Non-Future Uses of the Particle ġādi in Moroccan Arabic

In the literature about Moroccan Arabic dialects, the particle ġādi is normally described as a marker of future tense. This article explores some non-prototypical and previously undocumented uses of ġādi, in which the particle is used to refer to a moment in time that precedes, or coincides with, the time of reference. Through the use of a questionnaire developed specifically for this purpose, ġādi has been tested for all the non-future uses that the typological literature suggest can be associated to so-called ‘future markers’. Of these, four are found to be associated with ġādi: the inferential, the concessive, the prospective and the counterfactual.