# All Dialects: Negation ماشي



## Hemza

Hello,

As there are some threads about negation in dialects, I take the opportunity to ask if the form "ماشي" is used elsewhere than Morocco and Algeria? I think it's neither the case for the rest of North Africa nor Syria but what about Arabia? Iraq? I know in Hijazi we use "مو". What about others?

Thank you .


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## Xence

You have also the negation with  مش (_mish/mush_) used in the Middle East (Egypt, the Levant, etc.) and even in some areas in the Maghreb (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria). I would not be surprised to learn that both derive from the same origin.


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## Hemza

Thanks akhi, I know this but I was asking if "ماشي" was used elsewhere. Sorry if my question wasn't clear .


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## Xence

ماشي has another meaning in the Middle East, something like _okay_. I hope some Machriqi will confirm.


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## Hemza

Oh no, I'm asking about the *negation* particle xD

By the way, "ماشي, مش, مو and ما" are from the same origin . But I would like to know if "ماشي" is particular to Morocco and Algeria or also used somewhere else.


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## Xence

Hemza said:


> I would like to know if "ماشي" is particular to Morocco and Algeria



I guess so, but let's wait for native speakers of mashriqi dialects.


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## akhooha

ماشي is used in Sanaa to mean basically "there's nothing". This confused an Egyptian friend of mine who was trying to make a call from the post office in Sanaa to his family in Cairo. The clerk kept telling him ماشي to let him know that he couldn't get through, and my friend was wondering why, if things were ماشي (which to him meant things are going ahead, they're working), he was not being offered the connection.


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## Hemza

Poor friend  , it also happens with my Egyptian friends at university, when I say "eh" for "yes" and they repeat what they said previously 

Ok, so the meaning is a little bit different from the Moroccan/Algerian one. Thanks .


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## tounsi51

In Tunisia we only say مش and for the 1st person "I am not" we say مانيش


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## Bakr

حتى "ماشي" بالدارجة المغربية يقع فيها خلط هناك "ماشي" للنفي..وأخرى"كان ماشي" من المشي..وعند أهل فاس وبعض الشمال  المغربي "ماشي" بمعنى "سوف أفعل" ماشي نعمل..أذكر حوارا في التلفيزيون  المغربي ما بين وزير فاسي وصحفي من الدارالبيضاء..الصحفي يقول "ماشي" بمعنى النفي..والوزير
الفاسي فهمها بمعنى أن عليه أن يفعل..وللحظات كان حوار "الصم البكم" ـ


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## Hemza

Oh yes, I use it sometimes, I say "ماشي نعمل" instead of "غا نعمل" ^^. But I was only talking about النفي 

ahahahaha, your example shows how some situations can be confusing. I had a similar problem, when I went to dar al bayDa, I said "bghit limun" to a vegetables/fruits seller and he brought me oranges  while I was expecting lemons!!


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## Arab_Student

Isn't "ماشي" just another way to say ما في شيء or ما شيء?


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## analeeh

No - as you can see from the rest of the thread, it has a variety of meanings in different dialects. In Eastern dialects at least it appears pretty much exclusively as the participle of مشي, either in its literal sense (walking) or in a more figurative sense in which it means 'OK'. In other dialects ماشي is used as a future marker (clearly deriving from 'walk') or as a negative (probably derived from ما شي in a similar way to مش in other dialects). In MSA ماشٍ only appears as the participle of مشي AFAIK.


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## Hemza

Yep, "ماشي" with the meaning "going to" is formed on "فاعل", the active participate (is it how you call it in English?) while the other for the negative (which is typically Moroccan and Algerian unless someone else use it with this meaning) is derived from "ما+شيء" I think.

Example: "ماشي هذا" means "it's not this (one)" in Nothern Moroccan/Algerian. while Tunisians/Eastern Algerians/Libyans, say "مش هذا" and Mauritanians/Southern Moroccans say "ما/مو هذا".

But I focused on the negative context, what I was asking for, not the verb "to walk" .


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## Zoghbi

> Yep, "ماشي" with the meaning "going to" is formed on "فاعل", the active participate (is it how you call it in English?) while the other for the negative (which is typically Moroccan and Algerian unless someone else use it with this meaning) is derived *from "ما+شيء" I think.*



Hello,

Just for specify more: the original form who gives مش/مو/ما شي is ما هو/هي شى, it's this form (mahoush(i), mahish(i)) who still dominant in the rural areas.


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## Hemza

Hello akhi,

Yes, I forgot about this and it's still present in some urban areas of Morocco (mine as far as I know lol). Is it the case in Algeria?


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## Zoghbi

Yes, it's used in my city too, but it's quite rare compared to "mashi" and can be interpreted as a rural influence. But the "true" rural form is "mahou" "mahi" without the شى.


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## tounsi51

In Tunisia this is the rule, rural and urban


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## Hemza

Zoghbi said:


> Yes, it's used in my city too, but it's quite rare compared to "mashi" and can be interpreted as a rural influence. But the "true" rural form is "mahou" "mahi" without the شى.



Yes, same for Moroccan but I don't know why I use it more because it's easier and it seems more correct to my hear to say "mahush" than "huwa mashi".


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## DarrenLamb

In Oman and the UAE ما شي has the same meaning as ما فيه


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