Khuzestani Arabic: Definiteness marking

© Maryam Shabibi

A similar phenomenon to that in adjectival phrases, where the head noun without the definite article /al-/ can be modified by an adjective that is marked definite by the definite article, is also found in relative clauses.

The head noun of a relative clause that begins with the relativizer /illi/ (or its other variant /l-/ which resembles the definite article) or /allaði/ is marked as definite by /al-/ in MSA as well as other dialects of Arabic. Under the influence of Persian, which has no definite marker, Kh. Arabic also uses the head noun of a relative clause without the definite marker /al-/, as the following examples show.

Example 6

	'The woman that we saw yesterday phoned'
a.	Kh. Arabic
	mara	llī	šəf-nā-ha	aməs	xabar-at
	Woman	REL	saw-1PL-3SG.F	yesterday	called-3SG.F
b.	MSA
	l-marʔa	allati	raʔay-nā-ha	aməs	xabar-at
	DEF-woman	REL	saw-1PL-3SG.F	yesterday	called-3SG.F
c.	Persian
	zan-ī	ke	dīrūz	dīd-īm	telefon	kard
	woman-DEM	REL	yesterday	saw-1PL	telephone	did.3SG

Example 7

	'The memory that I want to narrate to you'
a.	Kh. Arabic
	xāṭəra	l-arīd	asoləf	l-əč
	Memory	REL-want.1SG	narrate.1SG	to-2SG.F
b.	MSA
	l-qiṣa	allaði	urīd	ʔan
	DEF-story	REL	want.1SG	COMP
	arwī-ha	l-ak
	narrate.1SG-3SG.F	for-2SG
c.	Persian
	xātere-ī	ke	mixām	barā-t	tarif
	memory-DEM	REL	want.1SG	for-2SG	narrate.1SG
	kon-am
	do-1SG