Among the countless usages of "ya" in turkish, it´s used for this "really" meaning as well. For example, a conversation may go on like this:

- Bugün pazar çok kalabalýktý. (today the bazaar was very crowdy.)

- Ya?! (was it? /really?)

as mltm´s example suggests, "ya" might suggest surprise among other things.

but we don´t use "Ya Allah" to express surprise.

It is "Hay allah!" instead. it is close to "Aman Allahým"= "Oh my God"

The difference between "Aman Allahým" and "Hay Allah" is that

"Hay allah" is used especially when somebody gets  somewhat disappointed or frustrated.

"Hay Allah" and "Aman Allahým" does not really reflect a religious concern and widely used by 

all native speakers.

"Ya Allah" is used in Turkish as well, but only before you start to do something requiring a lot of physical effort. For instance when you are going to carry a very heavy luggage. But this expression reflects a religious concern and only older and religious people use this phrase.

Thank you.

when im talking (arabic ) i use yani like crazy loooooooooooool

i feel like i cnat start a sentence without it lol, sometimes i say it like 3 times after each other

"yani what do u mean yani? yani waht do u want?"

looooooooooooooooooooool

and ya, i almost use it as a question suffix, dunno why, omg i just figured it out, i use it like mu and ma in syrian, after the question

oh and for some reason i always say ya after uffffffffff , no idea why!!!!! I just heard ppl saying it like that so i did too

or when im annoyed or smthg

Words with no meaning, i hate trying to explain them especially like in egypt the word ba2a

and 5las , how the hell am i supposed to transalte those? they have NO meaning!!

  Ba2a is hadi in Turkish...same usage

And 5las..mmm i dont know lol

But i promise i will ask my teacher and tell you

Ps: Sry hedef...i havent seen your question, but doudi gave the answer

We use Ya also like this like mertatasoy said

"Ya Allah" is used in Turkish as well, but only before you start to do something requiring a lot of physical effort. For instance when you are going to carry a very heavy luggage. But this expression reflects a religious concern and only older and religious people use this phrase

And also as hadar said

"did u know he had an accident?"

"ya allah seriously?"

But its not for expressing surprise its more for showing thimpathy with the event in that case

Ýn another case it can be to show surprise

´Ya´ means ´or´

´Yani´ meanse ´so´

When someone says something like:

´Git!´ (lol, I´m only cursing xD)

It means : ´Get the hll out´

When someone says :

´Git yaaa!´

It means : ´Get the hell out or something!´

Too bad it doesn´t translate correctly in English

(It does in my native language)

As for Yani :

Yani does have a meaning,

(Yani = so )

as in saying :

I´m coming, so you´re coming too

Geliyorum, yani sende geliyorsun

Get it?

i just noticed that in lebanon we use "ya" for "either/or".

we say for example " ya abyad ya aswad" (either white or black)

it is not arabic so it must be inherited from the ottomans.

As for "yani", hadar , canli, doudi , explained it well. it is the verb "mean/meaning" it is arabic.

 yani means = That is to say

 Yes and also we add ´da´ sometimes to give the meaning of

Ya da , ya da..either this or this

what you say is basically incorrect.

ya sometimes mean "or" among million of other things, but not here.

yani means "I mean" or "that is to say", but this is not the single meaning.

I think we should avoid simplification when things are not actually that simple.

especially for ya, I think an explanation of "ya" should take at least 3 pages or something,

you cannot just tell everything about it in one example and moreover your example is not correct.

Ý knew we have this some where

You may like to check those threads about ya

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_16723

http://www.turkishclass.com/forumTitle_10070

OMG!!! ba2a is like hadi???

i thoguht hadi was smthg like, hurry, or quick or common, something of that sort

are u sure??

like when i say ana ba2a ummm (for example) mesh haru7

hadi would be used in the translation of that sentence in turkish?