Lesson 82 – الدَّرْسُ الثَّاني والثَّمانون

The vocative - الـنِّــدَاءُ

The rules of calling some nouns – حُكْمُ نِدَاءِ بَعْضَ الأَسْمَاءِ

• Calling the pronouns (نِدَاءُ الضَّمائِر):
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• Generally, it is not allowed to call the Arabic pronouns of the first person (the speaker) or the third person (the absent).
• Therefore it is wrong to say any of the following examples:

• But it is possible to call the pronouns of the second person (the spoken to الْمُخاطَب), because the call is originally addressed to the second person in order to warn him to listen what we want to say.
• To call the pronoun of the second person, we either use the separate nominative pronouns or the separate accusative pronouns as follows:

• It is also possible to call the demonstrative noun of the second person, but the call in this case will have the meaning of contempt or insult, as in the following examples:

• If the called noun is a pronoun, it will be indeclinable as we learnt in lesson 44 (all pronouns are indeclinable, i.e. their endings do not change according to the position in the sentence).
• Calling nouns prefixed with(ال) (نداء ما فيه"ال"):
• The nouns prefixed with (ال) are two types:

A- Proper nouns prefixed with (ال): These nouns were not indefinite before being prefixed with (ال), but they are names of persons, places, animals etc. prefixed arbitrarily (randomly) with (ال). Consider the following examples:

• When we call these nouns we drop the prefix (ال), and add the call article, then the called noun is supposed to be indeclinable on the nominative sign (as we learnt earlier in the indeclension of the definite proper nouns). Consider the following examples:

B-   Definite by (ال)): this type was indefinite before being prefixed with (ال). Therefore (ال) here is a definition article, as in the following examples:

• When we call this noun we cannot remove the definition article, because this might change the meaning of the sentence. Instead, we put another word that is used for calling the noun prefixed with the definition article. This word is (أَيُّها) for the masculine noun, and (أَيَّتُها) for the feminine noun. This word is to be inserted between the calling particle and the called noun.
• Consider the following examples:

• You may notice from the above mentioned examples that (أيها - أيتها) are used for masculine and feminine whatever the number is (singular, dual, or plural).
• You may also notice that each of (أيها - أيتها) is compound of two words:

A-   The first is (أيُّ) for the masculine and (أَيَّةُ) for the feminine. These two nouns are always indeclinable on đammah. They are considered the called nouns in the structures mentioned above, while the noun after them is considered (facultatively) substitute or adjective in the nominative case (because it is a follower, see lesson 78).

B-   The particle (ها) of premonition (alert). This particle is indeclinable without any grammatical place (function).

• The noun suffixed with the yā’ of the singular speaker (الاسم المُضاف إلى ياء المتكلم):
• We studied the annexation structure (الإضافة) in lesson 5, and we studied the genitive attached pronouns in lesson 47. We learnt that the genitive attached pronoun can occupy the position of the annexed noun of the Iđâfah (as a possessive suffix).
• In this lesson we learnt how to call the annexation structure (the first noun which is the annexing noun will be in the accusative case, while the second noun which is the annexed noun is originally in the genitive case, because of Iđâfah.
• Consider the following examples (for revision purpose):

• At this point we study how to call the same annexation structure when the annexed noun (المُضاف إليه) is a pronoun, as (يا أمي - يا ربنا).
• The rules that we learnt for the annexation structure is applicable here with all attached pronouns except for the following two changes:

A-   The annexed here is a pronoun, so it will not be declinable in the genitive case, rather it will be indeclinable on the normal sign of its last letter.

B-   When attached to the yā’ of the singular speaker (ياء المتكلم) The first noun will not be accusative with an evident fatħah, rather it will be accusative with a virtual fatħah. This is because the noun when attached to the yā’ of the singular speaker (ياء المتكلم) it has to be signed with kasrah to keep the pronunciation of the yā’ as a long vowel. E.g. in the noun (كِتابِي) the final bā’ of the (كِتاب) is signed with kasrah whether it is in the nominative, accusative or genitive case.

• In the vocative structure (النِّداء), the annexing noun (المُضاف) is in the accusative case and is signed originally with fatħah on its last letter, but when attached to (ياء المتكلم) it will be signed with kasrah, and will be declinable on virtual fatħah.
• Consider the following examples: