Modality in Arabic: The Multiple Functions of the (Non)-Indicative Markers -ūn and b-

Abstract

This paper explores the non-indicative modal meanings that the classical indicative plural inflection -ūn and the preverbal particle b- express in different varieties of Arabic. Moreover, it argues that these two forms allow the speaker to introduce a marked stance in specific grammatical contexts, where the choice of -ūn or b- clearly introduces a modal reading to the proposition. Taking a comparative approach to examine modality in Arabic, I build on examples taken from Classical Arabic (CLA), premodern non-standard written (NSW) documents, and modern dialects to analyze the modal behavior of -ūn and b-. Analysis of the data reveals the following: (1) preverbal b- is used to create rhetorical contrast, and (2) either -ūn or b- can overtly signal authoritative expectations (and orders) and/or intention. These results suggest an interesting connection between the modal roles played by -ūn and b- across Arabic varieties and demonstrate the importance of NSW texts in tracing the historical development of modality in Arabic.

1. Introduction

Mood can be roughly defined as a grammatical category expressed in the verb, whether morphologically or otherwise. It encodes the speaker’s attitude towards what is being said and thus represents one of the numerous mechanisms used across languages to mark modality. In the present study, mood is understood as the verbal expression of the speaker’s stance.

The indicative mood is generally considered to be the unmarked form of epistemic modality; it expresses neutral assertions that do not index a specific modal value to the proposition (Palmer 1986, 2001; Bybee et al. 1994). However, I argue here that in some varieties of Arabic, the second and third plural indicative verbal inflection -ūn and the preverbal particle b-, associated with the indicative mood in some dialects, exhibit a true modal value on their own. They seem to function as the preferred verbal markers to overtly signal the speaker’s stance towards the marked event in contexts that involve the expression of rhetorical contrast, authoritative expectations, and/or intention. In this sense, use of the classical indicative inflection -ūn and the particle b- emerges as a linguistic strategy that allows the speaker to convey a modally marked stance.

In Arabic, mood is not expressed exclusively through morphological inflection but can also be signaled by prefixing certain particles to the verb or failing to do so. The distribution of the two types of mood marking—inflection and prefixing—correlates with differentiated varieties of the language: in Classical Arabic (CLA), the mood system consists of five distinctive verbal paradigms,1 each of which assigns a specific set of suffixes to the verb. The indicative inflection is represented as follows: -u (1sg. and 1pl., 2m.sg., 3f.sg., and 3m.sg.), -īn (2f.sg.), -ān (2du. and 3.du.), -na (2f.pl. and 3f.pl.), and -ūn (2m.pl. and 3m.pl.). Some modern dialects, on the other hand, attach a preverbal particle to the imperfective in order to establish a modal contrast between the marked (indicative) and unmarked (subjunctive) forms of the verb. However, one group of modern dialects, largely spoken in the easternmost regions of the Arabic-speaking world, does not show the indicative–subjunctive mood distinction; instead, these dialects generalize only one form of the imperfective, the classical indicative inflection, and add the particle b- to express other modal meanings.2 The situation is more complex in non-standard written (NSW) varieties of Arabic, where a combination or alternation of the two strategies can be seen depending on the text.

Although -ūn and b- can express the indicative mood in Arabic, labeling them simply as “indicative markers” is something of an oversimplification, since marking that mood is by no means the only modal function of these morphemes, as we shall see. The contextualized reading of NSW data is very useful in that regard. Despite the substantial linguistic variation that characterizes NSW texts, they exhibit some particularly interesting non-indicative modal uses of -ūn and b- that have also been documented in CLA and some modern dialects. From this perspective, NSW Arabic can be considered a bridge that has the potential to help us understand the modal scope of these markers in both premodern and contemporary varieties of Arabic.

This study represents an initial attempt to sketch out the modal functions that -ūn and b- appear to perform in a broad array of Arabic oral and written sources. As already noted, the occurrence of -ūn and b- only overlaps in some varieties of NSW Arabic: b- is absent from CLA and MSA, while -ūn is restricted to only some dialects. Since NSW texts make use of both markers to express modality, I approach the analysis of -ūn and b- from a comparative perspective with the aim of assessing their modal behavior and identifying parallel patterns of usage. Therefore, my discussion of the (non)-indicative functions of -ūn and b- incorporates the analysis of both markers to provide a comprehensive view of modality in Arabic. With that in mind, I examine specific modal occurrences of -ūn and b- in CLA, premodern NSW Arabic documents, and modern dialects of Arabic.

This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, I provide an overview of the indicative mood in Arabic as presented in grammars of CLA, MSA, and modern dialects of Arabic. Section 3 introduces the concept of NSW Arabic and discusses previous work relevant to the modal uses of -ūn and b- in these types of sources. In Section 4, I examine specific examples of modal -ūn and b- that involve the expression of rhetorical contrast, authoritative expectations (and orders), and intention in CLA, contemporary Arabic dialects, and premodern NSW sources. To conclude, Section 5 summarizes the main findings of this paper and highlights the advantages of incorporating NSW data into the study of Arabic modality.

2. The Indicative Mood in Arabic

As noted above, the verbal inflection -ūn is the plural indicative ending for the second and third persons in many written varieties of Arabic, as well as serving as an imperfective inflection for a large number of Eastern dialects, while b- is a preverbal particle that marks the imperfective for indicative mood in a wide range of dialects. Though they can also express other modalities, the two grammatical forms share the fact that they both serve as markers of the indicative mood. In what follows, I look at descriptions of indicative -ūn and b- in the literature to elucidate the marking of this mood in Arabic, before discussing other modal functions of -ūn and b-.

2.1. The Standard Varieties: CLA and MSA

In CLA, the indicative is one of the moods formally marked with a full set of verbal endings. Descriptions of this mood usually focus on its relationship with the grammatical notions of time reference and aspect. This is especially true in Western grammars of CLA, where the indicative is commonly characterized by its temporal and aspectual properties:

Wright (1896–1898, vol. 2, pp. 18–20): “The Imperfect Indicative does not in itself express any idea of time; it merely indicates a begun, incomplete, enduring existence, either in present, past, or future time. Hence it signifies: an act which (a) does not take place at any one particular time, but at all times (b) is not yet completed (c) is to take place hereafter (d) was future in relation to the past time of which we speak (e) continues during the past.”

Generally speaking, these grammars do not present the indicative as a semantically marked verbal mood connected to a specific set of meanings (whether modal or not). Instead, it is portrayed as a “default” form:

Howell (1883, book 5, p. 17): “When the aorist v. is divested of the subjunctival and apocopative op., it is put into the ind [indicative].”

