Arabic-L:PEDA:Gulf Materials Responses

[Dilworth B. Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 13 Mar 2000
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1) Subject: Gulf Materials Reponse
2) Subject: Gulf Materials Response

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1)
Date: 13 Mar 2000
From: Mutarjm at aol.com
Subject: Gulf Materials Response

Greetings to all / yaa halla biljemaa3.

Today is Thursday, March 9, 2000.

Following are main points from my earlier response to the inquirer.

Re your post on the Arabic_L.

If you could send me some background, I can furnish some reference citations
on descriptive and introductory materials on the Emirati dialect.

A few follow below, with comments.

The Emirati dialect has probably the closest-available related materials
around (minus some ancient and horribly-transliterated items prepared locally
by some of the oil and natural gas companies operating in Qatar since the
1970s).

Here are some items that first come to mind:

o  Hamdi Qafisheh's paperback textbooks (four) on Gulf Arabic (GA), some with
accompanying audiocassete tapes. Available from the University of Arizona
Press (Mixed reviews by other readers and usefulness, but authentic Emirati
voices are on the tapes.)

o  Hamdi Qafisheh's recent "Dictionary of Gulf Arabic," published by the NTC
Press.

(A piece of work afflicted by an awkward transliteration and other
compilation methods used. Available from amazon.com, but a dubious investment
of money and brain cells, in my opinion as a Gulf Arabic dialectologist.)

His earlier dictionary / lexicon of GA, published in Lebanon, is reportedly
easier, while smaller.

o  Clive Hole's "Spoken Arabic of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf (textbook and
with one audiocassette tape). Available from amazon.com

o  Clive Hole's book "Gulf Arabic."  A sound and descriptive work; written
for a linguist, so of limited usefulness for general self-study.

o  There is a new (due for release in April 200, I think) paperback (two
authors) forthcoming from UK entitled something like "Learn the Arabic of the
Gulf." It's been mentioned recently to me, but I have not seen it. Details
are forthcoming. Apparently similar to the Berlitz series of traveler's
phrasebooks.

o  Bruce Ingham's jewel of a slim paperbook entitled "The Simple Guide to
Customs and Etiquette in Arabia and the Gulf States," contains a number of
suitable politeness exchanges and deference expressions for the most-likely
social and formal occasions.

o  Sir Donald Hawley has several good books out on the "Customs and
Courtesies of the Arabian Gulf," with emphasis on Oman, since he was HM's
ambassador there in the early1970s.

--  While both editions of Hawley's work are now out of print, they are well
worth your finding and borrowing via interlibrary loan. I am away from my
office, so I can't retrieve the ISBNs and publisher data right now.

There also are a few good (albeit pedantic and plodding) works in the Russian
and the German on Gulf Arabic dialects.

If you have any special questions about Qatari, I can ask some Qatari
graduate students at universities where I teach.

Hope this helps you in your search.

Khair, in sha' Allah.

Regards from Los Angeles,

Stephen H. Franke

E-mail: < mutarjm at aol.com >


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2)
Date: 13 Mar 2000
From:  John Leake <J.E.S.Leake at durham.ac.uk>
Subject: Gulf Materials Response

A few more Gulf Arabic materials.  In addition to The Clive Holes 'Gulf
Arabic' mentioned before, the classic work is Johnstone's "Eastern
Arabic Dialect Studies" which describes the Gulf dialects as a whole and
separately in some detail, including Qatari.  However, it is over thirty
years old.  Clive Holes wrote a teaching grammar of Gulf Arabic,
"Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia", in 1984, which I
used.  I found it very useful indeed.  The dialect is a pan-Gulf dialect
tending towards the Bahraini dialect (but 'educated', distinguishing Dad
from Za', etc.).  The new Teach Yourself I've only glances at, but it
seems good.  It has the undoubted advantage of being up to date.  Hamdi
Qafisheh's teaching books are, if I remember correctly, particuarly
based on the Abu Dhabi dialect of Emirati.  His dictionaries are,
however, more widely sourced.  The Holes and the Smart books both have
cassettes available - remember to order the Smart 'Teach Yourself' book
_with_ cassette as unlike the Holes 'Colloquial' book, I don't think the
cassette is available on its own.

Holes, C.  1984.  _Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia._
Routledge and Keegan Paul, London.

Johnstone, T.M.  1967.  _Eastern Arabian Dialect Studies._  Oxford
University Press, Oxford

Smart, J.R.  1999.  _Teach Yourself Gulf Arabic._  Teach Yourself Books,
London/NTC Publishing Group, US

Qafisheh, Hamdi A.  1998.  _NTC's Gulf Arabic-English Dictionary._  NTC
Publishing Group, U.S.
  Comprehensive(ish) vocabulary.  Words in _dialect_ root order.

Qafisheh, Hamdi A.  19??  _Glossary of Gulf Arabic_  Librairie du Liban,
Beirut
  Older than the above and not as complete, but Arabic words in order of
transliterated word, not roots.  Accessable by students not learning
arabic script.

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End of Arabic-L: 01 Feb 2000