Luís wrote:Michael wrote:But if it's its phonology you're daunted by, then, well, I'm not sure what advice to give you
That's one of the things keeping me from dabbling into Arabic. I feel helpless when it comes to pronouncing all those emphatic consants and the dreadful ع
(I'm so glad Hebrew got rid of it)
ع is actually pronounced differently amongst dialects. This isn't discussed often, but in Egyptian it is quite light compared to Khaleeji and Iraqi dialects. Lebanese and most other Levantine dialects are somewhere in the middle, but closer to the Egyptian pronunciation.
I think you should give Arabic a try if you like Hebrew. Coming from Hebrew, it was really easy for me to get around Arabic (including the pronunciation). The hardest for me was ط .
Then again, I don't speak MSA and have never tried to learn it, so I've never had to actually pronounce a lot of letters (though I am able to because I wanted to learn at least the pronunciation).
Michael wrote:Heresy! This is where we must part ways.
The two of us are polar opposites in this regard. Pharyngeal consonants are hands-down one of my favorite features of the Semitic languages. The coalescence of the emphatic consonants in Hebrew is a big strike-against for me, and to be honest, I even regard Hebrew a bit contemptuously because of that, and Hebrew is 50% less intriguing to me due to that as well. But I don't hold it against the language—such is to be expected when a language isn't used as a spoken language for two millennia, I suppose.
Hebrew isn't the only case of Semitic languages losing ع and ح; most dialects of Assyrian neo-Aramaic have completely lost them too, merging ح with kha and ع with alef.
Some dialects (particularly the Nineveh Plains dialects) do include ح and ع, though. I think Turoyo also has them.
Many dialects of Sureth do include "th" (as in "thick"); though the Iranian Urmi dialect and Standard Iraqi Koine do not.
These Semitic languages sound very similar to Hebrew, and less similar to Arabic.
How accurate would it be for me to call Arabic, "What Hebrew Sounded Like 2000 Years Ago"?
Well, somewhat accurate...but not entirely accurate?
The first issue is: which dialect of Arabic are you referring to? If you mean MSA or Classical Arabic, it's widely doubted that they were ever actually real natively spoken languages. So it's kind of unnatural for me to base "Arabic" pronunciation on that. I know most people do, though, so I understand the tendency to do it.
Secondly, Arabic lacks p and v, which are both featured in Hebrew. P is also featured in Assyrian, while v is featured in some dialects of Assyrian (Urmi). I don't know if these are original Semitic sounds that Arabic didn't preserve or whether North Western Semitic languages developed them as innovations, but it's notable.
Thirdly, standardised Arabic pronunciation of ج goes by "j" in most places, but in dialects it is pronounced "y" (Gulf, and only sometimes), zh (Lebanon and Syria, potentially other Levantine dialects too) and g (Egypt, Sudan, Yemen). In Hebrew and Assyrian it is also "g" (though Assyrian does have a "j" sound, most likely borrowed from Kurdish and Persian). From what I've read, g is the original pronunciation. I'm fairly sure that Hebrew didn't have a j sound for gimmel.
So while all Arabic dialects preserve some Semitic sounds better than Hebrew, and Standard Arabic preserves many, Hebrew pronunciation isn't necessarily just a modern, simpler version of Arabic's.
Also, is it just me, or is Arabic script twice as easier to learn than the Aramaic script ("the Hebrew alphabet")?
I definitely think that the Arabic script is a bit more regular, but the joining of letters is so confusing for beginners. I've seen it over and over. Ktav Ashuri has no real such issues - though you do have to learn two "styles". I'm not sure which is easier.
As for Arabic:
I can't think of any dialects that don't have dual nouns. Maybe the North African dialects that I'm totally unfamiliar with?
Even Hebrew has dual for some things (hours, days, months, years, eyes, ears etc).