Beeston (1968, p. 95): “The [indicative] form of an imperfect occurs in all situations where there is no specific factor demanding [subjunctive] or [apocopate/jussive].”

This approach is in line with explanations of mood systems in other languages, where the indicative has been often considered the unmarked and most neutral mode of expression. Nonetheless, recognition of the modal dimension of the indicative is not completely absent from prescriptive works. Some authors comment on the expressive value that the indicative seems to convey in certain contexts. Blachère and Gaudefroy-Demombynes (1975), for example, point out three secondary nuances that can accompany the indicative when it denotes a future action: (1) the ability to perform the action, (2) a subtle prohibitive or injunctive tone, and (3) with the meaning of an optative (p. 251):

(1)	kayfa	taqūl-u	ḏālika
	how	say-ind.m.2sg	that
	“How can you say that?”

(2)	al-fatā	lā	yakūn-u	naššāfan
	the-man	neg	be-ind.m.3sg	glutton
	“A man [worthy of the name] will not be, must not be a glutton.”

(3)	ʿiyāl-ī	yarḥam-u-ka	allah	ʿiyāl-āni
	family-my	to.have.mercy-ind.m.3sg-you	Allah	family-du
	“My family–may Allah have mercy on you–is double.”

Wright (1896–1898, vol. 2, p. 18) and Brockelmann (1960, pp. 121–22) also note that the indicative is used as a historical present, in “lively” (4) or “vivid” (5) depictions of the past, and also to describe dramatic situations (6):

(4)

qālā

ṭalḥatu

fa-ʾaẖruǧ-u

ʾaʿdū

fa-ʾalbas-u

say-pfv.m.3sg

ṭalḥatu

conj-go.out-ind.1sg

run-ind.1sg

so-put.on-ind.1sg

dirʿ-ī

wa

ʾāẖuḏ-u

sayf-ī

wa

ʾaṭraḥ-u

coat.of.mail-my

and

seize-ind.1sg

sword-my

and

cast-ind.1sg

daraqat-ī

fī

ṣadr-ī

shield-mine

in

breast-my

“Said Ṭalḥa, So out I run, and put on my coat of mail, and seize my sword, and cast my shield on my breast.”

(5)	qāla	ʾaḥadu-humā	ʾinn-ī	ʾarā-nī	ʾaʿṣir-u	ẖamran
	say-pfv.m.3sg	one-them-du	that-me	see-ind.1sg-me	brew-ind.1sg	wine
	“The one who spoke: I saw how I was brewing wine.”

(6)	fa-ʾahwaytu	naḥwa	al-ṣawt	fa-ʾaḍrib-u-hu
	conj-throw.myself-pfv.1sg	towards	the-voice	conj-thrust-ind.1sg-him
	ḍarbatan	bi-l-sayfi
	thrust	with-the-sword
	“I threw myself towards the voice and I thrust the sword into him.”

Complement clauses introduced by the subordinate particle ʾan usually take the subjunctive mood; however, there are a few occasions in which the indicative may appear. Arab grammarians refer to this construction as ʾan al-muẖaffafatu min al-ṯaqīlati “the ʾan that is lightened from the heavy form” (Wright 1896–1898, vol. 2, p. 25). The choice of the indicative in this type of subordinate clause has been associated with various factors, one of them being the semantics of the verb governing the main proposition.

Howell (1883, book 5, pp. 20–21) points out that the indicative may follow ʾan after verbs of knowledge that express certainty, while Fleisch (1968, pp. 198–99) notes that the indicative occasionally occurs in the same subordinate position after verbs of will,3 ascertainment, and certainty (7). Both authors acknowledge the role of the speaker in determining mood choice in subordinate clauses with ʾan. They observe that verbs of estimation (Fleisch 1968, pp. 198–99) and opinion (Howell 1883, book 5, pp. 20–21) can be treated as verbs of certainty, i.e., verbs that trigger the indicative, when the sense of assurance predominates in the mind of the speaker (8):

(7)	li-man	ʾarāda	ʾan	yutimm-u	al-raḍāʿata
	to-whom	want- pfv.m.3sg	that	complete-ind.m.3sg	the-breastfeeding
	“For whoever wishes to complete the nursing [period].”4

(8)	wa	ḥasibū	ʾan	lā	takūn-u	fitnatun5
	and	suppose- pfv.m.3sg	that	neg	be-ind.f.3sg	tribulation
	“And they supposed that (the case would be) there would not be any tribulation.”

In addition to the meaning expressed by the verb, Wright (1896–1898, vol. 2, p. 26) follows Caspari and Müller (1887) and connects the use of the indicative after ʾan to specific temporal references. According to this author, the indicative (9) can be expected after ʾan when the main verb does not indicate any wish, effect, expectation, etc., and the subordinated verb refers to a perfect or present action. After verbs of thinking, supposing, and doubting, Wright notes that the verb following the subordinate particle may take either the indicative or the subjunctive when it indicates an action that will take place in the future (10).

(9)	ʾaʿlam-u	ʾan	yanām-u
	know-ind.m.3sg	that	be.asleep-ind.m.3sg
	“I know that he is asleep.”

(10)	ẓanantu	ʾan	yaqūm-u/a
	think-pfv.1sg	that	get.up-ind.m.3sg/sbjv.m.3sg
	“I think he will get up.”

Finally, prescriptive grammars of CLA report the use of the indicative mood after two conjunctions, the particle fa- and the connector ṯumma, and in the apodosis of realis conditionals too. The latter will be discussed in Section 4 since the indicative inflection appears to introduce a different type of modality in apodoses. As for the former, fa- “and so, then” and ṯumma “then” can govern either the subjunctive or the indicative depending on the relationship between two clauses, i.e., subordination or coordination, and the semantic-modal nuances attached to the proposition.

Example (11) shows a Quranic verse (22:62) where the verb after fa- could take either mood depending on whether the particle signals a sequence of actions (indicative) or the direct effect or consequence of the previous clause (the subjunctive). Nonetheless, the former seems to be the most widely accepted reading (Howell 1883, book 5, p. 31; Blachère and Gaudefroy-Demombynes 1975, p. 443):

(11)	ʾa-lam		tara	ʾanna	allah	ʾanzala		min		al-samāʾ
	q-neg		see-juss.m.2sg	that	Allah	send.down-pfv.m.3sg		from		the-sky
	māʾ	fa-tuṣbiḥ-u/a					al-ʾarḍ		muẖḍarratan
	water	conj-become-ind.f.3sg/sbjv.f.3sg					the-earth		green
	“Do you not see that Allah made water fall from the sky and (ind.)/so that (subj.) the earth becomes green?”

