# All dialects: which



## elroy

Hello!

How do you say "which" in your dialect (as in "which apple do you want?" or "I don't know which bus to take"), and do you have gender and number agreement with the following noun?

In Palestinian Arabic, we have two possibilities:

أيّ/أيَّ (ayy/ayya) - no agreement required
أيّ/أيَّ ولد (ayy/ayya walad)
أيّ/أيَّ بنت (ayy/ayya binet)
أيّ/أيَّ ولاد (ayy/ayya wlaad)

-أنـ (an-) - agreement required 
أنو/أنوّه ولد (anuu/anuwwe walad)
أني/أنِيّه بنت (anii/aniyye binet)
أنِنّه/أنُنّه/أنُمّه (aninne/anunne/anumme wlaad)

As far as I know, Syrian Arabic uses أنو (anu) invariably, with no agreement, which would constitute a significant Syrian-Palestinian difference.  In Palestinian Arabic أنو بنت* is wrong. 

Thanks!


----------



## analeeh

As far as I'm aware, all of these forms exist in Syrian. The masc/fem/pl distinction does exist (_anu, ani, anon_) but as you say, I think it's optional - _anu_ (and maybe also _ani?_) can be used with all genders and numbers.


----------



## momai

We only use ayy/ayya and much less anu where I live with no Agreement required.  'ani' sounds very much damascene to me.


----------



## analeeh

I also have a feeling that _anon_ is mainly used standing alone (i.e. for 'which ones') and not very much, if at all, in agreement scenarios. But we need a Damascene.


----------



## elroy

analeeh said:


> _anu_ (and maybe also _ani?_) can be used with all genders and numbers.


 It seems highly unlikely this would apply to _ani_, since feminine forms aren't usually used as default forms. 





momai said:


> where I live


 Which is where, إذا فش مانع تقولنا?


----------



## momai

elroy said:


> Which is where, أذا فش مانع تقولنا?


سلميّة محافظة حماة


----------



## be.010

Hi!
In Damascene, both أنو and أني are used, but the masculine/feminine distinction between them isn't clear. So you may hear أنو بنت and أني شب. The second syllable isn't stressed anyway so usually it just goes with the flow of the speech.
أي  and أيَّ are used the same way as in Palestinian, but  أننه/أنمه aren't used at all (I think not in any Syrian dialect).


----------



## elroy

be.010 said:


> So you may hear أنو بنت and أني شب.


 Wow!  To my Palestinian ears أنو بنت sounds strange but أني شب sounds totally bizarre!  It's crazy how many inter-Levantine differences there are! 





> The second syllable isn't stressed anyway


 This is another difference.  In Palestinian the second syllable is stressed and the vowel is long (an*uu*/an*ii* vs. *a*nu/*a*ni)





> أننه/أنمه aren't used at all


 I know an American guy who speaks very good Syrian Arabic.  He was flabbergasted when I told him we said "aninne."


----------



## barkoosh

Lebanese: ayya.


----------



## tounsi51

In Tunisia

which one (masc):  enehou/enehowa اناهو or اناه
which one (fem): enehi/eneheya اناهي  or اناه


----------



## Drink

Is there a Fus7a equivalent of أنـ? I'm trying to figure out where this comes from.


----------



## analeeh

I think the general theory is that the _-n _forms we see in stuff like _anu_ and also _sh(i)nu _'what' etc are from frozen nunation - I'd guess that they're respectively from some proto-form like _ayyin _plus a grammaticalised _hu(wwa_) or _hi(yya)_. The second part I'm almost certain of - look at the plurals (_anon, anumme_ etc) which have almost the exact form of the 3pls in those dialects.


----------



## Drink

analeeh said:


> I think the general theory is that the _-n _forms we see in stuff like _anu_ and also _sh(i)nu _'what' etc are from frozen nunation - I'd guess that they're respectively from some proto-form like _ayyin _plus a grammaticalised _hu(wwa_) or _hi(yya)_. The second part I'm almost certain of - look at the plurals (_anon, anumme_ etc) which have almost the exact form of the 3pls in those dialects.



Yeah, the second part I recognized myself. So you're saying the first part is basically from أيّ with nunation. That sounds reasonable to me. When does أيّ have nunation in Fus7a?


----------



## analeeh

When it's on its own - so I guess these forms were generalised at some point.


----------



## cherine

There's a previous thread about "which" in Tunisian Arabic, here.
In Egyptian Arabic, it's أنهو/أنهي which, as far as I know, are variations based on personal preferences not related to regions, and they're not related to gender أنهو واحد/واحدة، أنهي واحد/واحدة.

And if you have access to مسرحية ريا وسكينة you'll find in a scene an actress (or was it an actor, not sure now) saying نُهُون / نِهِين which, again are not related to gender, and I don't know if they're actually used in some rural places or just a comical way of saying إنهون which is used in some places or by some people instead of the stand-alone (i.e. not followed by another word) أَنْهي/أنهو.


----------



## elroy

tounsi51 and cherine, what do you use for plural?  And cherine, how are أنهو and أنهي pronounced?


----------



## cherine

an-hu, an-hi.
And they're used for singular and plural, feminine and masculine
أنهي/أنهو عربية عاجباك؟
أنهي/أنهو فريق بتحبه أكتر؟
أنهي/أنهو حاجات حتشتريها؟
أنهي/أنهو رجالة بتشتغل معاهم؟


----------



## tounsi51

elroy said:


> tounsi51 and cherine, what do you use for plural?  And cherine, how are أنهو and أنهي pronounced?



which ones: اناهوما


----------



## Hemza

In Morocco, we say إنا. For "which one?", إنا واحد (ة)


----------



## be.010

elroy said:


> It's crazy how many inter-Levantine differences there are!


 Indeed they are many. Even within Syrian itself. In Aleppo for example they say إينا eena..


elroy said:


> I know an American guy who speaks very good Syrian Arabic.  He was flabbergasted when I told him we said "aninne."


 Well, so was I


----------

