I really want to learn Arabic but I've heard there are
different dialects for different countries.Is there one
general dialect spoken in most ME countries?
Is it impossible to teach myself? What books do you
recommend? I want to travel mainly in Iran,Maroc, Syria and
Lebanon.
Any advise welcome.
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First of all, Persian is the main langauge of Iran, not
Arabic - which is entirely different except for a general
similarity in the scripts. Secondly different dialects do
make up the vernaclar languages spoken by various regions -
Standard Literary Arabic is the common denominator, but even
that is not necessarily effective in ordinary communication
- for giving speeches or attending conferences in the ME is
it great. Morrocan is very differnet from Syrian Arabic,
and Arabic generally is very hard to learn - dificult sound
for English speakers, conceptaully different from Indo
European languages, and difficult plurals and agreements.
There is a discussion further down this branch with
information about classes etc.
Persian is also officially known as Farsi. Just thought I'd
mention that to avoid confusion. The only similarities are
the sounds, and as Herman mentioned, the script.
Iran is NOT an Arabic country. This is the very first thing
you should learn about Iran, newcomer!
Thanks others for mentioning this, but every Iranian deems
it its duty to note once more. We Are Persians!
Learning Arabic, like any language, requires patience and a
genuine interest. I would suggest that you learn a few
words and phrases for your first trip. If you decide you
would like to return and experience the ME more in-depth,
then you should consider learn Arabic.
Arabic is not related to European languages, therefore, it
is far more difficult to pick up than German or Spanish.
It would be very difficult to teach yourself. You should
take classes at a university near home, or, if you have the
time and money, in the Middle East.
Your best bet is probably to learn either Modern Standard
Arabic or Egyptian Arabic because of its wide-spread use in
films and literature.
Please fill me in on why some Iranians prefer to be
classified as Persians? It seems to me that most of those
who prefer the term 'Persian' do so because of some
perceived idea that 'Iranian' has a negative connotation to
it.
I once knew an Iranian fellow named Amir who insisted that
he was Persian, later to change his name to Emile and tell
others he was Spanish.
Fess up Amir!
I think its a great idea to start learning Arabic! I learned
some while living in Bahrain and had great fun doing so -
plus it is a way to meet some locals and lots of westerners
who have interest in the culture where they are living.
There are quite a few books you can get, I have some, but
still packed away in boxes. I do NOT recommend the
Linguaphone course, as it is too advanced for a beginner!
The kewlest site for learning Arabic is www.travlang.com - I
suggest you start by learning the numerals from 0-9.
I found learning to read/write Arabic a great help to my
pronnunciation and ability to ask what words meant and how
they are spelled/pronounced.
If you buy bilingual dictionaries, make SURE that you have
the arabic in them as well!
I learned "classical Arabic" - not sure if this is the same
as the standardised Arabic mentioned above. It is not the
same as any "dialect" but is a common denominator for them
all and most Arabic-speakers with higher education (not sure
what level, though) have learned classical Arabic as well as
their "local dialect", I was told, anyway. I got away with
most of my "classical" words.
Egyptian Arabic is your next choice - or maybe first, as
Egyptian films have been popular for ages all over the Arab
world. I was lucky enough to have an Egyptian teacher, so I
got the pronunciations from her.
The Arabic words are difficult to learn at first, because
they have so little in common with European languages.
Still, there are some tricks you can use - like "sayarah" is
car - and Sierra (by Ford) is also a car! Silly link, but it
helped me remember. Had an awful time learning the numbers
from 8-10, though - got really muddled. But got it in time.
A big advantage of Arabic is that one word gives many words.
For example if you learn the word for book (kitab) you will
easily get the word for office and library and a couple of
other things, because they add to the beginning or end of
the basic word to make different uses of the "core word". It
sounds complicated, but once you grasp the concept, it makes
life really easy - and you can finally start looking up
words in Arabic dictionaries (which go by core word - ktb
for kitab - instead of by the Western alphabetical system).
If there isn't a university near you offering Arabic, maybe
you can get some help from the links below - or maybe put an
ad in the local paper asking for someone to tutor you. I had
a tutor to start with and I think that was a great help
because I then got one-on-one when I was trying to grasp the
new concepts.
In any case - I wish you the best of luck!
http://philae.sas.upenn.edu/Arabic/arabic.html
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~alquds/arabic.html
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~alquds/
http://www.teleport.com/~alquds/arabic.html
http://www.uoknor.edu/cybermuslim/cy_quraan.html
http://arabic.wjh.harvard.edu/index.htm
http://www.arabic2000.com/
http://fas-www.harvard.edu/~munson/arabic2.html
http://arabic.wjh.harvard.edu/texts.htm
http://www.ArabicNews.com/
http://www.teleport.com/~alquds/arabic2.html
http://www.arabchat.com/
http://www.gy.com/www/ww1/ar_e.htm
When I said buy bilingual dictionaries with arabic in them,
I meant with arabic script - not just the european
transliterations!
Thank you for all the help. I'm sorry I assumed Iran was an
Arabic country. Are there ME countries besides Iran where
Farsi is spoken? I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but
I'm genuinely interested in the culture.
Thanks again.
I think there's a Farsi minority in Afghanistan, and maybe
also in some of the former Soviet republics in central Asia.
Pashto, one of the main languages of Afghanistan is a Farsi
dialect, and so is Tazjiki of Tazjikistan. How close or far
from Persian I do not know.