When connecting verbs, ṯumma does not typically induce a change of mood in the following verb, since it acts as a coordinating particle. However, mood alternation can occur. A good example of this (12) is provided by Howell (1883, book 5, pp. 77–78), who notes that ṯumma allows the jussive as well as the indicative mood when it follows a verb in the apodosis:

(12)	wa	ʾin	yuqātil-ū-kum		yuwall-ū-kum	al-ʾadbār
	and	if	fight-juss.m.3pl-you-pl		turn- juss.m.3pl-you-pl	the-backs
	ṯumma	lā		yunsar-ūn/yunsar-ū
	then	neg		be.helped-ind.m.3pl/juss.m.3pl
	“And, if they fight with you, they shall turn to you their backs, and moreover, they shall not be holpen.”

The jussive implies that the negation of help is restricted “to their fighting with them, like the turning of the backs.” The indicative, on the other hand, “makes the negation of help an absolute promise.” That is, it introduces a contrast that underlines the uncompromising tone that the speaker assigns to the event marked with the indicative. In Howell’s words, “the announcement that desertion shall be inflicted upon them is greater than the announcement that they shall turn their backs” (p. 78). A different modal use of the indicative inflection after fa- “and so, then” and ṯumma “then” in NSW texts will be discussed in Section 4.3.

MSA is considered the contemporary incarnation of CLA and, as such, it shares many structural features with its medieval ancestor. The mood system is a good example of these similarities, since MSA follows the same formal marking of verbal endings as CLA. Thus, the indicative mood does not seem to differ significantly in the two varieties. Nonetheless, there are some important differences that are reflected not only in the actual usage of this mood but also in the way that it is conceptualized in prescriptive works. As we have seen, the indicative is not typically defined by its modal properties in CLA, at least not directly. However, in MSA, there seems to be a shift, and the indicative is explicitly equated with the realis mood (Fradkin 2011) and the expression of factual statements and questions (Holes 2004; Ryding 2005; Abboud and McCarus 1983). From the speaker’s perspective, the indicative mood marks an event “as being true, real, or certain” Cantarino (1974–1975, vol. 1, p. 77). In general terms, contemporary descriptions of MSA seem to assign a more clearly modal dimension to the indicative mood.

Surprisingly, in these reference works, the more sharply the modal status of the indicative mood is defined, the more constrained its true modal functions appear to be. That is, the few contexts that allowed for some degree of mood alternation in CLA disappear in MSA; instead, we find a mood system governed exclusively by syntactic restrictions. In MSA, the representation of speaker stance6 is most often neutralized and mood marking is determined by the word that precedes the verb (Cantarino 1974–1975, vol. 1, p. 77). The gradual disappearance of the indicative–subjunctive alternation contexts in the two standard varieties of Arabic nicely illustrates the transition towards a modal system fully controlled by syntactic markers.

2.2. Modern Dialects of Arabic

If the expression of mood in MSA is rigid and determined by syntactic constraints, dialects are at the other end of the spectrum. Dialectal varieties of Arabic that formally mark mood show a high degree of variation, and the speaker emerges as a key agent in the assignment of mood. In many dialects, we find two forms of the imperfective stem that serve to differentiate the indicative from the subjunctive: the former is marked with a preverbal particle, whereas the latter receives zero-making. The particle b-, with its many variants and allophones/realizations (b-, bi-, ba, bā, be-, and m-) is the most common marker used across dialects7 (Owens 2018), although the forms ka- and ta- perform the same function in some Maghrebi dialects and in Andalusi Arabic (Ferrando 1996; Brustad 2000). Here, I focus on the modal behavior of b-, since it is the verbal prefix that appears in the NSW texts that will be analyzed in Section 4.

As in MSA, the conceptualization of mood in dialects of Arabic is consistent with current theories of this grammatical category across languages. Hence, the indicative is defined as the mood used to express factivity (Mitchell and El-Hassan 1994), factual statements (Holes 2004), or statements of facts (El-Hassan 2011). Slightly different terminology is used by Brustad (2000), who chooses the terms actual vs. potential to refer to the modal distinction drawn by the marked (indicative) and unmarked (subjunctive) forms of the imperfective stem. The notion of assertion is likewise associated with the modal meanings conveyed by the indicative. El-Hassan (2011), for example, states that the indicative “typically expresses assertions in declarative sentences.” In reference to the functions fulfilled by b-, Mitchell and El-Hassan (1994, p. 19) note that this particle “is often used for (indicative) assertion” in Egypt and the Levant.

As an indicative marker, b- can add certain aspectual values to the verb. It often expresses habitual and durative actions (Mitchell and El-Hassan 1994; Brustad 2000; Holes 2004). In Syrian, the b- marked imperfective also indicates stativity or change of state when it occurs after a temporal verb (Brustad 2000).8

In main sentences, Mitchell and El-Hassan point out that the two variants of the imperfect stem, b- and zero, can express modal contrasts that reflect the values associated with the indicative and the jussive (subjunctive), respectively. Examples (13a) and (13b) show the epistemic and deontic readings provided by each verbal form in the regions of Syria and Palestine (p. 20):

(13a)	b-ykūn	fi	maktab-uh
	b-be-impfv.m.3sg	in	office-his
	“He will be in his office.”

(13b)	ykūn	fi	maktab-uh
	∅-be-impfv.m.3sg	in	office-his
	“Let him be/stay (or He’s to stay) in his office.”

When used in complement clauses, some dialects allow an indicative–subjunctive distinction reflected in the b- and zero forms of the subordinated verb. Mitchell and El-Hassan (1994, p. 21) illustrate this modal contrast for Egyptian in (14):

(14a)	yisʿid-ni	nn-u(h)	byīgi	kul(l)	yōm
	please-impfv.m.3sg-me	that-him	b-come-impfv.m.3sg	every	day
	“I am pleased that he comes daily.”

(14b)	yisʿid-ni	nn-u(h)	yīgi	kul(l)	yōm
	please-impfv.m.3sg-me	that-him	∅-come-impfv.m.3sg	every	day
	“I would be pleased if he would come daily.”

The marking of mood in Arabic dialects is determined by many factors: time reference, aspect, person, individuation, and also regional variation. Even though many dialects share preverbal b- as a marker of the indicative mood, the functions fulfilled by this particle do not always coincide from one variety to another. An important difference between Egyptian and Levantine, for example, occurs with verbs denoting mental states such as liking, pleasing, thinking, believing, imagining, preferring, etc. While Levantine speakers typically employ the b- marked imperfective with this type of verb, Egyptian tends to favor the unmarked form of the imperfective (Mitchell and El-Hassan 1994).

