مدري

ما (mā, “do not”) + أدري (ʔadri, “I know”).

• IPA^(key): /madri/

مَدْري • (madri)

1. I don't know

• ما أَدْري (mā ʔadri)
• ما أَعْرِف (mā ʔaʕrif)

Inherited from a common vernacular Arabic مَدْرِي (madrī), composed of مَا (mā, “not”) +‎ أَدْرِي (ʔadrī, “I know”), literally “I don't know”. The further North Levantine Arabic development to مِدري (midri) accords with the general development of أَ (ʔa-, first-person prefix) to إ (ʔi-), showing that the term still synchronically decomposed into a first-person verb with a fused prefix at the time that this shift occurred. (Today it may be more opaque, as North Levantine dialects can no longer productively form indicative verbs without a prefixed بِـ (bi-). )

• IPA^(key): /midri/

مِدْري • (midri)

1. (defective verb, transitive) I don't know, I have no idea

   Synonym: أبصر (ʔabṣar)

مِدْري • (midri)

1. or (for imprecise estimates or guesses)

   نطرتو ساعة مدري ساعتين ما كان يبين

   naṭarto sāʕa midri sāʕtēn ma kān ybayyin

   I waited for him for, I don't know, an hour, two hours, he just wouldn't show up

   ليك أنا برا وفي هيك عقص مدري برغش مدري دبان المهم تعا افتحلي رح ياكلوني

   lēk ʔana barra w fī hēk ʕaʔṣ midri barḡaš midri dibbān l-muhimm taʕa ftaḥli raḥ yāklūni

   Listen, I'm outside and there's, I don't know, mosquitoes or gnats or flies or something... point is, come open up, they're going to eat me