هلي

• ـَهْني (-ahne)

• IPA^(key): /-ahle/

From earlier ـَهْني (-ahne), in turn from a form *ـهَهْني (*-hahne) or *ـهَهْنا (*-hahnā) that ultimately reflects Arabic هٰهُنَا (hāhunā, “here”). Doublet of هون (hawn, hōn) and هوني (hawne, hōne, “here”).

The suffix has a large number of cognates in other dialects, which aids in reconstruction:

• North Mesopotamian Arabic اَوْنْياني (awnyāne, “here”)
• Soukhne Oasis Arabic هونياني (hōniyāni, “here”), هيذياني (hēḏiyāni, “this one”)
• Sason Arabic نِهاني (nihāne, “here”)
• South Sinai Arabic نِهاني (nihāniy, “here”)
• Sinai and Negev Arabic هنيّاني (hniyyāniy)

Noting that there are cognates like ـهاني (-hāne) and ـَهْني (-ahne) but never anything with rounding like *ـَوْني (*-awne), we can deduce that this suffixed form of Arabic ـهٰهُنَا (-hāhunā) reduced to *ـهٰهْنَا (*hāhnā) early on, and that it was perhaps even a specific expression (هٰ)هُنَا *هٰهُنَا ((hā)hunā *hāhunā, “right here”) that first reduced to (هٰ)هُنَا-*هٰهْنَا ((hā)hunā-*hāhnā) and allowed the suffix to be generalized.

The shift from ـَهْني (-ahne) to ـَهْلِي (-ahle) occurred much later, fully within North Levantine Arabic. It could have begun with dissimilation of هَنَهني (hanahne, “right here”) to هَنَهلي (hanahle) before spreading to other terms with the same suffix.

ـَهْلِي • (-ahle)

1. (South Lebanon, Beqaa) Attaches to deictics to make them more proximal