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From the Nabataean Aramaic letter 𐢑(l, “lamadh”), derived from the Phoenician letter 𐤋(l, “lāmed”), from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓌅. See also Classical Syriac ܠ(l, “lāmadh”), Hebrew ל(l, “lamed”), Ancient Greek Λ(L), Latin L.
The twelfth letter in traditional abjad order, which is used in place of numerals for list numbering (abjad numerals). It is preceded by ك(k) and followed by م(m).
When لِـ(li-) is followed by the definite article اَلْ(al-, “the”), the alif of the article is dropped from the spelling, resulting in the spelling لِلْ. However, if this would result in three lams in a row, because the first letter following the definite article is also lam, then the lam with sukun is also dropped, resulting in a spelling starting with لِلّـ, with only two lams; for example, لِلَّيْلَة(li-l-layla, “for tonight”), لِلّٰهِ(li-llāhi, “to God”). The pronunciation is entirely regular in all of these cases.
Oh for mother to the children! (Oh mother, help your children!)
Usage notes
It is often used in the form يَا لَهُ [مِنْ] ..., that is, يَا لَـ followed by an enclitic pronoun that does not refer to any previous noun. Rather the pronoun refers to what follows it, with an optional مِنْ in the middle.[1]
From Arabicلِ(li, “to, for, towards”). The initial syllable in suffixed forms is likely a contemporary development rather than influence from Arabicإِلَى(ʔilā, “to, for, towards”), whose initial glottal stop would have naturally been lost as seen below; instead, compare the development of the initial syllable in إِجَا(ʔija, “to come”).
Personal suffixes are attached to the stem ʾil-: إلي(ʔili, “to me”), إلك(ʔilak, “to you”), etc. Often, however, reduplicated forms from the stem laʾil- are used, thus لإلي(laʔili), لإلك(laʔilak).
ṣirt ʾāylitlak milyōn marra ma tdaʿwisli ʿal-ʾarḍ l-baʿdna mnaḍḍfīno!
I've told you a million times, don't step all over the floor if we've just cleaned it!
(literally, “I've said to you a million times, don't step me all over the floor that we've just cleaned!”)
Usage notes
Immediately followed by a personal suffix. ل(-l-) almost-always avoids creating superheavy syllables before itself.
Superheavy syllables CVVC are avoided by contracting the long vowel, such as when attaching to a hollow verb. In particular, long ā, even when raised to ē as in Lebanon and urban Syria, always contracts to a rather than to i — and North Levantine varieties have overwhelmingly merged short u and short i into i, meaning that ū and ī also both contract into i.
جَاب(jāb (jēb), “he brought”) ⇒ جَبلِي(jabli, “he brought me”, literally “he brought to me”), not *جَابلِي(*jābli (*jēbli)).
شُوف(šūf, “look at, check out”, masculine imperative) ⇒ شِفلِي(šifli, “look at for me, check out for me”)
Some speakers extend this to the plural ending -īn of active participles.
قَايلِين(ʔāylīn, “have said”, pl) ⇒ قَايلِينلي(ʔāylīnli) or قَايلِنلي(ʔāylinli, “have told me”, plural, literally “have said to me”).
The suffix avoids all other kinds of heavy syllables by attaching to the base as either -ill- or -all-. The -all- ending is used on third-person masculine singular Form I biliteral verbs in the past tense, and the -ill- ending everywhere else.
حَطّ(ḥaṭṭ, “he set down”, transitive) ⇒ حَطَّلِّي(ḥaṭṭalli, “he set down for me”, transitive)
مشِيت(mšīt, “you walked”, masculine) ⇒ مشِيتِلَّك(mšītilli, “you walked to me; you walked for me”)
كَتَبت(katabt, “you wrote”, masculine) ⇒ كَتَبتِلِّي(katabtilli, “you wrote to me; you wrote for me”)
In other cases, i.e. in environments where sticking -l- directly onto the end of the base would not create a final heavy syllable, it attaches as is.
كَتَبِت(katabit, “she wrote”) ⇒ كَتَبَِتلِي(katabatli, katabitli, “she wrote to me; she wrote for me”)
Unlike in Egyptian Arabic, the Levantine form of this suffix can only attach to the base word, not to any preceding suffixes. This means it bumps any object suffixes off into their own words.
حَطَّيْناه(ḥaṭṭaynḗ, “we put it down”) ⇒ حَطَّيْنالِك ياه، حَطَّيْنالِك هو(ḥaṭṭaynēlik yē, ḥaṭṭaynēlik huwwe, “we put it down for you”)
This suffix isn't limited to appearing on verbs and their active participles. It can also attach to elatives, passive participles of verbs, and even other parts of speech.
It only rarely appears on other parts of speech, and when it does, it's the result of an originally-unbound لَ(la, “to, for”) merging into a word it commonly appears with. That's the case with بَعدِلّـ(baʕdill-, “(of time) remaining for”), from بَعْد(baʕd, “still; remaining”, adverb, literally “ still ”) + لـ(l-, “for; belonging to”).
It's also uncommon for this suffix to attach to passive participles, which means that passive participles that end in ū will generally contract it into a short u instead of a short i if it's attached to them. Two somewhat-common examples are مَسمُحلـ(masmuḥl-, “permitted for”) and مقَدَّرلـ(mʔaddarl-, “fated for, preordained for”).
It can only attach to elatives to refer to the better or best of a set of choices, like أَريَحَلِي(ʔaryaḥli, “more/most comfortable for me”) and أَنضَفلنَا(ʔanḍaflna, “cleaner/cleanest for us”). It's generally invalid to use it on an elative that describes a negative trait, like *أَوْسَخلَك(*ʔawsaḵlak, “dirtier/dirtiest for you”) or *أصعَبلَك(ʔaṣʕablak, “more/most difficult for you”), because it imparts a positive slant on the trait the elative describes. In contrast, عَلَى(ʕala, “in relation to”) can construe elatives no matter what they mean: أَهيَنعلَيك(ʔahyan ʕlēk, “easier for you”) is synonymous with أَهيَنلَك(ʔahyanlak, “easier for you”), but the only valid antonym is أَصعَب علَيك(ʔaṣʕab ʕlēk, “more/most difficult for you”, literally “more/most difficult in relation to you”) instead of *أصعَبلَك(ʔaṣʕablak, “more/most difficult for you”).
Its suffix-base form is lay-, similarly to عَلَى(ʕala). This distinguishes it from the preposition above when constructed with a personal suffix.
For the most part, only used in the phrases مِنُّو لَيه(minno lē, “in its entirety; altogether”, literally “from it to it”), قِدِر لَ(ʔidir la, “to be able to handle”, literally “to be able toward”), فِيه لَ(fī la, “can handle”, literally “can toward”), and إِجَا لَ(ʔija la, “to come for”). However, it is also uncommonly used to construe other verbs of motion as a generalized sense of the last phrase, where it retains the sense of intending “to apprehend or cause harm” suggested by come for:
وَاللَّه حَإِضهَر لَيك
waḷḷa ḥaʾiḍhar lēk
I swear, I'm going to come out there and come for you.
(literally, “I swear I'm going to come out toward you”)
