Auxiliary Particles Preceding the Imperfective Aspect in Arabic Dialects

Abstract

THE auxiliary particles which precede the imperfect aspect in some Arabic dialects have not been investigated in detail. Their frequency vary from one dialect to another. In some dialects there is no auxiliary particle that precedes the imperfect aspect at all. In this paper an attempt will be made to define the nature of these auxiliary particles in connection with their position within the comparative structure of Arabic dialects. Since the geographical distribution of Arabic dialects is very wide, we limited this paper as a preliminary research endeavour to a few dialects in South East Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Malta1. On the basis of two hypotheses, the development and the usage of the auxiliary particles in the dialectal syntax will be examined. The data, for this article, were drawn from available linguistic studies and native informants: Ali Abdellel ([A.A.] Zahle, Lebanon), Samra Abou Shakra ([S.A.S.] Beirut), Nail Hannoun ([N.H.] Baghdad), Rita Hamadaian ([R.H.] Aleppo), Noha Sadik ([N.S.] Cairo), George D. Sawa ([G.S.] Alexandria), Marija Mizzi ([M.M.] Ghawdex, Malta) and the authors of this paper ([D.A.] Malta) and ([A.H.] Mosul).