# Levantine Arabic: سنة الجاي



## Zuze

Hi everyone,

I wanted to ask you about the phrase "سنة الجاي" (or سنة الجاية) as in the sentence: إنشالله سنة الجاي منشوفك عريس ياغالي.

As I see it, we would have expected to see the phrase not in a construct state, but as a noun and adjective:
السنة الجاي or السنة الجاية.

I would like to know whether or not the construct state version is used in you dialects, and if so, are there any other phrases in which a similar phenomenon occurs, or is it just "سنة الجاي "?

Thank you very much,

roey


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## nado92

العام القادم (ان شاء الله)
السنة القادمة
العام التالي
كمان سنة
بعد سنة


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## Zuze

شكرا يا nado92!
ولكن كنت اريد ان اعرف لماذا يستخدمون العبارة "سنة الجاي/الجاية" بالعامية (بدل ما يستخدموا عبارة "السنة الجاي/الجاية"), وكذلك باي لهجة تكون هذه العبارة شائعة.
تصبح على خير, والف الشكر!​


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## clevermizo

Zuze said:


> I wanted to ask you about the phrase "سنة الجاي" (or سنة الجاية) as in the sentence: إنشالله سنة الجاي منشوفك عريس ياغالي.


I think it should be السنة الجاي. It may just be a typo.
(Or السنة الجاية. From what I understand in Palestinian the word is always جاي and in Syrian/Lebanese it's always جاية despite gender.)


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## Zuze

Thanks, Clevermizo!

I'm afraid it's not a typo. I have found many examples of this phrase over the net, also in "Arabenglish", such as "sent l jeye" or "sent il jeye":

nchallah sent il jeye.....sarli min 1992 ma nzelet 3a lebnen


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## clevermizo

Well given that info it's just a usage variant I'm unfamiliar with. I hope a Levantine speaker can comment. In Arabic script I couldn't tell that the ة was pronounced [t] but in this new example it's pretty obvious.


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## elroy

It's not a typo.  Although it doesn't follow the normal grammatical rules of Arabic, it is widely used, along with السنة الجاي.  The two versions are pronounced "sint/sant ij-jaay" and "is-sane/is-sine 'j-jaay,"* respectively.  So yes, the first one works like an iDaafa even though it's not.

I can think of one other example of this grammatical anomaly.  For "next time," you can say "mart ij-jaay" in addition to "il-marra 'j-jaay."
_____
*In Jerusalem they say "sane" and in the Galilee they say "sine."  But because my own speech is a mix of the two dialects, I would say "sint ij-jaay" but "is-sane 'ij-jaay."   That's why I listed those two pronunciations first.  Those whose dialects are "purer" would use the same vowel in both expressions.


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## Al-Indunisiy

What would the MSA version look like?


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## Zuze

Thank you all so much! Elroy - your answer was as enlightening as always...

Al-Indunisiy - I would say the MSA version would be *السنة القادمة*, as suggested above by nado92.


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## BeirutStreetCat

[Moderator note: thread merged with the previous one about the same topic. Cherine]

I moved from Jordan to Lebanon. In the Jordanian dialect, I was used to saying "last week" as  الأسبوع اللي فات  or  الأسبوع الماضي   and next week as  الأسبوع الجاي . If you switch out the words in فصحى you also get  الأسبوع الماضي  or  الأسبوع القادم  or  الأسبوع المقبل . None of these are an  إضآفة  structure.

However, in Lebanese dialect, and potentially seen in Syrian dialect as well, the common construction when talking about a week/month past or to come is expressed through an  إضآفة . Here are some examples (I'll use  جمعة  instead of  أسبوع  to stay true to Lebanese):

 جمعة الماضية  as in  ضهرت اكتير جمعة الماضية 
 شهر الجاي  as in  بدّي سافر لألمانيا شهر الجاي 

In the first example, the  إضآفة  is especially audible because of the tashdid on the  ة  in  جمعة  which is true of the pronunciation of an  إضافة , although the definitive followed by indefinite structure of the  إضآفة  is audible in both examples.

Because  ماضية  and  جاي  act as adjectives, not as nouns, this is indeed a strange construction!

Can anyone explain why this works, here? Are there any other examples of unconventional  إضافة s in Lebanese (or Syrian) dialect?


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## analeeh

شهر الجاي sounds very strange to me, but جمعة الجاي and سنة الجاية both sound normal. I don't think this is a generalisable construction, however. The normal way of saying 'the next X' or whatever is still with an adjective, but with these very common expressions ('next year' and 'next week') for some reason it's been reanalysed as iDaafe.


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## elroy

analeeh said:


> شهر الجاي sounds very strange to me, but جمعة الجاي and سنة الجاية both sound normal.


 In Palestinian Arabic we only have سنة الجاي and مرة الجاي (unless I'm forgetting one).  For other nouns we can only say الجمعة الجاي/الشهر الجاي/الأسبوع الجاي/الأحد الجاي/الصيف الجاي.  As you said, it's not generalizable.

@BeirutStreetCat, are you sure you heard those right?  Perceptually speaking, the only difference between the definite and indefinite forms is that the first letter is geminated (and preceded by an epenthetic vowel if necessary), and I think the difference can be hard to perceive for non-native speakers.

Your examples would be (with apologies for any distortions of Lebanese pronunciation):

Definite: Daharit-i-ktīr-i-j-jim3a 'l-māDyi
Indefinite: Daharit-i-ktīr jim3a 'l-māDyi

Definite: Badde sēfer 3a-2almānya 'š-šahr ij-jēy
Indefinite: Badde sēfer 3a-2almānya šahr ij-jēy

Hopefully @barkoosh can settle this for us.


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## barkoosh

elroy said:


> Hopefully @barkoosh can settle this for us.


Who? Me? 

Welcome to Lebanon, BeirutStreetCat. Yes, you're right. It's very often that we say بشوفك جمعة الجاي and بشوفك شهر الجاي. I never paid attention to that; I personally say بشوفك خميس الجاي. The thing is, this is how we talk. Don't expect us to think about grammar while talking. We break a lot of rules in our spoken language.


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## BeirutStreetCat

Thanks @barkoosh and fair enough answer. Your answer is more or less what I expected. When I first asked a Lebanese man about it, he said, "Don't ask for an explanation. Once you accept that we do this, you'll come to understand a lot about Lebanese dialect." I feel like now I can start that journey 

To @elroy sometimes you gotta trust the non-native speaker's observations!


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## lukebeadgcf

Thanks, BeirutStreetCat, for reopening this topic. I've always wondered about this myself, and no one I've talked to has any idea why this might be the case. 

Can anyone think of any other examples beside مرت الجاي and سنت الجاي and جمعت الجاي etc.?


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## elroy

lukebeadgcf said:


> Can anyone think of any other examples beside مرت الجاي and سنت الجاي and جمعت الجاي etc.?


 In Palestinian Arabic عيد الكبير is used for "Easter" (instead of العيد الكبير).


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## apricots

Just heard sint il-a5iiri from a guy form Nazareth.


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