṣaddi' šū c am biṣēr ma c i. “I can’t believe what is
happening to me.”
Rephrased: mā c am ṣaddi' šū c am biṣēr ma c i.
Layla: bint mitel l-'amaṛ c omṛa tnēn wa c išrīn sene bidda rijēl akbar minna
wa-mīš c am biy'bal?. „A very beautiful girl (lit. a girl like the moon), who is
twenty two years wants a man that is older than her and he doesn’t accept?”
Rephrased: bint mitel l-'amaṛ c omṛa tnēn wa c išrīn sene bidda rijēl akbar
minna wa-mā c am biy'bal?
Rola: mīš raḥ ridd ba'a c ā telefonēt. „I won’t answer the phone anymore.”
Rephrased: mā raḥ ridd ba'a c ā telefonēt.
As for the particle mū, he added that it’s not a particle used in his area, and
would replace it in our example with mīš:
Theo: mū mumkin i'bal lā šī wu-lā ḥada yəsabib lī 'iḥbāṭ. “I can’t let
anyone or anything affect me.”
Rephrased: mīš mumkin i'bal lā šī wu-lā ḥada yəsabib lī 'iḥbāṭ. “I can’t let
anyone or anything affect me.
3. Conclusions
Based on our brief study, we can conclude that we have at least three
different opinions about the means of expressing the negation in the Lebanese
dialect. For example, the particle lā, that the consulted works say it still appears in
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