Conditional sentences represent another grammatical context where b-marking can express indicative-related meanings; it appears in both the protasis and the apodosis. In Syrian, according to Cowell (1964), the use of an imperfective verb, or non-verb, after the realis conditional particle iḏa can indicate a higher expectation for the condition to be met (15). He does not explicitly attribute this function to the b- verbal form, but all his examples include this prefix. In example (16), the verb btəǧi “you’d come,” on the other hand, seems to underline the speaker’s certainty that the interlocutor did not “really” miss her/him, or else she would have gone to their house (Cowell 1964, pp. 332, 336):

(15)	ʾiḏa	b-təstannā-ni		šī	yōmen	yəmken
	if	b-wait-impfv.m.2sg-me		thing	day-du	∅-be.possible- impfv.m.2sg
	ʾəṭlaʿ		maʿ-ak
	∅-go.up-impfv.m.2sg-me		with-you
	“If you wait for me a couple of days, I might go up with you.”

(16)	law	kənti		məštāʾtī-li	kənti
	if	be-pfv.aux.f.2sg		be-ptcp.f.2sg-me	be-pfv.aux.f.2sg
	b-təǧi		la-ʿanna
	b-come-impfv.f.2sg		to-our.house
	“If you really wanted to see me, you’d come to our house.”

The use of the indicative in Arabic dialects that mark this mood with preverbal b- is widespread and appears consistently in alternation contexts such as complement and conditional clauses, unlike what we see in CLA, and even more so in MSA. Despite the differences in the formal marking and distribution of the indicative mood between dialectal and standard Arabic, this brief survey shows that both the verbal inflection and preverbal b- express the speaker’s assertive stance regarding a statement or an event when they operate as indicative markers.

3. Previous Accounts of -ūn and b- in NSW

In this paper, the term NSW Arabic is used in a very general sense to refer to a diverse typology of texts composed in written registers that encompass the use of classical, dialectal, and distinctive features in a more or less systematic way.9 Despite the existence of significant similarities in NSW sources, each text seems to be unique in the sense that it can incorporate traits of CLA, dialects, and other usages particular to varieties of NSW Arabic to a different degree.10 Hence, the analysis of NSW data entails the careful examination of the text as a whole in order to assess specific instances of meaningful variation within the linguistic context of the document.

Studies on NSW varieties of Arabic have successfully shown that the contextualized analysis of these sources can provide important insights into premodern uses of modal -ūn and b- in different Arabic-speaking territories and time periods. Lentin (2018) notes that preverbal b- is documented in Arabic written sources as early as the 10th century (CE, as are all dates hereafter).11 Instances of the b- imperfective from this initial period already show a strong correlation between the use of this particle and reported (direct) speech. Although examples are scarce, Lentin points out that b- always expresses some type of modality (injunctive, intersubjective, etc.). In some of the examples that he cites, b- marks potential futures and strong assertions.

In the case of Ottoman NSW12 manuscripts, Lentin (2018) observes that by this period b- has clearly developed two separate modal meanings: either it is used to mark punctual events in descriptions/narrations to indicate the speaker’s commitment, which, he explains, adds a certain degree of “vividness to the utterance,” or it acts as a prospective and modal future, mainly in hypothetical and concessive clauses. The use of b- in reported speech is still noteworthy, particularly with “non-processive verbs” such as ʿirif “to know,” (ʾa)rād “to want,” qidir “can,” or xāf “to fear,” and it is also used to denote general present, modal future, and conditional. Given the expressive, emphatic, and exclamative nature of b- in these premodern texts, Lentin (2018) concludes that the preverbal particle was essentially a strong modal form before it became the marker of general present that we find today in contemporary dialects of Arabic.

The indicative second and third plural ending -ūn is clearly differentiated from the subjunctive and the jussive plural form -ū in texts where mood is expressed in the verbal inflection. But this is not the case for most other conjugations, since only Arabic texts that are fully vocalized show the final short vowel that represents mood for all other persons, with the exception of the infrequent feminine (sg. and pl.) and the dual forms. For this reason, and because of its relatively high frequency in the sources, -ūn stands out as the primary, and indeed only, indicative inflection that allows us to systematically compare patterns of mood behavior in Arabic.

In CLA and MSA, the indicative is not typically explained in connection with a set of specific modal meanings, other than some vague references to the unmarked notions of certainty, realis, and factual information. The picture in NSW is quite different: the indicative, particularly its plural inflection, emerges as a marked form in a variety of premodern written texts. On the basis of a corpus of Levantine manuscripts dated between 1600 and 1860, Lentin (1997) describes -ūn as phonetically and stylistically marked.13 It appears denoting durativity and future events in final clauses, complement clauses with verbs of will/duty, and in the apodoses of conditional sentences. Instances of marked -ūn have been reported in other premodern texts from Syria and Egypt (Bellino 2008; Doss 2008), as well as the Maghreb and al-Andalus (Lentin 2008; Valenzuela Mochón 2020). In contrast to b-, the potential modal functions of -ūn in these sources have yet to be investigated in depth.

To sum up, NSW texts offer valuable information regarding the variety of roles played by -ūn and b- in historical written sources. That is, premodern NSW data documents marked uses of -ūn and b- that go well beyond the functions attributed to these markers in prescriptive grammars of CLA and descriptions of b- in contemporary dialects. In addition to shedding light on the broad scope of modalities expressed by -ūn and b- in the premodern period, the analysis of NSW data is key to identifying modal functions that remain unexplored in CLA and modern dialects of Arabic, as will be discussed next.

4. The Non-Indicative Modal Functions of -ūn and b-

In what follows, I will examine the modal use of -ūn and b- to convey rhetorical contrast, authoritative expectations (and orders), and intention. More specifically, I will draw on examples from a variety of sources to (1) help explain modal functions of -ūn and b- in CLA and modern dialects of Arabic and (2) point out related usages that only appear in the NSW data. These examples have been taken from grammars of CLA and dialects, descriptive dialectal research, and NSW documents written in the Levant, Egypt, and the regions of al-Andalus and the Maghreb.14 The three modal functions mentioned above have already been noted in the classical and dialectal literature; however, only the intentive function of preverbal b- has been examined to any extent. The analysis presented here is framed in tentative terms and should be considered merely a stepping-stone to more nuanced explanations of modality in Arabic.

4.1. Rhetorical Contrast

The notion of certainty, i.e., a speaker’s full commitment to the truth value of the proposition, is one of the core, and modally unmarked, meanings commonly attributed to the indicative mood crosslinguistically. In CLA, complete or strong certainty seems to trigger the choice of the indicative inflection in complement clauses with some verbs (see examples (7)–(10)). In other oral and written dialects of Arabic, preverbal b- appears to perform a similar function by marking events that reflect a high degree of speaker certainty. In these cases, however, the verb marked with b- creates a rhetorical contrast that seems to be modally marked.

