Arabic-L:PEDA:which dialect discussion

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 08 Mar 2007
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:which dialect discussion

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1)
Date: 08 Mar 2007
From:"Ahmed Farrag" <ah_farrag at hotmail.com>
Subject:which dialect discussion

The best method to learn Arabic as a foreign language

As an educator,I am always asked about that.
The only way to answer this is to answer another question: what do  
you want to do with Arabic? Is your goal to read a newspaper?  
Scholarly journals? The Qu’ran? Do you want to chat with people in  
the Arab world? If so, in which country?
If you are interested in the printed word, you should study Modern  
Standard Arabic. If you are interested in reading the Qu’ran, you  
should study Qu’ranic Arabic . If you want to talk to people about  
everyday subjects such as their lives, their jobs, or their opinions,  
you will need to study Colloquial Arabic. Despite what people may  
tell you, it is possible to study both MSA and colloquial Arabic at  
the same time.

No matter what flavor of Arabic you decide to study, lay out your  
goals for the short and long term. This will help you chart your  
progress. Don’t worry about the curriculum of a school or a  
university. If you are reaching your own goals, then you’re making  
concrete progress in Arabic. Those goals may change as you learn more  
about the language and Arabic culture.

What’s the best colloquial dialect?

Wherever you travel in the Arabic-speaking world, the people will  
tell you that their dialect is the purest and closest to Classical  
Arabic. All of the dialects have evolved beyond Classical Arabic, and  
these differences are heard most often in everyday speech.

Television and movies have made the Egyptian dialect the most widely  
understood throughout the Arab world.If you speak colloquial  
Egyptian, you will probably be understood by many Arabic speakers—but  
this does not mean that you’ll understand them. As someone wrote, an  
Egyptian might be able to go to Gulf and talk about politics or  
literature, but he might have problems if he went to a store and  
asked for a loaf of bread. There seems to be some major groups of  
colloquial Arabic:

Egyptian (possibly including the Sudan)
Maghrebi, used in the North African countries of Morocco, Tunisia,  
and Algeria
Levantine, used in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine
Gulf Arabic, used in the Emirates, Kuwait, possibly Saudi Arabia (?)
- Iraqi

Here’s how you’d say “how are you?” to a man on the street:
Egyptian: izzayak?
Levantine: keefak?
- Iraqi: shloonak?

I have no idea about the dialects spoken in Yemen, but I hear (of  
course) it’s close to Classical Arabic.

Ahmed Farrag BA, MA
AFL Sr. Lecturer
http://arabic-private-tutor.faithweb.com

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End of Arabic-L:  08 Mar 2007