different arabic dialects

[Antea]

I’m learning Egyptian dialect since September. I understand it better now, but I’m still speaking a mix between Fussha and Egyptian. I have to get used to speaking Egyptian.

[Antea]

After all this time, it’s still hard for me to understand the Egyptian dialect. It’s a bit frustrating, to say something. In fact, I think that I understand better any other dialect that the one I am supposed to be studying .

How are you doing with the dialects you’re learning. Is it going better?

[voron]

How are you doing with the dialects you’re learning. Is it going better?

Nah, my Levantine sucks. I can have conversations but I don't understand anything on TV. I'm seriously thinking about moving to Lebanon to improve it.

[Antea]

This is a video in what, I think, it’s Omani dialect.
https://youtu.be/K4ZYKCA1kkM

[Antea]

And this one is in Egyptian dialect (the interviewed guest speaks in the dialect).
https://youtu.be/weBdcCB2Hq4

[n8an]

Lebanese was the first I learned, but I also gained some familiarity with Egyptian from music. I then grew to really like Khaleeji, so I learned a bit of Emirati and Kuwaiti. I then got really into Iraqi, so I know some of that too.

I still prefer to "speak" Lebanese and I also understand it the best.

[orderlot87]

To add to the conversation a positive take on Modern Standard Arabic - https://pathtoarabic.com/learn-modern-standard-arabic/

[n8an]

To add to the conversation a positive take on Modern Standard Arabic - https://pathtoarabic.com/learn-modern-standard-arabic/

Whilst I don't think that learning Standard Arabic is wrong by any means, the above article is...questionable.

To answer your question, you should absolutely study Modern Standard Arabic in my opinion because it’s the foundation of the Arabic language itself and then learn an Arabic dialect if you decide to do so.

It's not. MSA is a modernised version of Classical Arabic, which itself may have never actually been spoken natively.

You don’t even have to study a dialect since there aren’t really any material or books out there to help you to learn one and besides I don’t even know how you would even begin to teach a dialect!

That's not a reason not to study dialects. This is due to the Pan-Arab political situation in the region that brainwashes people to think that their mother tongues are not languages, but "slang", with no rules, no grammar and simply an inferior, incorrect and classless way to speak, and hence are not to be written down and not to be used officially.

Remember: these are languages that people learn from their parents, speak among their families and friends, speak on the streets, tell stories in, make music and TV in and pass down to generations.

Why? Because admitting the differences between dialects is tantamount to admitting that the Middle East is actually a place of diversity - linguistically, religiously, culturally, ethnically and politically - and not just a monolithic entity of a constructed "Arab" identity.

It will be very painful to my ears to hear someone trying to teach a dialect since most of the words and phrases would be grammatically wrong, misspelt or modified because of the way it’s pronounced differently in a dialect.

And here we have a perfect illustration of my previous point. This is JUST RIDICULOUS. By what token are dialects "wrong"? They are live, spoken languages by millions of people who have communicated in them for centuries. Dialects did not develop by people who spoke MSA but were too stupid to speak it correctly.

It’s true that people do not speak Modern Standard Arabic in Arabic speaking countries, but it’s not enough to justify asking a beginner or learner to study a dialect instead of Modern Standard Arabic, it’s like asking someone to learn slang instead of proper English!

Wow, no. Just no. Dialects are not "slang" and MSA is not "proper". They are different dialects, neither of which is right or wrong.

Ultimately your approach to learning and what you want to achieve is the deciding factor that determines your path and for anyone who likes to do things properly and efficiently, you would agree with me that you would want to start learning Modern Standard Arabic and then pick up a dialect later

I refuse to even comment on the ridiculousness of this.





Ultimately you should learn MSA because you want to learn MSA, and you should learn a dialect because you want to learn that dialect. They are used in different contexts. But one is not inferior to the other, one is not the foundation of the other, and one is not "slang", "incorrect" or lacking in any way.

[eskandar]

You don’t even have to study a dialect since there aren’t really any material or books out there to help you to learn one and besides I don’t even know how you would even begin to teach a dialect!

That's not a reason not to study dialects. This is due to the Pan-Arab political situation in the region that brainwashes people to think that their mother tongues are not languages, but "slang", with no rules, no grammar and simply an inferior, incorrect and classless way to speak, and hence are not to be written down and not to be used officially.

Just to add to what n8an said, it's 100% untrue that there aren't materials or books for dialects. There are books in English that teach just about every dialect of Arabic out there, from Moroccan to Yemeni. Some more popular dialects, like Egyptian or Levantine, have dozens of books that teach the language. Arabic dialects are taught in universities all across the US and in other countries, and most Arab countries have courses that teach the local dialect to foreigners. I don't know how you would even begin to teach Calculus, and yet that doesn't prove that Calculus cannot be taught or isn't worth studying.

[vijayjohn]

I picked Levantine. Initially, I didn't pick anything, because I have no favorite dialect, just like I have no favorite language (or, for that matter, favorite food or favorite color...). But Levantine (specifically Damascene) is the variety I've been trying to focus on, so I guess it's at least my favorite variety to start with. Although this is mostly because I happened to start with it since the first few people I got to try talking to in Arabic on a regular basis happened to speak that particular variety.

Neither was Morrocan Lol

Neither are Libyan, Hassaniya, and Chadian!

Also mōdgethanc, I think the LDI classifies them as diffirent languages, on the GLOSS website they have diffirent sections for each Arabic. For example this is how they word it : "Arabic-MSA, Arabic-Egyptian, Arabic-Levantine, Arabic- Iraqi".

I just looked at it and it just says "Egyptian", "Levantine" and "Sudanese". But that doesn't necessarily mean they're classified as different languages because there are also different pages for "Korean" and "North Korean" (wtf?).

Pretty OT, but I get the impression that that's not because they actually consider those to be different languages but rather because these materials were apparently created for the American military and they want students working on diplomacy with North Korea or patrolling the border or whatever to be very familiar with North Korean media.

Classical Arabic/MSA isn't a dialect

Sure it is, in the sense that everything is a dialect! It's just not nonstandard.