Two different usages of b- with this meaning are discussed in the examples below. In some instances, b- introduces a statement of certainty that rectifies a presupposition that the speaker views as incorrect, whereas in others it signals an outcome that is perceived as inevitable or certain to happen. In both cases, the speaker relies on information available to her/him through common knowledge, previous experiences, or contextual evidence. This type of b- marking appears in varieties of Arabic where the preverbal particle does not necessarily signal the indicative mood but rather introduces other types of modal meanings.

Owens (2018) notes a special usage of b- to mark certain non-indicative contexts in Nigerian Arabic. This dialect shows a peculiar distribution of the b- and zero forms of the imperfective stem, as illustrated in (17). Before inflected forms that begin with a vowel such as b-aktub “I write” and b-uktubu “they write,” preverbal b- seems to function as an indicative marker in opposition to the zero imperfective verb, which signals the subjunctive (Owens 2018, p. 224):

(17a)	gūl	ley-a	b-uktub-a
	say-imp.2sg	to-him	b-write-impfv.m.3sg-it
	“Tell him that he is writing it.”

(17b)	gūl	ley-a	iktub-a
	say- imp.2sg	to-him	∅-write-impfv.m.3sg-it
	“Tell him to write it/he should write it.”

Regarding the consonant-initial inflected forms such as tuktub “you write” and nuktub “we write,” Owens (2018) explains that the use of b- in Nigerian Arabic is occasional, never obligatory, and it does not have an indicative meaning. Instead, it appears in contexts that establish “sequential, resultative/causal, or a situational-rhetorical contrast between two propositions” (p. 226). The use of the preverbal particle in rhetorical questions is particularly interesting, since the b- consonant–initial examples offered by Owens suggest that speakers of Nigerian Arabic can use this particle to convey a marked assertive stance. By marking a specific statement with b-, the speaker seems to highlight the correction of what s/he considers to be a mistaken assumption.

Example (18) reproduces the speaker’s response to “the suggestion that an Arab woman married to a non-Arab will forget her language” (Owens 2018). Here, the speaker appears to stress the contradiction of the situation with the b- marked verb (p. 228):

(18)	kēf	tansa	hi	be-taǧúlus	be-kalām	al-arab
	how	∅-forget-impfv.f.3sg	she	b-speak-impfv.f.3sg	with-word	the-Arabic
	“How could she forget (Arabic)?! She speaks Arabic.”

The distinction between the zero verb tansa and the b- consonant imperfective be-taǧúlus nicely illustrates the different modal nuances introduced by each verbal form and, furthermore, reinforces the interpretation of b- as a marker of rhetorical contrast in a situation that the speaker considers incompatible with the current state of affairs. The same modal meaning seems to be signaled by the preverbal particle in example (19) below. Besides expressing contrast with the preceding proposition, b- underscores the fact that mutual understanding takes place even if the group of people referred to do not share a common language (p. 228):

(19)	anīna	ārf-īn	kalām		boṛno	wēn	mā-na	ārfinn-e
	we	know-ptcp.pl	language		Kanuri	where	not-we	know-ptcp.pl-it
	be-nilfāhama			tam
	b-understand-impfv.1pl			perfect
	“How would we know Kanuri? We don’t. Still, we understand each other perfectly.”

Similar instances of b- have also been reported in some premodern NSW texts. Example (20) is an excerpt from a Levantine manuscript dating from the year 1777. It reproduces the forced confessions of a group of nuns during the trial in the 18th century of Hindiyya al-ʿUjaimī, an influential Lebanese Maronite (Lentin 1997, p. 49):

(20)	law	lā	takūn		b-taʿrif-hā,		kīf
	if	not	∅-be-impfv.aux.f.3sg		b-know-impfv.f.3sg1pl-her		how
	kānat			b-taqūl		ʿan-hā…
	be-pfv.aux.f.3sg			b-say-impfv.f.3sg		about-her
	“If she didn’t know her, how could she have said about her…”15

Lentin explains that this document contains a large number of dialectal features, among them the affixation of b- to the imperfective stem of the verb. When describing the use of b- in Levantine manuscripts from the 16th to the 18th centuries, he notes that the preverbal particle has not yet developed its contemporary value as a habitual present. In his corpus, b- is essentially a mark of modality that “gives the sentence liveliness, emphasis, and even an exclamatory tone”16 (p. 578). Therefore, the use of b- in the protasis and apodosis of (20) should be understood not as a case of indicative marking but rather as a modal strategy that allows the speaker to underscore the fact that “she (necessarily) must have known her” in the first verb and the paradox of the reported action in the second.

Questions that have an assertive–exclamatory sense do not appear to be the only construction that can mark rhetorical contrast with preverbal b-, since conditional sentences also seem to be able to carry out this function. In Gulf dialects of Arabic, the particle b- generally signals future and/or intention. However, the following example from Emirati Arabic (Persson 2008, p. 41) illustrates a different usage of b- in the two imperfective verbs of the apodosis. More specifically, the preverbal particle seems to be marking the speaker’s commitment that the event will inevitably take place based on her/his knowledge of the world. The contrast between the full form of the verb yiba “to want” in the protasis and the grammaticalized particle b- in the apodosis shows the assertive modal force introduced by the preverbal marker:

(21)	al-insān		lo	ma	yiba		yimūt	bi-ymūt
	the-man		if	not	∅-want-impfv.3sg		∅-die-impfv.3sg	bi-die-impfv.3sg
	gūwa	heeh		bi-ymūt		gūwa
	force	aye		bi-die-impfv.3sg		force
	“If a man doesn’t want to die, he’ll die against his will, aye, he’ll die against his will.”

Persson explains this example of b- as an instance of irrealis marking since it appears in the apodosis of a conditional sentence and denotes a non-realized or imagined situation. However, the fact that the speaker says the utterance twice and uses intensifying expressions such as gūwa and heeh seems to confirm that it is the speaker’s assertive stance regarding the inexorable occurrence of a human’s death, in spite of her/his reluctance, that triggers the use of b- in this case.

The optional use of b- to express rhetorical contrast noted by Owens (2018) in his data from Nigerian Arabic also seems to fit the behavior of this particle in the examples from Gulf Arabic and premodern NSW Levantine Arabic discussed above. Although definite conclusions cannot be drawn from such a small data set, this preliminary analysis suggests that b- can introduce a marked assertive stance in rhetorical contexts beyond the matter-of-fact expression of modally neutral declarative statements. This seems to be especially true for certain varieties of Arabic where preverbal b- does not operate as a marker of the indicative mood.

