Arabic Study Group

[Antea]

That reminds me, Antea: Are you by any chance familiar with http://www.thearabicstudent.com/? It hasn't updated in years but has some dialect-specific (and MSA-specific) resources (that is, it has resources for learning or at least gaining exposure to many varieties of Arabic). It also has links to GLOSS and LangMedia, both of which are rather useful as well (though LangMedia may be less useful for MSA since it's mostly focused on the spoken language).

Yes, I think I took a look some time ago. But at this time it was too much for me.

I read Lesson 3, bu I'm confused by the term سنة أشهر. Does that mean six months/half a year?

I don’t have the book, so I don’t know the context. For me it would make more sense if the terms were reversed, meaning in that case like “months of the year.”

[vijayjohn]

Voron posted the book at the very beginning of this thread. It's on p. 10.

[Antea]

Voron posted the book at the very beginning of this thread. It's on p. 10.

I’ve got it. It’s not سنة
It’s written ستة أشهر
That means “six months”. It’s true that the letters are very small

[vijayjohn]

Ohhhh! Lol that explains it!

Thanks so much!

[voron]

What about some Arabic poetry? I am reading some short poems of Nizar Qabbani

Thanks Antea for sharing this. Some poems by Nizar Qabbani can be found in recitation on youtube. For example, this poem recited by the famous Iraqi singer Kathem Al-Saher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1TSeblCcK8

And here's a translation to English:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/%D8%A7%D ... -love.html

[vijayjohn]

I guess maybe I'll just move on to Lesson 4? I don't think my national anthem idea got any takers.

EDIT: But in case anyone's interested at all, I think my favorite might be the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen's national anthem. (The current anthem is just a part of the former one).

► Show Spoiler

رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي
ردديه وأعيدي وأعيدي
واذكري في فرحتي كل شهيد
وأمنحيه حللاً من ضوء عيدي
رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي
رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي

يـا بلادي نحن أبنـاء وأحفاد رجالك
سوف نحمي كل ما بين يدينا من جلالـك
وسيبقى خالد الضوء على كل المسالك
كل صخرة في جبالك
كل ذرة في رمالك
كـل أنداء في ضـلالـك
مـلـكنا
إنـها ملك أمـانينا الـكبيرة
حقنا
جاء من أمجاد ماضيك المثيرة
رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي
رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي

وحدتي وحدتي
يا نشيدا رائـعاً يملأ نـفسي
أنتِ عـهد عالق في كل ذمة
رايتي رايتي
يا نسيجاً حكته من كل شـمس
اخـلدي خافقة في كل قمة
أمتي أمتي
امنحيني البأس يا مصدر بأس
واذخريني لك يا أكرم أمة
عشت إيماني وحبي سرمدية
ومسيري فوق دربي عربيا
عشت إيماني وحبي سرمدية
ومسيري فوق دربي عربيا
وسيبقى نبـض قلبي يمنيا
لن ترى الدنيا على أرضي وصيا

رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي
ردديه وأعيدي وأعيدي
واذكري في فرحتي كل شهيد
وأمنحيه حللاً من ضوء عيدي
رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي
رددي أيتها الدنيا نشيدي

[voron]

I don't think my national anthem idea got any takers.

I love anthems. My favourite Arabic anthem is the Iraqi anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaI26chcFw

The lyrics are not very good for studying, as they essentially are a bunch of obscure nouns describing the country's glory, but I love the melody.

[voron]

Exercise 1 on page 28
It shows this picture:


and asks us في أي بلد من هذه البلدان تقضي العطلة؟ ولماذا؟ (in which country from these would you spend your holiday and why?)

My answer:

► Show Spoiler

الصورة الأولى تُظهر معبد صيني تقليدي تُجد بالبحيرة. لا أعرف كثير عن الصين, ولكن أريد أن أزور هذا البلد يوم واحد.
الصورة الثانية تُظهر جامع السلطان أحمد في إسطنبول. أسكن في إسطنبول وأعرف كثير عن هذه المدينة, ولكن هي مدينة جسيمة, فأكتشف شيئا جديدا عنها كل الوقت.
الصورة الثالثة تُظهر مصر. أريد أقضي العطلة في هذا البلد أكثر, لأني أتعلم العربي وأريد أن أمارس اللغة وأعرف أكثر عن العالم العربي.

In one sentence, I tried to say "I want to visit China one day", and I know that "one day" is شي يوم in Levantine, but how do we say it idiomatically in MSA?

I will also do the listening comprehension exercise on page 28, and then move on to the next text انواع الترويح (Types of relaxation) in lesson 8.

[vijayjohn]

I love anthems.

Yay! The Belarusian anthem is one of my favorite ones, too.

My favourite Arabic anthem is the Iraqi anthem.

Ah, yes, the Iraqi anthem that was first written for Palestine by a Palestinian and a Lebanese person. Whenever I hear "the Iraqi anthem," the first thing that comes to mind for me is the old (pre-occupation) one.

The lyrics are not very good for studying, as they essentially are a bunch of obscure nouns describing the country's glory

Maybe so, but then all the Arab national anthems are kind of like that.

but I love the melody.

Me, too! This is apparently a fairly popular song in the Arab World.

In the spirit of not taking our study materials too seriously, I can't resist suggesting one of the world's most hilarious anthems ever: the former (Qaddafi-era) anthem of Libya. The gist of the lyrics is basically RAHHHHHH ALLAHU AKBAR!!!

I know that "one day" is شي يوم in Levantine, but how do we say it idiomatically in MSA?

يوما ما‎?

I will also do the listening comprehension exercise on page 28, and then move on to the next text انواع الترويح (Types of relaxation) in lesson 8.

