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Bite-Size Arabic Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar Leston Chandler Buell Bite-Size Arabic: Learn to Read and Write Arabic Using the Tiniest Bit of Vocabulary and Grammar © Leston Chandler Buell 2016 All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. ISBN 978-1540638762 First edition, November 2016 Minor corrections, March 2017 Zo Te Zeggen, Amsterdam, Netherlands Website at <http://BiteSizeArabic.com>. Please send comments to <[email protected]>. Printed by CreateSpace, an Amazon.com company. Cover design by Warner Krol <warnerkrol.nl>. Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 Unit 1 ....................................................................................................................................... 5 ه و ي ا َـــ ــِـ َـــ 1.1 The letter haa’: one letter, 1.5 Two more short vowels: fatḥa and four shapes ḍamma 1.2 Our first vowel: kasra 1.6 The letter yaa’ 1.3 Typing in Arabic 1.7 Our first long vowel: the letter ’alif 1.4 The letter waaw Unit 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 17 ت ن اأ ْـــ 2.1 The letter taa’ 2.3 Word-initial hamza 2.2 The letter nuun 2.4 The sukuun Unit 3 ..................................................................................................................................... 27 ب ث ل ــّـ 3.1 The letters baa’ and thaa’ 3.4 The shadda 3.2 The letter laam 3.5 The definite article 3.3 The long vowels ii and uu x Table of Contents Unit 4 ..................................................................................................................................... 41 م ك ء لا 4.1 The letter kaaf 4.4 The laam ’alif ligature 4.2 The letter miim 4.5 Possessives 4.3 Seatless hamza Unit 5 ..................................................................................................................................... 57 د ذ ى ــٰـ 5.1 The letters daal and dhaal 5.4 Gender in Arabic 5.2 Dagger ’alif 5.5 This is..., that is... 5.3 The ’alif maqṣuura 5.6 Asking questions Unit 6 ..................................................................................................................................... 71 ج ح خ 6.1 The letter jiim 6.4 This boy, that girl 6.2 The letters ḥaa’ and khaa’ 6.5 Nabil loves Muna 6.3 Brothers and sisters Unit 7 ..................................................................................................................................... 89 ر ز ة 7.1 The letters raa’ and zaay 7.4 Husbands and wives 7.2 The taa’ marbuuṭa 7.5 What do you want? Which book do you 7.3 More about feminine gender want? Table of Contents xi Unit 8 .................................................................................................................................. 105 س ش ًـا 8.1 The letter siin 8.4 I see a house 8.2 The letter shiin 8.5 What is your name? 8.3 Saying hello and saying thank you Unit 9 .................................................................................................................................. 121 ع غ ؤ ئ 9.1 The letter ʕayn 9.4 Do you speak Arabic? 9.2 The letter ghayn 9.5 To have and not to have 9.3 The yaa’ and waaw as seats for the hamza Unit 10 ................................................................................................................................ 137 ف ق اآ ــٍـ ــٌـ 10.1 The letter faa’ 10.4 The -un and -in endings 10.2 The letter qaaf 10.5 I don’t understand this word 10.3 ’alif madda 10.6 naʕam, yaa ḥabiib-ii! Unit 11 ................................................................................................................................ 155 ص ض ط ظ 11.1 The emphatic letters 11.6 Good morning! 11.2 The letter ṣaad 11.7 Names beginning with Abd 11.3 The letter ḍaad 11.8 One-letter function words 11.4 The letter ṭaa’ 11.9 “Mustafa is my friend” 11.5 The letter ḍhaa’ 11.10 Farid is an Arab xii Table of Contents Unit 12 ................................................................................................................................ 179 ڤ چ پ ٠ ١ ٢ ٣ ٤ ٥ ٦ ٧ ٨ ٩ 12.1 Elidable glottal stops 12.3 The numerals 12.2 Loanwords in Arabic 12.4 Saying goodbye and other niceties What Next? ........................................................................................................................ 195 Writing System Summary ............................................................................................... 197 Arabic–English glossary ................................................................................................... 201 Answer Key......................................................................................................................... 207 Introduction Why Bite-Size? Welcome to Bite-Size Arabic! This book is intended for anyone who wants to learn to read Arabic, whether on their own, in a classroom setting, or with a private instructor. Many other beginning Arabic books take an approach that can overwhelm the beginning learner. They expect the reader to absorb the entire alphabet in just a few short lessons before thrusting them into reading texts in Arabic script. And even if a textbook does approach the writing system in a more gradual way, this is often not well coordinated with other language skills being presented, with the consequence the student can’t read and write the new words, expressions, and structure he has learned. Bite-Size Arabic has been designed to avoid the overwhelming nature of learning a new writing system by closely coupling the task with a minimal amount of carefully selected vocabulary and grammar. In each unit you are taught a few new letters and symbols and just enough new words and structure to allow you to put the new letters into practice. The highly restricted amount of vocabulary (fewer than 140 items in total) and grammar helps you focus on your main goal: getting through the book and mastering the Arabic writing system. Coupled with the carefully selected order in which the new letters are introduced, this approach will allow you to read entire simple sentences in Arabic right from the second unit. The vocabulary from earlier units is reused frequently to ensure that you master it rather than forget it. What kind of Arabic? Arabic is spoken as the native language of some 400 million people in the world and it is an official language in 28 countries. But these numbers mask the complex linguistic reality of the Arabic-speaking world. What the average Moroccan speaks at home would likely be incomprehensible to the average Iraqi. The modern dialects of Arabic vary greatly in pronunciation, vocabulary, and relative importance. Egyptian Arabic, 1 2 Introduction for example, is familiar across the Arab world due to the popularity of Egyptian films and music and other factors, while the Arabic varieties spoken in Mauritania and Southern Sudan have little reach beyond those countries. In contrast, the language Arabs use to read and write, usually called Modern Standard Arabic or simply Standard Arabic, is quite uniform. An Arab can pick up a newspaper, magazine, or book from any Arab country and immediately recognize it as his own language. Standard Arabic, which is essentially a modernized version of Classical Arabic, is not spoken in the home or on the street, but it is the language learned by all Arab children in schools. It is the language of the newspapers, magazines, and books, as well as of situations when people from different regions of the Arabic-speaking world come together. It is also the variety normally first learned by the foreign learner, and there are many good reasons for that. First of all, Standard Arabic is neutral and universally understood across the Arab world. Second, since it is the language that is usually used for writing, it is the only variety that gives you access to print media. And third, because Standard Arabic is based on Classical Arabic, the language that all of the modern national and regional dialects descended from, it provides the best common basis from which the learner can go on to study any other variety of Arabic. The focus of this book is thus Standard Arabic, but within Standard Arabic, there are various “registers” or stylistic levels. For example, in formal Standard Arabic, nouns are pronounced with case endings (that is, suffixes that indicate whether a noun is in the nominative, genitive, or accusative case) and verbs are pronounced with mood endings (such as indicative or subjunctive). In an informal register, which is closer to the modern dialects, many of these endings are omitted. It is this latter variety, which we will term “informal Standard Arabic”, that we will focus on in this book. Getting the most out of this book This book can be used in a traditional group language course, but it has been designed in such a way that it can be used without a teacher, with everything described in detail and including a multitude of easy exercises with answer keys. For the best result, work through each unit of this book in succession, as each unit builds upon the units that precedes it, both in terms of the letters learned and in terms of vocabulary and grammar. Starting with unit 2, most of the examples are presented