4.2. Authoritative Expectations

Arabic has different grammatical mechanisms that allow speakers to overtly mark a command. These include morphological inflection, e.g., the imperative and the energetic (only in CLA), as well as a number of morphosyntactic constructions such as the particle li- followed by the jussive, known as the lām of command. Among the first type, the indicative inflection seems to mark the stance of a speaker who seeks to convey an authoritative expectation (or order).

In CLA, the use of the indicative has been noted to introduce a sense of a polite order or request when reporting the exact words uttered by a speaker (Wright 1896–1898, vol. 2, p. 19):

(22)	fa-qāla		la-hu		sulaymān	tanṣarif-ūn	wa
	conj-say-pfv.m.3sg		to-him		Sulaymān	depart-ind.m.2pl	and
	narā	fī-mā		bayna-nā
	consider-ind.1sg	in-that		between-us
	“Then Sulayman said: Depart now, and we will consider between ourselves.”

However, when it occurs in apodoses, direct speech utterances marked with the indicative inflection can acquire a stronger sense of obligation that entails an authoritative stance. CLA conditionals are introduced by the particle ʾin when the fulfillment of the condition is presented as possible, also known as realis or hypothetical contexts. There are three possible verbal combinations in the apodosis of an ʾin conditional when the verb in the protasis is a perfective17 (Wright 1896–1898, vol. 2, pp. 38–39): perfective + perfective, perfective + jussive, and perfective + indicative. The last of these is pragmatically conditioned and occurs when the verb indicates an expectation/order (23) or if an oath18 precedes a perfective verb in the protasis (24):

(23)	ʾin	ʾafraǧtu			ʿan-kum		taẖruǧ-ūn		wa	taʾẖuḏ-ūn
	if	set.free-pfv.1sg			off-you-pl		go-ind.m.2pl		and	take-ind.m.2pl
	bi-ʾaydī-kum			mā		taǧid-ūn(a)-hu		fī-l-ʾaswāq			min
	in-hands-your-pl			whatever		find- ind.m.2pl-it		in-the-markets			of
	ʾālāt		wa		ʾaẖšāb
	implements		and		timber
	“If I let you go, ye must go and take what of implements and timber you find in the bazaars.”

(24)	fa-wa	allah	la-ʾin		ẖaraǧta	min-ha	lā
	conj-and	Allah	ints-if		go.out-pfv.m.2sg	from-it	neg
	tarǧiʿ-u			ʾilay-hā
	return-ind.m.2sg			to-it
	“For, by God! If thou go forth from the town, thou wilt never return to it.”

If the verb in the protasis is a perfective, the choice of the perfective or jussive in the apodosis is not associated with any specific modal meanings. In this context, the indicative clearly has a marked value that allows the speaker to establish her/his position of power with respect to the addressee.

Some premodern NSW Levantine texts, such as the 18th century work Ġarāʾib al-Badāʾiʿ wa ʿAjāʾib al-Waqāʾiʿ by Ibn al-Ṣiddīq, also document the marked use of the plural indicative inflection to express a polite request or invitation, as in (25) (Lentin 1997, p. 611):

(25)	ʾiḏa	ʾiʿtazzatū-nā	tursil-ūn	la-nā	ẖabar
	if	need-pfv.m.2sg-us	send-ind.m.2pl	to-us	news-sg
	“If you need us, let us know.”19

In this specific text, the modal distinction between the indicative and subjunctive is represented by the opposition between b- and zero imperfective verbs, while the forms with -ūn “sont rares et nettement marquees” (are rare and clearly marked) (Lentin 1997, pp. 49, 607). Hence, the verb in the apodosis, with the classical indicative inflection -ūn, acts as a marker of modality here.

Preverbal b- also appears to convey authoritative expectations in a variety of premodern NSW documents and some modern dialects. This seems to be the case in Syrian Arabic, as example (26) illustrates. Here, the speaker informs the addressee what s/he is expected to carry out, if the speaker’s health does not improve (Cowell 1964, p. 334):

(26)	ʾiḏa	kān	māl-i	aḥsan	b-ətžībī-lī	l-ḥakīm
	if	be-pfv.m.3sg	neg-I	better	b-bring-impfv.f.2sg-for-me	the-doctor
	“If I’m not better, you’ll bring the doctor to (see) me.”

The same modal function is signaled by this particle in a 13th century Mameluke copy of The Book of Ruth, regarded as one of the earliest written records of preverbal b- (Lentin 2018, p. 189, taken from Bengtsson 1995), as we see in (27). This suggests that the use of b- to express authoritative expectations is not a recent development in Levantine dialects.

(27)	ʾidā	štarayt	al-ḥaql	b-yilzam
	if	buy-pfv.m.2sg	the-field	b-be.necessary-impfv.m.3sg
	tāxud		ʾayḍan	R
	take- pfv.m.2sg		also	R
	“If you buy the field, you will also have to marry R.”

Conditionals are not the only grammatical context in which b- can convey a sense of obligation in NSW premodern Mameluke sources. As the main verb of the sentence, the b- imperfective seems to also introduce expectations that carry authoritative force and even convey direct orders in two extant copies of Ḥawādiṯ al-Zamān by Al-Jazarī, a work originally composed in the 14th century (Lentin 2018, p. 189, taken from Al-Jazarī 1998a, 1998b). This use is exemplified in (28) and (29):

(28)	bi-trūḥ	twaddī-hā	ʾilā
	b-go-impfv.m.2sg	∅-bring-ind.m.2sg-it	to
	“You shall go and bring it to…”

(29)	al-sulṭān	bi-ʾammr-ak	ʾan	tasīr	al-sāʿa
	the sultan	b-command-impfv.m.3sg-you	that	∅-go-impfv.m.2sg	the-hour
	“The Sultan commands you to go now…”

In a similar vein, the annexation of the -ūn ending to the imperative paradigm, which normally takes -ū in the plural forms, appears to be another pragmatic strategy to introduce the speaker’s authoritative stance in some NSW Arabic texts. Doss (2008) reports this type of marking in a corpus of bilingual texts composed during the French occupation of Egypt from 1798 to 1802, as in (30) (p. 144):

(30)	f(a)-iʿlim-ūn			an	al-faransāwiyya		lam	yaẖāf-ūn
	conj-know-imp.2pl-ūn			that	the-french		neg	fear-ind.3pl
	min	ʿaskar	al-ʿuṣmāliyya		wa	(i)ʿlim-ūn…
	of	army	the-ottoman		and	know- imp.2pl-ūn
	“You must know that the French do not fear the Ottoman army and that…”

In the documents studied by Doss, the plural imperfective -ū forms predominate. However, the three plural verbs included in this fragment, two imperatives and one following the negative particle lam, take the indicative form -ūn, which suggests a marked use of this verbal ending. In the case of the imperatives, attaching the form -ūn to the verb could imply that the imperative inflection was not perceived by the writer to carry a sufficient degree of modal force. As for the use of indicative inflection in the third verb, yaẖāf “to fear,” it appears to reinforce the assertive–authoritative tone of the statement.

