Using Arabic: A Guide to Contemporary Usage | Aldaad Arabic Culture and Language Resources

Contributed By: Staff
Language of Presentation: Arabic, English
Media Format: Print Publication, Webpage
School Level: College/University, Elementary, Middle/High School
Institution/Provider: Cambridge University Press
Author: Mahdi Alosh
Collection:
Fee based $
Condition of Use: All Rights Reserved

Description:

Unlike books that teach Arabic from a standpoint of responding to and reading Arabic, this book focuses on teaching the reader how to use and write Arabic. This book can be read from cover to cover. The first chapter is aimed at people who would like a background on the different registers of the Arabic language. This book can also be easily used as a reference.

The first section of the book is an academic treatise on the linguistic system of Modern Standard Arabic vs. the Classical Arabic system vs. colloquial usage. It discusses pronunciation of Arabic using linguistic terminology and explains the various levels and registers of the usage of Arabic in a clear and concise way. It uses a mix of textual sources to explain the various kinds of Arabic one can find, including a list of ‘baby talk’ vocabulary heard in Greater Syria.

The vocabulary section offers ways to build one’s vocabulary in Arabic and illustrates several possible learning strategies. It further discusses the issue of one word in English as having multiple definitions in Arabic as well as one word in Arabic having multiple definitions in English, and how to treat these kinds of vocabulary words.

Additionally, this book deals with vocabulary in linguistic terms and gives examples of words that are homophones (words that sound similar but have different meanings and spellings) and homographs (words that look identical but differ in meaning). The book gives definitions of these words as they are discussed, as well as common examples in Arabic.

There are lists of words under topics such as geographical names, animals and their sounds (i.e. cat and meow), kinds of clothing, months in different countries, common Arab names in different parts of the Arab world, and so forth. These lists function as a useful reference guide.

The vocabulary section is the only section to include exercises, and these are sparse, there being only twelve exercises in the entire 338 page book. The exercises are meant as examples of how to employ various methods of learning vocabulary. The key to the exercises is found in Appendix 2.

The grammar section is meant as a reference for students who already have a basic understanding of how Arabic grammar works. It makes use of flowcharts and tables to explain some of the grammatical components of the language, and includes verb charts as an appendix in the back of the book.

The grammar section does not assume the reader has a wide knowledge of English grammar. It also includes the Arabic grammatical terms for nearly every grammatical example, which can be a good resource for the student looking to discover what a particular grammatical term is in Arabic. However, a basic knowledge of English grammar and linguistic terminology is helpful in understanding this section.

The chapter includes copious examples as well as lists of terms such as a fairly long list of feminine nouns without the ta’maarbuta ?. It also includes examples of common errors and the corresponding corrected sentences.

The grammar in this book is laid out in such a way as to be particularly helpful for those students looking for help in writing Arabic and constructing sentences on their own.

Additionally, there are two indexes, one in Arabic and one in English, under which one can look up a particular term if it is not easily found in the table of contents. These indexes are intended to look up grammatical terminology and less so for the other two chapters.

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