Goals: learn as much Arabic as possible before the end of the university year (late June), hopefully be able to read a short text by this time.
Be able to converse freely in written form by the end of the year.
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Arabic has long held my attention – as I told a friend once, ‘I want to know what these pretty squiggles mean!’ And Google Translate allowed me to understand that a line of ‘pretty squiggles’ I got on my birthday meant Happy Birthday!, and to copy’n’paste a thank you.
Once my Yemeni friend announced she will be giving Arabic lessons, I jumped at the chance.
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Before my first lesson, my knowledge of Arabic was limited to the following:
· It looks pretty!
· You write and read from right-to-left
· Yemeni Arabic differs a lot from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)
· It has that weird deep-in-the-throat sound
· It has these neat word roots like k-t-b or m-t-b or whatnot
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Lesson 1, 6 Jan 2013Arabic has 28 letters. Several of these are pronounced the same (
kha and
haa and
ha;
seen and
saad;
qaf and
kaf).
As if that weren’t bad, to my ears
θaa and
taa, as well as
ðal and
dal, sound the same. It’s a good thing Sarah knows IPA, otherwise I’d be completely lost – I’ve got 90 dB of hearing loss, and
θ~t,
ð~d sound the same to me.
I learn some pronouns – all personal pronouns begin with A and all pronouns used for somebody not here begin with an H. Not that bad, especially since virtually all demonstratives begin with an H too.
Numbers are neat, but I can’t remember them – except for
sefr, khamsa, settah and
sabaah, since 3 of these are similar to their European cognates.
Sarah shows me a few phrases, but I only know 2:
Ahlan and
Al Salam Aleikom.
Also, I learn about
Al, which apparently works like ‘the’, and Sarah tells me a lot of Arabic surnames start with
Al. (The thesis is quickly confirmed when I watch a handball match between Poland and Saudi Arabia).
***
At home, I try to find a way of typing Arabic. I locate an Arabic font and install an Arabic keyboard layout and… and nothing. I press ‘w’ key and I DON’T get
waw. Pissed off, I cancel Arabic keyboard and start some frenzied Googling. 20 mins later – success!
I’ve found
Intellark, which allows me to type in Arabic using Latin layout. I press ‘s’ key and I get
seen, I press ‘s’ twice and I get
sheen. Neat!
Over the weekend, I practice typing. I can reliably type
madrasah, and two personal names I’d already known:
Khalid خالد and
Mustafa مصطفيَ. I misspell
Aisha every single time, before I realize it contains a
hamza and I give up, because I can’t find it in Intellark.
I try typing
Sabah alkheir to Sarah on FB and I misspell it (differently) three times. Also, I realize that I need to copy the alphabet on an A4 sheet, which I do on Wednesday.
I run into Sarah a day earlier and she quizzes me a bit. The only phrase which escaped me was
shukran. She was really impressed – and I haven’t had time to review beyond typing
Mustafa or
Khalid.
New wordsSome words are missing, because the list is very long.
(I cheated and used Google Translate to get some Arabic words, but for others I had to use Intellark from scratch)
The order is IPA pronunciation - Arabic spelling - Meaning.
Al ال the
Ahlan أهلا hello
Al Salam Aleikum السلام عليكم welcome
Marhaban مرحبا hi
Sabah Alxeir صباح الخيرgood morning
Masaa Alxeir مساء الخير good evening
Shukran شكرا thanks
Afwan افون you’re welcome
Keif haluk كيف حالك؟how are you?
Ana bixeir أنا بخير I am OK
Ila Al-leqaa إلًى اللقاءso long
Maa Al-Salamah مع السلامة bye
Ana أنا I
Anta أنتَ you (male)
Anti أنتِ you (female)
Nahnu نحن we
Huwa هو he
Heya هي she
Hum هم they (male)
Hunna هنَ they (female)
Sefr صفر zero
Wahed واحد one
Eθnan اثنان two
Ðalaθa ثلاثة three
Arbaah أربعة four
Xamsa خمسةfive
Settah ستة six
Sabaah سبعة seven
Θamania ثمانية eight
Tesaah تسعةnine
Asharah عشرة ten
Haða هذا this is
Haðehi هذه this is (female)
Haula هؤلاء these are
Ðalika ذلكthat is (male)
Tilka تلك that is (female)
Ila to
Al-Madrasah المدرسةschool
Al-Mataam المدرسةrestaurant