All these examples point to the existence of a well-established connection between the plural indicative ending -ūn, preverbal b-, and the expression of authoritative expectations and orders in CLA, some modern Levantine dialects, and NSW texts from the Levant and Egypt. Apodoses appear to be a prime grammatical context for this modal function of -ūn and b-, but it is not the only one, since the same marked use is documented in main verbs.

4.3. Intention

So far, I have shown that the CLA indicative inflection -ūn and the particle b- are used in some varieties of Arabic to signal rhetorical contrast and mark authoritative expectations and orders. The last modal category discussed in this section involves the expression of intention.

In the dialectal and premodern NSW examples that I discuss in what follows, this notion appears formally marked with preverbal b- when it denotes the speaker’s intention to perform an action, while the CLA indicative inflection -ūn signals either the speaker’s intention to encourage/prevent the behavior it marks or someone else’s intention to engage in a fraudulent activity. These intentional readings occur in grammatical contexts that convey the direct consequence of a previous action, i.e., resultative constructions, such as apodoses and following the conjunctions fa- “and so, then” and tumma “then.”

The use of b- to mark intention has been identified in Levantine, Gulf, and Libyan varieties of Arabic (Ingham 1994; Brustad 2000; Holes 2004; Benmoftah and Pereira 2017). This type of marking seems to be productive in multiple contexts, including main sentences, subordinate clauses, protases, and apodoses. Here, my discussion focuses on the parallel use of b- in apodoses in Levantine modern dialects and premodern NSW texts.

According to Benmoftah and Pereira (2017, pp. 29–31), in the Libyan dialect of Tripoli, the intentive meaning of b- is not limited to future events. They explain that it can also denote past, present, immediate, and future actions. In some Levantine dialects, such as Syrian, preverbal b- can mark the imperfective verb in the apodosis of irrealis law “if” conditionals (Cowell 1964, p. 332):

(31)	law	kənt		ᵊb-maḥall-ak	kənt
	if	be-pfv.aux.1sg		in-place-your-m	be- pfv.aux.1sg
	b-əbʾa		b-əl-bēt
	b-stay-impfv.1sg		in-the-house
	“If I were in your shoes, I’d stay home.”

In explaining this example, Brustad (2000, p. 251) notes that b- provides an intentive modal sense to imperfective əbʾa, “I’d stay,” in the apodosis. That is, preverbal b- signals the intention of the speaker while considering a hypothetical situation. She also points out (p. 244) that this use of b- is particularly frequent with first person verbs in her Syrian data, which reinforces the interpretation of this particle as a marker of intention. Jordanian Arabic appears to be another dialect that exhibits the intentive function of b- imperfectives in law conditionals. The dialogue below is an excerpt taken from the Jordanian podcast Eib “Shame,” which reproduces the testimony of a Jordanian man accused of killing his own daughter as the police officer asks him if he regrets his actions (32), and the man replies (33):20

(32)	nadmān?
	repentant
	“[Are you] repentant?”

(33)

laʾ

w

law

ʿāšat

kaman

marra

b-agtil-ha

w law

neg

and

if

live-pfv.3sg

another

time

b-kill-impfv.1sg-her

and if

ṭalʿat

min

gabr-ah

b-arǧaʿ

b-agtil-ha

get.out-pfv.3sg

of

grave-her

b-go.back-impfv.1sg

b-kill-impfv.1sg-her

“No, if she lived again, I would kill her and if she rose from the grave, I would go back and kill her.”

In this example, the irrealis nature of the speaker’s statement is signaled syntactically by the conditional particle law and semantically by the impossibility of the daughter returning to life. Even though the law condition does not denote a feasible event, the b- verbs in the apodoses underline the speaker’s lack of regret and, moreover, his intention to commit the crime again if he could.

Intentive b- also occurs with first-person verbs in the apodosis of premodern varieties of NSW Arabic. In the next examples, taken from two Levantine manuscripts (Lentin 1997, p. 583) from the 18th and 19th centuries, respectively, the conditional particle ʾin presents the event as possible. Here, the marked b- imperfective indicates the speaker’s intention to accompany the interlocutor in (34) and to start a rebellion in (35):

(34)	fa-in		šahaʾt		kaḏā	trūḥ	ilā	tilka	l-amākin
	conj-if		wish-pfv.2sg		that-way	go-impfv.2sg	to	those	the-place-pl
	anā	b-rūḥ		maʿak
	I	b-go-impfv.1sg		with-you
	“If you want to go there, I’ll go with you.”21

(35)	in mā	irtaḍā			fa-bi-waqti-hā	b-fūr		fī
	if neg	agree-pfv.m.3sg			conj-in-time-it	b-hurry-impfv.1sg		in
	fars-ī		wa	b-rjū			li-l-ʿaṣāwa
	horse-mine		and	b-look-forward- impfv.1sg			to-the-rebellion
	“If he does not agree, I will hasten on my horse towards the rebellion.”22

A special use of indicative plural inflection -ūn to overly mark intention has been noted in a group of NSW documents originally composed in al-Andalus between the 10th and 13th centuries. In CLA, verbs that occur in certain resultative contexts receive special marking. This is the case with the “particle of cause” fa-, which triggers the subjunctive mood when it “introduces the result or effect of a preceding clause” after an imperative, a wish, a hope, a question, or a negative clause (Wright 1896–1898, vol. 2, p. 30). However, the indicative mood, rather than the subjunctive, appears to fulfill this role in three medieval ḥisba manuals from al-Andalus. In this premodern corpus of NSW documents, the indicative emerges as the preferred mood to signal events that occur in a resultative context following the particles fa- “and so, then” and ṯumma “then.”

The fa-marked verbs are preceded by a command, and they indicate a specific behavior that a local authority figure, i.e., the market inspector or muḥtasib, intends to either encourage or prevent. In example (36), Al-Saqaṭī, a 13th century muḥtasib from al-Andalus, regulates pricing practices with the intention of persuading distributors to make the effort (yaǧtahidūn) to price their goods themselves and sell (yabīʿūn) them for a reasonable price. By this action, Al-Saqaṭī wishes to do away with the practice whereby distributors would fraudulently increase the price marked on the goods by the merchants to obtain a higher profit margin (Al-Saqaṭī n.d.a, n.d.b, n.d.c). Similarly, in (37), his 12th century counterpart Ibn ʿAbdūn stipulates that fiscal agents and other employees must not make their own decisions in the judge’s absence, his intention being to prevent them from seizing (yākulūn) other people’s properties (Ibn ʿAbdūn n.d.a, n.d.b):

(36)

yāxuḏ

al-tuǧǧār

bi-an

lā

yaršum-ū

impose-ind.3sg

the-merchant-pl

with-that

neg

mark-sbjv.3sg

ašriyat

silaʿi-him

fī-hā

fa-yaǧtahid-ūn

li-anfusi-him

prices

goods-their

in-it

conj-strive-sbjv.3pl

to-self-pl-them

wa

yabīʿ-ūn

bi-mā

qasam

allah

and

sell-ind.3pl

with-what

stipulate-pfv.3sg

Allah

“He [the muḥtasib] will oblige the merchants not to mark the prices on their goods, so that they [distributors] strive to do it themselves and sell them as stipulated by Allah.”

