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Explanation: I assume from the choices that you presented that "happy" and "unhappy" are used in the sense of "satisfied" and "unsatisfied," and that the question is really about the "neither-nor" construction.
The traditional Arabic construction is
لا كذا ولا كذا
As in
تهيم إلى نُعم، فلا الشمل جامع
ولا الحبل موصول، ولا القلب مُقصر
ولا قرب نُعم إن دنت لك نافع
ولا نأيها يُسلي، ولا أنت تصبر
من قصيدة نُعم لعمر ابن أبي ربيعة
Notice that the construction does not require the conjunction و at the outset.
Other examples:
لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون
لا لي بالعير ولا بالنفير
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2003-09-20 22:11:31 (GMT) --------------------------------------------------
أمثلة أخرى لهذه الصيغة
لا ضرر ولا ضرار
لا ناقة لي فيها ولا جمل
وقول يزيد بن معاوية
لعبت هاشم بالملك فلا خبر جاء ولا وحي نزل
وقول جرير
فغضّ الطرف إنك من نُمير، فلا كعباً بلغت ولا كِلابا
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2003-09-20 23:25:17 (GMT) --------------------------------------------------
In all of these, whenver there is a واو or فاء at the outset, it is not to be understood as part of the \"neither-nor\" construction, but merely referring to a prior part in the sentence.
It is interesting that in some languages, the antecedent and consequent clauses in \"either-or\" or \"neither-nor\" constructions are symmetrical, while in English, they are not. Depending on their native language, speakers of English as a second language are sometimes heard saying things like \"Or he did not know, or he lied,\" because they presume the same symmetry in English.
Thank you fuad for turning this into an informative treatise when I thought it was a simple question لا هنا ولا هناك as we Egyptian would say. Mentioning Egypt, I admit that the initial conjunction was due to Egyptian colloquialism. No less helpful was Abdellatif's back-translation. While I can't assign points to two persons, I am equally grateful to both of you. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
Of course we know here that it has nothing to do with happiness nor unhappiness. It has to do with satisfaction regarding a product.
Abdellatif Bouhid Local time: 18:15 Native speaker of: Arabic, French
23 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
لا راضٍ ولا مستاء
Explanation: I assume from the choices that you presented that "happy" and "unhappy" are used in the sense of "satisfied" and "unsatisfied," and that the question is really about the "neither-nor" construction.
The traditional Arabic construction is
لا كذا ولا كذا
As in
تهيم إلى نُعم، فلا الشمل جامع
ولا الحبل موصول، ولا القلب مُقصر
ولا قرب نُعم إن دنت لك نافع
ولا نأيها يُسلي، ولا أنت تصبر
من قصيدة نُعم لعمر ابن أبي ربيعة
Notice that the construction does not require the conjunction و at the outset.
Other examples:
لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون
لا لي بالعير ولا بالنفير
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2003-09-20 22:11:31 (GMT) --------------------------------------------------
أمثلة أخرى لهذه الصيغة
لا ضرر ولا ضرار
لا ناقة لي فيها ولا جمل
وقول يزيد بن معاوية
لعبت هاشم بالملك فلا خبر جاء ولا وحي نزل
وقول جرير
فغضّ الطرف إنك من نُمير، فلا كعباً بلغت ولا كِلابا
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 2003-09-20 23:25:17 (GMT) --------------------------------------------------
In all of these, whenver there is a واو or فاء at the outset, it is not to be understood as part of the \"neither-nor\" construction, but merely referring to a prior part in the sentence.
It is interesting that in some languages, the antecedent and consequent clauses in \"either-or\" or \"neither-nor\" constructions are symmetrical, while in English, they are not. Depending on their native language, speakers of English as a second language are sometimes heard saying things like \"Or he did not know, or he lied,\" because they presume the same symmetry in English.
Fuad Yahya Native speaker of: Arabic, English PRO pts in category: 52
Grading comment
Thank you fuad for turning this into an informative treatise when I thought it was a simple question لا هنا ولا هناك as we Egyptian would say. Mentioning Egypt, I admit that the initial conjunction was due to Egyptian colloquialism. No less helpful was Abdellatif's back-translation. While I can't assign points to two persons, I am equally grateful to both of you.