yelli يلي
Tunisian Derja · pronoun
“yelli” (يلي) is a pronoun in Tunisian Derja meaning who, which, that (relative).
Meanings
- who, which, that (relative)
- the one who, what
Usage
Yelli is a spoken and written variant of elli, the invariable relative pronoun of Tunisian. It does not change for gender or number: el bent yelli jet, el rjel yelli mchaw. It is also used without an antecedent in the sense of "the one who" or "what": yelli y7eb yji, yji. Pitfall for an English speaker: when the relative is a complement, the noun is often picked up again by a pronoun, as in el blasa yelli fiha (the place where, literally "in which"). In online writing, it also appears shortened to li.
Example
وين الكتاب يلي شريتو البارح؟
win el ktab yelli chritou lbere7?
“Where is the book you bought yesterday?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “yelli” but also “yalli”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.