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Arabic in bite-sized parts | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 1 of 152 17 January 2013 at 8:29pm | IP Logged |
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EDIT: This is a TAC 2013, 2014, 2015 log.
EDIT 2: This log can also be found at UniLang. EDIT 3: Goals: learn as much Arabic as possible before the end of the university year (late June), hopefully be able to read a short text by this time. Be able to converse freely in written form by the end of the year. Arabic has long held my attention – as I told a friend once, ‘I want to know what these pretty squiggles mean!’ And Google Translate allowed me to understand that a line of ‘pretty squiggles’ I got on my birthday meant Happy Birthday!, and to copy’n’paste a thank you. Once my Yemeni friend announced she will be giving Arabic lessons, I jumped at the chance. *** Before my first lesson, my knowledge of Arabic was limited to the following: · It looks pretty! · You write and read from right-to-left · Yemeni Arabic differs a lot from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) · It has that weird deep-in-the-throat sound · It has these neat word roots like k-t-b or m-t-b or whatnot *** Lesson 1, 6 Jan 2013 Arabic has 28 letters. Several of these are pronounced the same (kha and haa and ha; seen and saad; qaf and kaf). As if that weren’t bad, to my ears θaa and taa, as well as ðal and dal, sound the same. It’s a good thing Sarah knows IPA, otherwise I’d be completely lost – I’ve got 90 dB of hearing loss, and θ~t, ð~d sound the same to me. I learn some pronouns – all personal pronouns begin with A and all pronouns used for somebody not here begin with an H. Not that bad, especially since virtually all demonstratives begin with an H too. Numbers are neat, but I can’t remember them – except for sefr, khamsa, settah and sabaah, since 3 of these are similar to their European cognates. Sarah shows me a few phrases, but I only know 2: Ahlan and Al Salam Aleikom. Also, I learn about Al, which apparently works like ‘the’, and Sarah tells me a lot of Arabic surnames start with Al. (The thesis is quickly confirmed when I watch a handball match between Poland and Saudi Arabia). *** At home, I try to find a way of typing Arabic. I locate an Arabic font and install an Arabic keyboard layout and… and nothing. I press ‘w’ key and I DON’T get waw. Pissed off, I cancel Arabic keyboard and start some frenzied Googling. 20 mins later – success! I’ve found Intellark http://www.intellaren.com/intellark, which allows me to type in Arabic using Latin layout. I press ‘s’ key and I get seen, I press ‘s’ twice and I get sheen. Neat! Over the weekend, I practice typing. I can reliably type madrasah, and two personal names I’d already known: Khalid خالد and Mustafa مصطفيَ. I misspell Aisha every single time, before I realize it contains a hamsa and I give up, because I can’t find it in Intellark. I try typing Sabah alkheir to Sarah on FB and I misspell it (differently) three times. Also, I realize that I need to copy the alphabet on an A4 sheet, which I do on Wednesday. I run into Sarah a day earlier and she quizzes me a bit. The only phrase which escaped me was shukran. She was really impressed – and I haven’t had time to review beyond typing Mustafa or Khalid. New words Some words are missing, because the list is very long. (I cheated and used Google Translate to get some Arabic words, but for others I had to use Intellark from scratch) The order is IPA pronunciation - Arabic spelling - Meaning Al ال the Ahlan أهلا hello Al Salam Aleikum السلام عليكم welcome Marhaban مرحبا hi Sabah Alxeir صباح الخير good morning Masaa Alxeir مساء الخير good evening Shukran شكرا thanks Afwan افون you’re welcome Keif haluk كيف حالك؟ how are you? Ana bexeir أنا بخير I am OK Ila Al-leqaa إلًى اللقاء so long Maa Al-Salamah مع السلامة bye Ana أنا I Anta أنتَ you (male) Anti أنتِ you (female) Nahnu نحن we Huwa هو he Heya هي she Hum هم they (male) Hunna هنَ they (female) Sefr صفر zero Wahed واحد one Eθnan اثنان two Ðalaθa ثلاثة three Arbaah أربعة four Xamsa خمسة five Settah ستة six Sabaah سبعة seven Θamania ثمانية eight Tisaah تسعة nine Asharah عشرة ten Haða هذا this is Haðehi هذه this is (female) Haula هؤلاء these are Ðalika ذلك that is (male) Tilka تلك that is (female) Ila to Al-Madrasah المدرسة school Al-Mataam المدرسة restaurant Edited by Zireael on 30 December 2014 at 3:24pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 2 of 152 18 January 2013 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
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Lesson 2, 17.01.2013
A quick revision. I ask Sarah how to say ