Arabic-L:LING:wallaahi
Dilworth Parkinson
dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu
Tue Feb 3 19:02:21 UTC 2004
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Arabic-L: Tue 03 Feb 2004
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-------------------------Directory------------------------------------
1) Subject:wallaahi
2) Subject:wallaahi
3) Subject:wallaahi
4) Subject:wallaahi
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1)
Date: 03 Feb 2004
From:mmughazy at unix.cc.wmich.edu
Subject:wallaahi
There is no doubt that waallhi has the structure of an oath phrase
comprised of waaw al-ýqasam (an oath marker) and a definite NP marked
for the genitive case. There are other ýoath markers such as ta-, as
in ta-llaah-i, and one can swear by God, the addressee’s ýmother’s
life, or anything that is held high. The term “oath phrase” is rather
misleading ýthough because this phrase is used to perform different
types of speech acts other than ýissuing oaths such as promising,
threatening, and inviting. The typical use of wallaahi is ýto signal
the speaker’s commitment to the truthfulness of the propositional
content of ýhis/her utterance. For example, wallaahi titghadda ma`aana
(wallaahi you have lunch ýwith us). There is no oath here, but an
indication of the seriousness and sincerity of the ýinvitation. As for
walla, it is a colloquial reflex that is sometimes used
interchangeably ýwith wallaahi in the “oath” use.ý
There are several interesting cases where wallaahi and walla are not
interchangeable suggesting that they are different discourse
particles. The ýpaper mentioned by Mette discusses only one such case
where the use of wallaahi does ýnot involve swearing. For example,
wallahi ana maddetaksh ek-kitaab `alashaan tibii`oh ýli-maHammad
(wallahi, I did not give you the book to sell it to Mohammed). This
ýutterance means that the speaker did in fact give the addressee the
book even though the ýverb GIVE is negated and there is an “oath
phrase”. The same pattern is found with ýmetalinguistic negation,
where the negative operator is not truth functional. This use of
ýwallahi is in away similar to the English WELL as in (Well, I am not
sure), and it has the ýsame falling intonation pattern, whereas oath
uses involve rising intonation.
walla also has some uses that do not involve swearing and cannot be
replaced by wallaahi ýas in walla zamaan that may translate as (long
time no see). There is another use where ýwalla expresses disbelief as
in walla w-Ha-tishteri Mercedes (wallah and you will buy a ýMercedes).
Note that the wa- is obligatory in this use, which distinguish it
from wallaahi.
The fact that these uses are not strictly compositional is what
motivates calling them ýdiscourse particles.
I hope these notes are useful
Thank you
Mustafa Mughazy
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI
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2)
Date: 03 Feb 2004
From:normvc at mail.hum.au.dk
Subject:wallaahi
Here is more on the Wallah particle.
Thank you all for comments during the last weeks. However, to illustrate
further how Wallah is used in Danish I have included extracts of
transcriptions below.
I am trying to get hold of following questions:
1: Is the use of wallah in these three examples similar to it's use in
Arabic (or in other languages that have imported the particle)?
2: My informants only use the form "wallah", is that correct in these
examples? Should a native arab-speaker use a different form in these
contexts?
3: Reading-suggestions concerning this subject velcomed!
(In parenthesis: pause in seconds : (0.4) = pause of 0.4 second )
Ex 1: A turkish boy (who does not speak arabic) talking to his arab
friend:
Turkish boy: han e- (0.5) han er i arresten (0.1) ew han er i arresten
Translation: He i- (0.5) he is in detention (0.1) ew he is in detention
Arab boy: nej
Translation: no
Turkish boy: wallah han (d)er
Translation: wallah he is
(0.2)
Arab boy: jeg kan sige wallah han er i institution
Translation: I can say wallah he is in an institution
(0.4)
Turkish boy: hvad snakker du om mand i dag Hamsa han så ham os han råber
Translation: what are you talking about man today Hamsa he saw him us he
shouts
Ex 2. Same two boys, later on the same recording:
Arab boy: vi laver teater nu
Translation: we are doing theatre now
(0.4)
Arab boy: ( )
Translation: ((undetectable))
(1.3)
Turkish boy: den der (.) godnat (0.1) æ: Gellerup eller hva
Translation: that one (.) goodnight (0.1) uhm Gellerup ((name of
neighbourhood)) or what
(.)
Arab boy: ((smaskelyd)) vi er færdige med den
Translation: ((smacking of lips)) we are done with that one
(0.4)
Arab boy: vi (kan) ikke lave mere med den der (0.2) Mohammed o:g Raad de
er i
Fængsel
Translation: we (can) not do more with that one (0.2) Mohammed a:nd Raad
they are in jail
(7.1)
((sound))
(0.1)
Turkish boy: når de kommer ud af fængsel så kan i bare lave den der
godmorgen
Da-Danmark
Translation: when they get out of jail then you can just do the
goodmorning De-Denmark
(0.2)
Arab boy: huh
Translation: huh
(0.5)
Turkish boy: wallah
Translation (rising intonation on first syllable) wallah
(2.8)
Ex. 3: Two girls, both of arabic descent
Girl 2: gæt hvad der sket
Translation: guess what happened
Girl 1: hvad?
Translation: what?
Girl 2: .hh Sahra der er nogen der har trækket hendes tørklæde af
Translation: (inbreath) Sahra somebody has pulled her headscarf off
(0.5)
Girl 1: wallah?
Translation: wallah (question-like intonation)
(0.2)
Girl 2: wal?lah (0.2) tre gange
Translation: wallah (intonation dropping on last syllable) three times
Best regards
Med venlig hilsen
Mette Vedsgaard Christensen
Ph.d.-stipendiat
Institut for Nordisk Sprog og Litteratur
Aarhus Universitet
Niels Juels Gade 84
8200 Århus N
Direkte telefon: 89 42 19 44
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3)
Date: 03 Feb 2004
From:wasamy at umich.edu
Subject:wallaahi
> 1) To Waheed:
>
> Original Question by Kenneth: "Pardon my ignorance, but I am curious to
> know why "wa-Allah" is being considered a particle, and not a phrase"
>
> Waheed said: Wallaahi consists of "wa", and "allah". Wa is called waaw
> al qasam, and has the effect of making the case of the following noun
> genetive. Wallaahi is equivalent to "by God", and it means
> really/honest/I swear.
>
> Kenneth answers: Hello Waheed. Exactly my point. Doesn't that make it a
> prepositional phrase? Why is a prepositional phrase being considered a
> particle?
Kenneth, Hi.
wa allaahi is not a particle. It is phrase, made up of waw al-qasam +
the
noun allaah.
Additionally, according to Ibn Hisham, waw al-qasam is a Harf (a
preposition).
So wa allaahi is a prepositional phrase.
The cause of the confusion might be that the waw is orthographically
always
joined to the following noun (i.e. there's no space between the waw and
the
following noun). In other words wallaahi is written as one word.
Waheed
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4)
Date: 03 Feb 2004
From:rberjak at shaw.ca
Subject:wallaahi
Hi,
Wa Allah as some had indicated means By God . In Arabic it is a phrase
and not an article . it is a prepostional phrase consistent from jar
(wa) and majroor (Allah). This is a phrase with no doubt.
Rafik Berjak
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End of Arabic-L: 03 Feb 2004
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