Persian is also resonably common in learned Muslim
communities in India and Pakistan.
There are quite a lot of people of Iranian descent living in
Bahrain. I think a lot of them speak Farsi still.
Egyptian is very widely understood since many or most
arabic tv is produced in Egypt. Also Egypt is considered
the Hollywood of arabia. But they pronounce their J's like
G. For exsample- Al Sen bilad jamil. China is a beautiful
country. But Egyptians pronounce jamil like Gamil. But
they have a great dialect that is favored as a universal
arabic. Standard arabic is too complex and the general
population arent tuned into it. Especially in more rural
regions. But they understand egyptian because of its
saturation on the tv.
Everyone says that Egyptian is the most widely understood
dialect, so if I speak that then people of other dialects
will understand me. But will I understand THEM? That is,
will they be able to adjust from their dialect and SPEAK
Egyptian, or just understand it?
You will get used to the local dialect as you go. The most
difficult, I found was this hard G/soft G (J) business. That
threw me off a lot. But you get used to that as well pretty
quickly, really.
Dialects vary a lot as far as I know - I was told by two
Arabs recently that they couldn't converse if they spoke
their dialect of Arabic. One was UAE, the other was Omani.
.
Hugo produce books to teach you a language in 3(!) months.
I've bought a couple (not Arabic) and was completely
unsuccessful. But they looked ok.
You need an Arabic speaker or at least a tape to learn the
sounds - some don't exist in English.
I think a lot of the travel type phrase books us Egyptian
Arabic because that's understood everywhere.
Good luck!
The Hugo "Arabic in Three Months" kit looks strange to me
because it teaches a mixture of spoken Arabic, ie. not a
specific dialect but a mixture of several. Why they would do
that is beyond me. I liked their Hebrew kit though.
Dear "student",
for your traveling purposes, learning Syrian dialect is
probably the best. This is spoken in Syria, Lebanon,
Palestine, Jordan. (Yeah, I know that there are variations,
but these are insignificant for a beginner, more like the
difference between New York English & the lingo we speak in
California...) This dialect is also called "Levantine
Arabic" by some language books. In any case, check with the
next big university & see whether they have any courses. I'm
not sure whether LP has a language kit for this dialect, but
there some out there. Moroccan Arabic is very different;
there definitely IS a LP language kit for this dialect, just
take it along. Modern Standard is useful, alas people will
only understand you but almost never talk back in anything
other then their dialect. Syrian/Levantine, by the way, is
pretty close to Modern Standard...
As for Persian, it is officially not called "Farsi" (this is
a rule from the Persian Language Association), on the
grounds that we don't call what the French speak "francais"
or the what Germans speak "Deutsch". In any case, Tajik is a
form of Persian, as is Dari (on of the main languages in
Afghanistan). Pashto, on the other hand, is a language
different from Persian, although related (more like Italian
& French).
"Iran" vs. "Persia": The country's official name was Persia
until about 1936, when its ruler, Reza Shah, changed it to
"Iran" (meaning "Land of the Aryans"), most likely in order
to highlight his country's "blood-ties" to the Europeans, &
especially to the Nazis in Germany. I have friends who call
themselves Persians as well as others who call themselves
Iranians. Same difference.
If you do end up going, read some books before you leave
home. Can't emphasize enough how important that is. Start
with the LP books, but also hit some "serious" material.
Have a safe trip.
Some Bahrainis I knew worked in Egypt quite a bit. They told
me that they could converse with the Egyptians just fine and
always understood what the Egyptians were saying, but that
if they spoke their Bahraini "dialect" really fast, the
Egyptians weren't able to catch what was going on.
Why the Bahrainis understood the Egyptian so easily? They
had seen TV and movies from there lots!
So - I still say, go for Egyptian if you want to pick a
"dialect" as you will be understood by the most
arabic-speakers.
Iranians may speak Farsi (the 'F' sound itself comes from
Arabic influence and is a distorsion of 'Parsi'), but they
have been converted en masse by invading Arab hordes---it's
as if India had become Church of England wholesale because
the English invaded. So this business of strong, distinct
Iranian culture is a bit of a crock. Islam is a religion
that requires converts to learn the language of the holy
text...much like if you had to learn Aramaic/Greek/Hebrew in
order to be a Christian. So no matter how much Iranians
protest (correctly) that they are not Arabs, most of them
speak some Arabic; by the mullahs, Farsi is spoken with a
strong Arabic accent. And the script is the same.
.
PS Just in case it is not clear from the above thread,
'Arab' is a linguistic classification. Anyone whose first
language is Arabic is Arab, including Christians (although
Jews are apparently never Arab, I wonder why). Racially,
however, Egyptians (descendants of the great
pyramid-builders) are very different from say Bahrainis
(descendants of fisherman).
actually, parsi or farsi is widely spoken in afghanistan,
can be understood in some parts of pakistan, and you could
get along with it in some gulf countries as UAE where a lot
of farsi speakers live.I think also though I'm not sure
that you'll find a lot of people undestanding it in
some former soviet countries of the area (turkmenistan,
ouzbekistan...)I've been told that maybe a third of its
vocabulary is borrowed from arabic.It's an indo-european
language though, thus its grammar has nothing to do with
arabic grammar, but lot more with european languages.the
script is arabic alphabet with some extra letters to write
sounds unknown of arabic.