اللي

• لي (li) (Lebanon)
• الي (lli, illi) (alternative spelling)
• ال (l-); يلي ,ياللي (yalli); هاللي ,هلي (halli) (see usage notes below)

From or related to Arabic اَلَّذِي (allaḏī) and اَلَّتِي (allatī).

اللي • (lli, illi)

1. (relative) who; whom; which; that; what

   هيدا المستشفى اللي بتشتغل فيه إمي

   hayda l-mistašfa lli btištiḡil fī ʔimmi.

   This is the hospital that my mother works in.

   (literally, “This is the hospital that in it my mother works.”)

• Generally requires a resumptive object pronoun in the relative clause if referring to an object.
• The pronoun can be contracted to just -ll- or -l-. In the latter case, it may merge entirely with ال (l-, the definite article) in assimilating to sun letters, or it may remain distinct by retaining the لـ (l-) before them. See usage notes at ال (l-).
• The variant يلي (yalli) can be used interchangeably, but it occurs most often when used without an antecedent, that is in the senses “he who”, “that which”, etc.:

  فيك تقول يلي بدك ياه ― fīk tʔūl yalli baddak yā. ― You can say what you want to.

• The form هاللي (halli) incorporates هَـ (ha-, “this, that”, demonstrative) and typically means "this one that" or "that one that", but is used by some speakers interchangeably with اللي (illi, lli).

See the 1902 quotation below for an example of how this sense developed out of the above. We can illustrate what must have happened using a made-up but similar sentence, مْنِيح اللي مَات الوَحْش (mnīḥ lli māt l-waḥš).

Originally, such a phrase must have been understood as two separate clauses: مْنِيح، اللي مَات الوَحْش (mnīḥ, lli māt l-waḥš, “Good; what died is the monster.”, literally “good what died the monster.”). For clarity's sake, consider the second clause here equivalent to اللي مَات هُوِّي الوَحْش (lli māt huwwe l-waḥš, “What died is the monster”). This construction uses اللي (lli) in its original sense as a relativizer.

As time went on, however, such phrases must have been reanalyzed as one single clause, like مْنِيح اللي مَات الوَحْش (mnīḥ lli māt l-waḥš). Here, with the final verb phrase now so easy to understand as a simple مَات الوَحْش (māt l-waḥš, “the monster died”, literally “died the monster”), the original اللي (lli, relative pronoun) must have had no choice but to be reanalyzed as a complementizer: مْنِيح اللي مَات الوَحْش (mnīḥ lli māt l-waḥš, “Good that the monster died.”, literally “good that died the monster.”)

After a new complementizer اللي (lli) had been firmly established, it was free to come to govern verb phrases that would not have been understandable with the original syntax. For example, مْنِيح اللي جِيت (mnīḥ lli jīt, “Good that you came”), is a valid modern construction that would have had no way to be understood using اللي (lli, relativizer): *Good; what you came is (what?).

اللي • (illi, lli)

1. that

   Synonym: إنو (ʔinno)

   منيح اللي فيقتني كنت مكوبسة

   mnīḥ lli fayyaʔtni kint mkawbse

   Good thing you woke me up, I was having a nightmare

   (literally, “Good that you woke me up, I was having a nightmare”)

   • 1902, Henry Minor Huxley, “Syrian Songs, Proverbs, and Stories: Collected, Translated, and Annotated”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society‎^[1], volume 23 (overall work in English), Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: American Oriental Society, passage #103, pages 242–244:

     الوزير علّم مرة حتّى توقف على الدرب وصارت تسبّ وتقول الحمد للّه اللي مات الشيخ الفاخوري يخرب بيته اللّه يغمّق له عمره ما يرجع. قال لها لو كنت مش ميّت كنت بقوم ليكي.

     l-wazīr ʕallam mara ḥatta tūʔaf ʕala d-darb w ṣārit tasibb w tʔūl l-ḥumdilla illi māt š-šayḵ l-fāḵūri yaḵrub baytu ʔaḷḷa yiḡammiʔlu ʕomru ma yərjaʕ. ʔallha law kunt muš mayyit kunt baʔūm layki.

     [original: il-wezîr 3allem mara ḥɒtta tûʾaf 3ala'd-derb ū-ṣârit tesibb witʾûl il-ḥomd ílla illī mä̂t iš-šêḫ il-fāḫûrī yaḫrub bêtu ɒlla yiǧɒmmíʾlū 3omrū ma yörja3. ʾallha lau kunt muš mêyit kunt beʾûm lêki.]

     The vizîr instructed a woman to stand on the road; she began to curse and say, "Praise be to God that he who has died is the jar-maker, (who was) an elder. May his house be destroyed; may God make his grave deep, and may his life not return." The jar-maker replied, "Were I not dead, I would rise against you!"

     The given English translation is Huxley's. He somewhat misunderstands the expression عُمْرُه مَا يِرْجَع (ʕumro ma yirjaʕ, “may he never return for his entire life”, used this way even though the sheikh is allegedly already dead). It is unknown whether he similarly misunderstood the expression with اللي (lli), which in modern times would be understood as الحمدالله اللي مات الشيخ (l-ḥamdilla lli māt š-šayḵ, “thank God that the sheikh died”), or if it had indeed not yet undergone the reanalysis in question in 1902.

• Extremely restricted in usage compared to إنو (ʔinno). The only universal use of this sense of اللي (illi, lli) is in the phrase منيح اللي (mnīḥ lli, “good thing that...”), as seen in the usage example above.
• However, speakers may also extend this usage to terms with similar connotations to produce phrases like مبسوط اللي (mabsūṭ lli, “glad that..., happy that...”) and حمدلله اللي (ḥamdilla lli, “thank goodness that..., thank God that...”). The 1902 quotation above demonstrates that such variants have a long history.

From or related to Arabic اَلَّذِي (allaḏī) and Arabic اَلَّتِي (allatī).

• IPA^(key): /lli/, [ˈ(ɪ)l.li]

• Audio (Ramallah):

  (file)

اللي • (illi, lli)

1. (relative) who; whom; which; that

   البنت اللي شفتها مبارح بتشتغل معي.

   il-bint illi šuft-ha mbāreḥ btištḡel maʕi

   The girl I saw yesterday works with me.

   (literally, “The girl that I saw her yesterday works with me.”)

2. the person who, whoever; that which, whatever (at the beginning of a sentence)

• When referring back to a noun, which is the object of the verb that follows, a suffix pronoun should be added to that verb.
• اللي (illi) is used referring to a definite noun, but usually omitted if the noun is indefinite.