(37)	yaǧib li-l-qāḍī an yakšif abadan ʿan aḥwāli-him wa yaḥudd la-hum an lā yaqḍū-sbjv.3pl šayʾan ʿan amr-hi fa-anna-hum luṣūṣ muftarisūn al-ġafala fa-yākulūn-ind.3plamwāl al-nās wa māl al-sulṭān
	“The judge should always supervise their states of affairs; it is not allowed for them to rule anything without his [the judge’s] consent because they are thieves who take advantage of the unwary so as to seize the properties of other people and the Sultan.”

However, when the plural verb following fa- is not preceded by a command, the indicative inflection is not used. In the example below, taken from Al-Saqaṭī’s manual (Al-Saqaṭī n.d.a, n.d.b, n.d.c), the verb yuwahhimū “to make believe” takes the subjunctive plural ending -ū, instead of the “resultative” indicative, maintaining syntactic agreement with yudxilū. The market inspector seems not to be adopting a specific stance towards the action in this particular instance but rather describing what was apparently a well-known practice:

(38)

wa

min-hā

an

yudxil-ū

qīʿān

al-akyāl

al-nuḥāsiyya

and

from-it

that

sink-sbjv.m.3pl

bottom

the-measures

the-copper-f

ilā

dāxili-hā

wa

jawānibi-hā

fa-yuwahhim-ū

anna-hā

toward

inside-it

and

sides-it

fa-make.believe-sbjv.m.3pl

that-it

qad

indaqqat

aw

ʿalā

ḏālik

al-nawʿ

ṣuniʿat

qad

be.dented-pfv.f.3sg

or

on

that-m

the-type

build-pfv.f.3sg

“Another [trick] consists in sinking the bottom and sides of the copper measuring cups inward and thus making one believe that they had been dented or manufactured that way.”

As noted in Section 2.1, ṯumma does not require a change of mood when it connects two or more verbs. However, the earliest ḥisba manual from al-Andalus, composed by the 10th century scholar ʿAbd Al-Raʾūf (n.d.a, n.d.b), consistently shows the marked choice of the indicative mood after ṯumma, when preceded by a subjunctive verb, to signal a fraudulent behavior that a particular market guild intends to engage in:

(39)	yumnaʿ-ūn				an	lā	yantafiʿ-ū		bi-ṯiyāb	al-ẖām
	be.prevented-ind.m.3pl				that	neg	use-sbjv.m.3pl		with-clothes	the-white-cotton
	ẖattā	tablā				ṯumma		yuqaṣṣir-ūn(a)-hā			baʿda
	until	wear.out-sbjv.f.3sg				then		whiten-ind.m.3pl-it			after
	ḏālik		wa	yabīʿ-ūn(a)-hā
	that		and	sell-ind.m.3pl-it
	“They [fabric sellers] should be prevented from using clothes made of raw cotton until they wear out to then whiten them and afterwards sell them.”

On the other hand, the occurrence of the perfective stem after ṯumma in the same ḥisba manual appears to correlate with situations that convey a less committed tone. In example (40), this is further indicated by the adjacent presence of the adverb rubbamā “sometimes”:

(40)	rubbamā	tarakū	fī-hā	faḍla		min		durdī	al-zayt
	sometimes	leave-pfv.m.3pl	in-it	remaining		of		dregs	the-oil
	ṯumma	zādū	ʿalay-hā		ʿinda		al-kayl
	then	add-pfv.m.3pl	to-it		when		the-measure
	“Sometimes [oil sellers] leave dregs of oil on the measuring scales, then add [fresh oil] to them when measuring.”

Our analysis of the NSW and dialectal data in this section allows us to draw a few tentative conclusions regarding the intentional meanings of b- and -ūn. First, the function of b- as a marker of speaker intention in premodern Levantine written sources shows parallel usages in some contemporary dialects, more specifically Jordanian and Syrian. This suggests that the use of b- to denote actions intended by the speaker in apodoses dates back to at least the 18th century in some varieties of Arabic. Secondly, the marked choice of -ūn after the resultative conjunctions fa- and ṯumma to mark intended actions by the speaker or someone else emerges as a modal function of the indicative inflection that contradicts classical prescriptive usage.

5. Conclusions

In this paper, I have discussed the non-indicative modal functions expressed by the plural classical inflection -ūn and the preverbal particle b- in multiple written and oral varieties of Arabic. The comparative analysis of CLA, NSW, and dialectal data indicates that these two markers can overtly convey a number of modalities involving the expression of rhetorical contrast (so far only in the case of b-), authoritative expectations (including orders), and intention.

Within these three categories of modality identified, a further distinction can be made. First, preverbal b- is used to create rhetorical contrast in varieties of Arabic where this preverbal marker does not necessarily express the indicative mood. Second, -ūn and b- share the role of signaling authoritative expectations (and orders) in the apodosis of conditionals in all varieties examined. In addition, the use of -ūn with the imperative inflection in one of the examples suggests a potential function of this indicative marker to reinforce the modal force of the imperative in some NSW texts. Finally, -ūn and b- seem to relate to the notion of intention in different ways: b- acts as a marker of the speaker’s intention in apodoses of Levantine dialects and NSW texts, whilst -ūn is used after the resultative particles fa- and ṯumma in a group of Andalusi NSW documents to mark an action that the writer intends to encourage or prevent (fa-) or someone else’s intended action (tumma).

To conclude, this tentative analysis of Arabic mood has shown that the two (indicative) markers under study here, -ūn and b-, can acquire a wide range of non-indicative modal values in similar grammatical contexts across varieties. Although the examination of additional data is required in order to draw more solid conclusions, these preliminary results offer an encouraging path for future studies on modality in Arabic. Moreover, including NSW data in my linguistic analysis has made it possible to examine early modal usages of -ūn and b- and to establish a connection between NSW, CLA, and modern dialects of Arabic, which makes manifest the great value of NSW documents for the field of Arabic historical linguistics.