Levantine Arabic: ياه / ياها

[Beaz069]

Mar7aba,

I often heard the word yeha in some phrases for example like „3tine yeha“
In which situations can I use this word? Or whats the translation of „yeha“ ?

Maybe look at my other thread where I am stating my problem:
Lebanese/Levantine Arabic: Pronoun Suffix

I have problems with forming sentences with „to him, her etc.“

Is this word usable for sentences like: „I say to him“ ?

Please answer in latin letters. Thank you!!

 

[Amirali1383koohi]

Hello
the word (يا) is between a verb and a pronoun.
for example :
3tini yeha means : give it to me
We use the word (يا) when the two pronouns lie next to each other.
For example : bedak yeha ?
(Levantine Arabic)Bedak yeha ?
in standard Arabic we say : toriduha ?
torid : bedak
yeha : ha
The word (یا) doesn't mean

 

[wriight]

So it seems you already know from the other thread what Arabic's object suffixes look like. In "3tine yeha", we have two of them: -ne ("me") and -ha ("it, feminine").

The first suffix is straightforward enough. You have a verb 3te "give" and you need to add an object "me", so you get 3tine. However, there's still a problem: you don't want to say "give me", you want to say "give me it"! That's two objects! How do you get two objects onto a verb?
Well, you don't. *3tiniiha, which 'would' break down into 3te, -ne, -ha and mean "give-me-it" is invalid, simply because you can't attach more than one such suffix to a word in Levantine Arabic.

But the problem remains: you still need to find a way to add the object -ha. So this is where the weird ye comes in! All it is is a particle that carries a second object suffix should the need arise. (A "particle" is just a word whose purpose is solely grammatical, i.e. it doesn't necessarily have any meaning of its own.) If you want to say "give me it", you start with 3te, -ne and get 3tine, but then you can't add the suffix -ha on top of the -ne that's already there — so you introduce the carrier ye and make it 3tine yeha.

Note, however, that at least in Lebanon there are people who simply substitute the subject pronouns here without using ye at all. My mom, for example, often says 3tine hiyye, which means the same thing as 3tine yeha but is simply a way to say it without making use of ye. Sadly, I have no idea how widespread this is... I recently conducted a survey of sorts for Lebanese Arabic that got a decent number of responses, but thanks to Murphy's Law I forgot to take the chance to ask this particular question.

 

[Derakhshan]

إيا - Wiktionary

Arabic personal pronouns are suffixes, not complete words in their own right, except in the subject form. Because of this, Arabic grammar does not allow them to stand independently in a sentence; they must be attached to a "carrier" word. Normally, object pronouns immediately follow the verb, preposition, or particle governing them, and thus in the overwhelming majority of the time, this governing verb, preposition, or particle is also the "carrier" of the pronoun suffix. However, these object pronouns may be separated from the governing word for any of a number of reasons, in which case إِيَّا‎ (ʾiyyā) must be employed as a generic "carrier" word:

...to introduce a second object pronoun, when the other object pronoun is already attached to the verb, preposition, or particle

• 7th century CE, 'The Quran'‎[2]:
  ‏وَمَا كَانَ ٱسْتِغْفَارُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ لِأَبِيهِ إِلَّا عَنْ مَوْعِدَةٍ وَعَدَهَا إِيَّاهُ‎‎‎
  wamā kāna stiḡfāru ʾibrāhīma liʾabīhi ʾillā ʿan mawʿidatin waʿadahā ʾiyyāhu
  And Abraham prayed for his father's forgiveness only because of a promise he had made to him.
  
  Arabic grammar requires that the object of a relative clause be restated with a redundant pronoun, so the sentence literally reads "about a promise he made it (to) him"; the indirect object ("him", i.e. Abraham's father) therefore requires إِيَّا‎ (ʾiyyā) to carry it, as وَعَدَ‎ (waʿada) is already carrying the relative pronoun referring back to the promise.
  

‏أَعْطِيتُهُ السَّيَّارَةَ‎
ʾaʿṭītuhu s-sayyārata
I gave him the car.

‏أَعْطِيتُهُ إِيَّاهَا‎
ʾaʿṭītuhu ʾiyyāhā
I gave him it.

You wouldn't use إيّا iyyā in "I say to him", because there isn't a direct + indirect object, only an indirect object.

 

[cherine]

*3tiniiha, which 'would' break down into 3te, -ne, -ha and mean "give-me-it" is invalid, simply because you can't attach more than one such suffix to a word in Arabic.

Maybe not in Lebanese, but it surely is valid in Standard Arabic أعطنيها، اكفلنيها are correct Arabic, and اكفلنيها is also used in the Qur'an (Classical Arabic).

In Egyptian Arabic, we also have the possibility to attach the two object pronouns to the verb, but in a different order: اِدِّيهالي (so the pronoun referring to the thing/object first, then the pronoun referring to the person)

And finally, I'd like to add that this ياه/ياها is just the Levanting (or Lebanese) form of the fuS7a إياه which varies according to number and gender: إياه، إياها، إياهما، إياهم، إياهن...
I don't know much about Levantine dialects, but I think that at least some of these variations also exist in those dialects.

 

[Derakhshan]

In Egyptian Arabic, we also have the possibility to attach the two object pronouns to the verb, but in a different order: اِدِّيهالي (so the pronoun referring to the thing/object first, then the pronoun referring to the person)

This is only possible because ادّيهالي is actually made up of ادّيها + لي , so the second pronoun attaches to the preposition ل, not to the verb.

In Gulf Arabic the preposition ل isn't used in these "attached pronoun" forms, so you would just say عطني إيّاها or عطنِيّاها.

I guess this is similar to "give it to me" vs "give me it" in English.

A form similar to ادّيهالي can be used for other verbs in Gulf Arabic, for example طَرِّشْها لي "send it to me", but never طرّشني ايّاها "send me it". But it is possible to hear طرّشلي ايّاها.

I don't think any modern dialect has a form like اعطنيها.

 

[wriight]

Maybe not in Lebanese, but it surely is valid in Standard Arabic أعطنيها، اكفلنيها are correct Arabic, and اكفلنيها is also used in the Qur'an (Classical Arabic).

I thought I wrote Levantine Arabic, not "Arabic"! Edited. There's also the 'longest word' that pops up as trivia occasionally, أفاستسقيناكموها

And finally, I'd like to add that this ياه/ياها is just the Levanting (or Lebanese) form of the fuS7a إياه which varies according to number and gender: إياه، إياها، إياهما، إياهم، إياهن...
I don't know much about Levantine dialects, but I think that at least some of these variations also exist in those dialects.

Yup indeed, so what I was hoping to get across to OP was that yaa-/yē- just carries any object suffix it needs to carry.

This is only possible because ادّيهالي is actually made up of ادّيها + لي , so the second pronoun attaches to the preposition ل, not to the verb.

Although it's still worth noting, because it contrasts here with the Levantine ل which is strict in not attaching to anything except the verb itself: *جابهالي doesn't exist, for instance, only جابها إلي or more-naturally جَبلي ياها.

 

[Derakhshan]

Although it's still worth noting, because it contrasts here with the Levantine ل which is strict in not attaching to anything except the verb itself: *جابهالي doesn't exist, for instance, only جابها إلي or more-naturally جَبلي ياها.

True. In Gulf Arabic it's also either جابها لي or جابلي ياها.