Egyptian ـه pronominal suffix on negated verbs

Matthew Chriswood

Matthew Chriswood

Member
Danish - Denmark
Hello,

I have a question concerning Egyptian Arabic. When a verb is negated and includes the pronominal suffix for “him” (ـه), it seems to sometimes be pronounced “uhoosh” instead of just “oosh”, e.g. in the phrase (excuse my Latin transcription):
“makallimtuhoosh baqaali kteer” (I haven’t talked to him in a long time) - as opposed to “makallimtoosh baqaali kteer (like I would expect the phrase to be pronounced). I’m struggling to find out when “uhoosh” is used instead of simply “oosh”. How would the following be pronounced in Egyptian Arabic?

1) “don’t (you singular) break it”
my guess: matkassaroosh

2) “don’t (you plural) break it”
my guess: matkassaruhoosh

3) “I didn’t break it”
my guess: don’t know if “makassartoosh” or “makassartuhoosh” (following the pattern of “makallimtuhoosh”)

4) “you (plural) didn’t break it”
my guess: makassartuhoosh

I hope my question makes sense. My Egyptian Arabic reference grammar doesn’t explain this and Google isn’t of much help

Thank you in advance!
 
    • I think that the distinction, as you suggest, is between -u the plural suffix and -u the 'him/his' suffix, with the -hu form appearing when -sh is added to the latter, but not to the former.

    مكلمتهوش - I didn't talk to him

    مكلمتوش - you [pl] didn't speak

    I think. But this is just from listening to Egyptian TV, and you'd be better off with an Egyptian speaker.
     
    Matthew Chriswood said:
    Hello,

    I have a question concerning Egyptian Arabic. When a verb is negated and includes the pronominal suffix for “him” (ـه), it seems to sometimes be pronounced “uhoosh” instead of just “oosh”, e.g. in the phrase (excuse my Latin transcription):
    “makallimtuhoosh baqaali kteer” (I haven’t talked to him in a long time) - as opposed to “makallimtoosh baqaali kteer (like I would expect the phrase to be pronounced). I’m struggling to find out when “uhoosh” is used instead of simply “oosh”. How would the following be pronounced in Egyptian Arabic?

    1) “don’t (you singular) break it”
    my guess: matkassaroosh

    2) “don’t (you plural) break it”
    my guess: matkassaruhoosh

    3) “I didn’t break it”
    my guess: don’t know if “makassartoosh” or “makassartuhoosh” (following the pattern of “makallimtuhoosh”)

    4) “you (plural) didn’t break it”
    my guess: makassartuhoosh

    I hope my question makes sense. My Egyptian Arabic reference grammar doesn’t explain this and Google isn’t of much help

    Thank you in advance!
    Click to expand...
    The short answer to your question is that, as far as I understand it (and you can also check this in Manfred Woidich's grammar of Cairo Arabic, p. 42, if you read German), it is always possible to realise this combination of suffixes as "uhoosh". But sometimes it's obligatory. It's obligatory when the verb stem you add the pronoun suffix to ends in a vowel (so, 2fsg, 2pl, 3pl, final weak like insa 'forget'). If the verb stem ends in a consonant you can do either "uhoosh" or "oosh". So all your examples are correct. In addition, (1) could have been the long form, (2) could not have been the short form, either is fine for (3), only long is ok for (4).
     
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