Learning Arabic as a first language

[Francis Hult]

The Daily Princetonian

 

Learning Arabic as a first language

 

Since I am a Princetonian studying in Cairo, part of my mission here is to improve my Arabic. Arabic is one of Princeton's most popular foreign languages, studied by Arab Americans, Wilson School students aspiring to be State Department officials and those who simply want to learn more about Arabic culture and history.

 

Arabic is a surprisingly diverse language spoken in hundreds of dialects, from the one made famous by Egyptian cinema to the Lebanese dialect used in many of today's pop songs to the Moroccan dialect that sometimes resembles French more closely than Arabic. There is a "standard" Arabic used in news programming and formal settings - known as "fusHa," or the "most eloquent" form of Arabic, which is derived from the Qur'an as well as from pre-Islamic literature. On the streets in Cairo, colloquial Egyptian Arabic is the spoken language, while standard Arabic is used in formal settings, in books and on TV.

 

Full story:

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2008/02/20/20163/

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