Editing Relative clause (section)

====Arabic====

=====Literary Arabic=====
In [[Modern Standard Arabic|Modern Standard]] and [[Classical Arabic]] there is a relative pronoun (in Arabic: {{lang|ar|الاسم الموصول}} {{transliteration|ar|DIN|''al-ism al-mawṣūl''}}) ''allaḏī'' (masculine singular), feminine singular ''allatī'', masculine plural ''allaḏīna'', feminine plural ''allawātī'', masculine dual ''allaḏānī'' (nominative) / ''allaḏayni'' (accusative and genitive), feminine dual ''allatānī'' (nom.) / ''allataynī'' (acc. and gen.).

Its usage has two specific rules: it agrees with the antecedent in gender, number and case, and it is used only if the antecedent is definite. If the antecedent is indefinite, no relative pronoun is used. The former is called ''jumlat sila'' (conjunctive sentence) while the latter is called ''jumlat sifa'' (descriptive sentence).

{{fs interlinear|lang=ar|indent=3
|الفتى الذي رأيته في الصف أمس غائب اليوم 
|al-fatā (a)lladhi ra’aytuhu fī (a)ṣ-ṣaffi ’amsi ġā’ibun al-yawma
|"The boy I saw in class yesterday is missing today". (relative pronoun present)}}

{{fs interlinear|lang=ar|indent=3
|هذا فتًى رأيته في الصف أمس
|hāḏā fatan ra’aytu-hu fī (a)ṣ-ṣaffi ’amsi
|"This is a boy I saw in class yesterday". (relative pronoun absent)}}

=====Colloquial Arabic=====
In Colloquial Arabic the multiple forms of the relative pronoun have been levelled in favour of a single form, a simple conjunction, which in most dialects is ''illi'', and is never omitted. So in Palestinian Arabic the above sentences would be:

* ''alwalad illi shuftō fi (a)ssaff embārih ghāyeb alyōm''
* ''hāda walad illi shuftō fi (a)ssaff embārih''

As in Hebrew, the regular pronoun referring to the antecedent is repeated in the relative clause - literally, "the boy whom I saw '''him''' in class..." (the ''-hu'' in ''ra'aituhu'' and the ''-ō'' in ''shuftō''). The rules of suppression in Arabic are identical to those of Hebrew: obligatory suppression in the case that the pronoun is the subject of the relative clause, obligatory retention in the case that the pronoun is the object of a preposition, and at the discretion of the speaker if the pronoun is the direct object. The only difference from Hebrew is that, in the case of the direct object, it is preferable to retain the pronoun rather than suppress it.