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Journal of Jewish Languages 3 (2015) 1–15
brill.com/jjl
Bleached Verbs as Aspectual Auxiliaries in
Colloquial Modern Hebrew and Arabic Dialects
Ophira Gamliel
Bar-Ilan University, Israel
ophgamliel@gmail.com
Abed al-Rahman Mar’i
Beit Berl College, Kfar Saba, Israel
abed.marii@beitberl.ac.il
Abstract
Verbal inflections in Classical Hebrew and Arabic encode aspectual information such as
perfective and imperfective. In modern Arabic dialects, an aspectual system has evolved
through the auxiliary usage of bleached verbs, replacing the older system of aspectual
inflections. Arguably, a similar process in which bleached verbs acquire aspectual use is
now evolving in Colloquial Modern Hebrew. The article discusses the functions of the
bleached verbs ‘sit’ and ‘come’ in Colloquial Modern Hebrew and Arabic.
Keywords
Colloquial Modern Hebrew – Arabic dialects – serialized verb – bleached verbs –
aspects
* Our article benefitted from discussions with Edit Doron, Nora Boneh, Guy Ron Gilboa, and
Eliran Levi, and we are grateful for their scholarly remarks and suggestions. All errors are
due to our own shortcomings. We are also grateful to friends who willingly engaged with
us in casual discussions over the matter: Enad Azbarga, May Arow, Victor Manevich, Aref
Nammari, Samer Azaizy, Amir Aharoni, Sameer Kadan, and Amal Sharar.
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