I finally finished reading passage/lesson #4 in Unit 1, but I was wondering whether طعام أبيض means the same thing as 'white food' in English, i.e. processed food. I didn't even know that term in English until now.

Also, this is one of the oldest poems in the Arabic language that has survived from pre-Islamic times. I thought I'd share it here because it's short, and the lyrics don't look that hard.

Finally, for those of you who didn't know, voron posted this video (in Turkish) in the Turkish study group:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8506YHYQqgE
In which various people in Taksim Square in Istanbul sing nasheed (ilahi in Turkish). Of course, most of the video is in Turkish, but some of the songs are in Arabic. The first one in Arabic at 4:14 is "Tala' al Badru 'Alayna" (طلع البدر علينا). It's sung again at 4:43.

Lyrics (with transliteration, translation, and additional explanation): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tala%27_a ... _%27Alayna
A rendition (by Oum Kalthoum!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap8ZtW40_5E

[vijayjohn]

I'm wondering what to do next in the book. Should I do one of the exercises (I think you did the first vocabulary exercise after this passage, voron), or should I move on to the next passage (Lesson 6?), or what?

[voron]

This was an interesting post, Vijay!

(Sorry that my post will not be properly formatted: I am at a hotel in Antalya and writing on my mobile).

Here's another rendition of طلع البدر علينا by the famous Turkish singer İbrahim Tatlıses:
https://youtu.be/BTHvEvQixn4

In the video from Taksim Square, this song is actually sung three times: at 4:14, 4:30 and 4:43.

The next song at 5:09 seems to be this:
https://youtu.be/2mq7QTzcO68

The Arabic lyrics are in the description of the video, and the English translation is in the video.

Vijay, what you can do next: perhaps you can look through all the exercises and do the ones that you find interesting or fun (that's what I do).

Meanwhile I did the listening exercise on page 28. New word:
رِيف - countryside

I will be back home on Tuesday and I'll continue with the text on page 29.

[n8an]

but I love the melody.

Me, too! This is apparently a fairly popular song in the Arab World.[/quote]

Indeed, it is a very popular song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbl3EChIhZ8

Elissa did a cover of it a few years ago. She was mocked a LOT for her less-than-perfect pronunciation, particularly of the word "موطني" (or "موتني" in her case)

Edit: even in the comments people are mocking her

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUsSy6q59Co

[vijayjohn]

Is there some particular reason why her pronunciation is that way? Is that common in Lebanon or something?

This was an interesting post, Vijay!

Thanks!

(Sorry that my post will not be properly formatted: I am at a hotel in Antalya and writing on my mobile).

Don't worry, it looks just fine.

Here's another rendition of طلع البدر علينا by the famous Turkish singer İbrahim Tatlıses:
https://youtu.be/BTHvEvQixn4

Thanks for sharing!

Vijay, what you can do next: perhaps you can look through all the exercises and do the ones that you find interesting or fun (that's what I do).

I think I'll do the same exercise you did, where we match the opposites.

► Show Spoiler

يتشابه - يختالف (is similar vs. is different)
صحيح - مريض (healthy vs. sick)
مرض - صحة (sickness vs. health)
يزيد - ينقص (increases vs. decreases)
سمين - نحيف (fat vs. thin)
كثير - قليل (a lot vs. a little, many vs. few)

And I got the exact same answers! Yay! I might just move on to the next text. Or maybe do one more exercise and then do that. (Or maybe more than that, but that's less likely). We'll see.

[n8an]

Is there some particular reason why her pronunciation is that way? Is that common in Lebanon or something?

Not as far as I know - actually there's a a certain stereotype that Lebanese people sometimes pronounce ط instead of ت in English, making "Tony" sound like "6oné".

I don't know why she pronounces it that way. Her speech is frequently imitated due to her use of English words/phrases and her pronunciation of them eg: "tsoké" (it's okay). She's also famous for overusing "3adé".

It is interesting though, that with the complete lack of recognition and regulation of Arabic dialects, it's quite hard to tell a native speaker that that their speech is "wrong".

[vijayjohn]

I've decided to try to also do the exercise at the beginning of lesson 5 because it has enough vocabulary that's still kind of obscure for me to require a dictionary.

► Show Spoiler

.١ - تريد زينب أن تكون سمينة
.٢ - كنت مثلك أشعر آلم معدة
.٣ - أخذ محمد يتناول من الطعم كثيرا
.٤ - يصيب الأكل الكثير بالإنسان البدانة
.٥ - أصبح المرضى يتبعون حمية

[voron]

:?: .٢ - كنت مثلك أشعر آلم معدة

It should be بآلام .
Also I would say كنت أشعر بآلام معدة مثلك (I was feeling a stomach ache like you), but I don't think it really matters what position مثلك occupies in a sentence.

:?: .٤ - يصيب الأكل الكثير بالإنسان البدانة

يصيب الأكل الكثير الأنسان بالبدانة (A lot of food strikes the man with obesity)
الأنسان is in the accusative case in the book, so it should be the direct object.

[voron]

I finished Lesson 8 and looked through all the exercises after it. New words:
عَناء hardship; preoccupation
مُفِيد useful
إِنَّما but rather; on the contrary
مُخَيَّمات camps
صَيْد hunting; fishing
مُتْعَة pleasure, enjoyment

I'm ready to move on to Lesson 9.

[vijayjohn]

I've finally just barely started on the last passage in Unit 1.

[Saim]

Al-arabiyyah bayna yadayk Unit 1 p.4

Comprehension, Exercise 2

استيعاب comprehension
رَتَّبَ يُرَتِّبُ‎‎ to order, sort
ورد to come, appear, show up

Singular nouns

مُفْرَد singular
ِاِمْلأ ?

[Antea]

ِاِمْلأ ?

املاء dictation