بعدين

See also: تعدين and تغدين

Gulf Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic بَعْدَ أين (“after a while”). Compare إلين (ʔilēn).

Pronunciation

(Kuwait) IPA^(key): /bəʕdeːn/

Adverb

بَعْدين • (baʿdēn)

later
Antonym: الحين (ʔilḥīn)

Hijazi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic بَعْدَ أين (“after a while”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /baʕdeːn/

Adverb

بعدين • (baʕdēn)

later
Antonym: دَحين (daḥīn, daḥēn, “now”)

Najdi Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic بَعْدَ أين (“after a while”) attested in classical Arabic in:

629-630 AD, عمرة بنت دريد, رثاء أبيها دريد‎^[1]:

عَفَت آثَار خَيلِكَ بَعْدَ أَيْنٍ

your horse traces vanished after a while

This أَيْن (ʔayn) is from the root ء ن ي (ʔ n y). Compare إلين (ʔilēn), لين (lēn) and عقبين (ʕugbēn).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /baʕdeːn/, /bəʕdeːn/, /baʕdajn/

Adverb

بَعْدين • (baʿdēn)

after a while

أجيكم بعدين إن شاء الله

ajīkum baʕdēn inshāllah

I'll be coming to you after a while inshallah

later
Antonym: الحين (ʔalḥīn)

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology

Visibly related to بَعْد (baʕd, “after”). Would appear to be, by surface analysis, بَعْد (baʕd, “after”) +‎ ـَيْن (-ayn, dual), literally “two afters”, but the issue with this is that many speakers say بَعْدين (baʕdēn) even though they retain final-syllable diphthongs overall, meaning that if this hypothesis were true they would instead be expected to say *بَعْدَيْن (*baʕdayn). Henri Fleisch's study of the dialect of Chehime contains evidence of such a system: mən fau̯ʾ la-taḥᵊt […] baʿdẹ̄n ṣā̊rt əl-ʾarḍ tᵊhəzz fiyyi ― From top to bottom […] then the ground started to shake on me.

There are other terms with the same ending, such as صَحْتين (ṣaḥtēn, expression said to someone who has just eaten) and أَهْلين (ʔahlēn, greeting), that Kristen Brustad has suggested are from sporadic lengthening and raising of the ـًا (-an) of Arabic صِحَّةً (ṣiḥḥatan, literally “with health”) and أَهْلًا (ʔahlan).^{[note 1]}^{[note 2]} If the monophthong ē was not a later innovation triggered by analogy to these forms, بَعْدين (baʕdēn)'s ancestor may likewise be reconstructed as *بَعْدًا (*baʕdan, “afterwards”). This is a non-standard term that would have been innovated post-Classically, perhaps the exact same term that was loaned into Persian as (ba'dan, “afterwards, later”).

With this hypothesis, any dialects that do exhibit a form بَعْدَيْن (baʕdayn) must have innovated it from بَعْدين (baʕdēn) by only later reanalyzing the ending as the dual suffix.

Discarded hypotheses

Unlikely to be from Arabic بَعْدَ أَنْ (baʕda ʔan, “after...”, literally “after that”) due to the absence of a variant *بَعْدَان (*baʕdān); contrast كَمَان (kamān, “also”).

The following alternative proposals only apply if the form بَعْدَيْن (baʕdayn) is the original form, which it likely is not:

بَعْد (baʕd, “after”) +‎ ـَيْن (-ayn, dual suffix), literally “two afters”; already discussed
Arabic بَعْدَئِذٍ (baʕdaʔiḏin, “afterwards”), with elision of the ذ (ḏ), as in:
1. هيك (hayk, hēk, “like this; like that”), or
2. هَيّ (hayy, “this”, feminine)
Arabic بَعْدَ إِنْ (baʕda ʔin, “after...”), a potential alternative form of بَعْدَ أَنْ (baʕda ʔan)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /baʕˈdeːn/ (even for many speakers with final diphthongs)
IPA^(key): /baʕˈdajn/ (rarer)

Adverb

بَعْدين • (baʕdēn)

Alternative forms

بعدينا (baʕdēna)

Trivia

^ Another point of support for this comes from Henri Fleisch’s study of the dialect of Kfar Sghab, where he transcribes not only بعدين (baʿdēn) rather than بعدين (*baʿdǟn) (ǟ being the dialect's regular reflex of ay in this position and ē being necessarily of a different origin), but similarly أبدا (ʾabdēn, “never”) for أَبَدًا (ʔabadan).
^ Relatedly, we may also consider the raising of the same ending in غَصْبِن عَن (ḡaṣbin ʕan, “whether [...] likes it or not”).

South Levantine Arabic

Etymology

From Arabic بَعْدَ أَيْن (baʕda ʔayn, “after a while”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /baʕ.deːn/, [baʕˈdeːn]
Audio (Amman): (file)

Adverb

بعدين • (baʕdēn)

later, afterwards
then