رح

• IPA^(key): /ruħ/

⁧رُحْ⁩ • (ruḥ) (form I)

1. second-person masculine singular active imperative of ⁧رَاحَ⁩ (rāḥa)

• ⁧حـ⁩ (ḥa-)

Contraction of ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ), as preserved in cognates like Gulf Arabic ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ). This is in turn related to the verb ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ, “to go”) and ultimately derived from Arabic ⁧رَاحَ⁩ (rāḥa, “to go”), but the precise link is uncertain:

• Possibly a contraction of the verb's active participle ⁧رايح⁩ (rāyiḥ, “going”), which is widely attested as a fully-inflected future auxiliary. This requires ⁧رايح⁩ (rāyiḥ) to have somehow developed into the ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ) we see in other dialects, however. Usually, the sequence *-āyi- instead contracted to a diphthong -ay- in Levantine (as in ⁧حَيط⁩ (ḥayṭ, “wall”) from Arabic ⁧حَائِط⁩ (ḥāʔiṭ) and ⁧عَيلة⁩ (ʕayle, “family”) from Arabic ⁧عَائِلَة⁩ (ʕāʔila)), making it off-putting that there are no surviving traces of an intermediate form ⁧رَيح*⁩ (*rayḥ).
• Perhaps directly from the verb ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ, “[he] went”). Many other auxiliary particles are also verbs frozen in the third-person-singular past conjugation, including ⁧ما عاد⁩ (mā ʕād, “no longer”, literally “he didn't end up”), ⁧قام⁩ (ʔām, “(loosely) up and”, literally “he got up”), ⁧قال⁩ (ʔāl, “apparently, allegedly”, literally “he said”).

⁧رَح⁩ • (raḥ)

1. going to; used with a following verb to form a future tense

   ⁧رح إشرب هالقهوة.⁩

   raḥ ʔišrab ha-l-ʔahwe.

   I'm going to drink this coffee.

• Closer to English going to than will in many cases, the latter instead being expressible by the future-marking sense of ⁧بـ⁩ (b-).
• Like with ⁧عم⁩ (ʕam), the verb can appear either with or without the ⁧بـ⁩ (b-) prefix, with no bearing on the construction's meaning either way. The usage with the b- is primarily found in Lebanon.
• Also like ⁧عم⁩ (ʕam), can be negated with either ⁧ما⁩ (mā) or ⁧مش⁩ (miš).

• ⁧حـ⁩ (ḥa-)

Contraction of ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ), as preserved in cognates like Gulf Arabic ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ). This is in turn related to the verb ⁧راح⁩ (rāḥ, “to go”) and ultimately derived from Arabic ⁧رَاحَ⁩ (rāḥa, “to go”), but the precise link is uncertain, compare with North Levantine Arabic ⁧رح⁩ (raḥ).

• IPA^(key): /raħ/, [rˤɑħ]

• Audio (Ramallah)

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⁧رح⁩ • (raḥ)

1. (auxiliary) will, going to

   Synonym: ⁧بدّ⁩ (bidd)

   ⁧رح أشرب هالقهوة.⁩

   raḥ ʔašrab ha-l-ʔahwe.

   I'm going to drink this coffee.

• Closer to English going to than will in many cases, the latter instead being expressible by the present tense (prefix ⁧بـ⁩ (b-)).
• As is usually the case with auxiliaries, ⁧رح⁩ is followed by the subjunctive form of the verb. Unlike in North Levantine Arabic, use of the present tense form is not common.
• Like ⁧عم⁩ (ʕam), it can be negated with either ⁧ما⁩ (mā) or ⁧مش⁩ (miš).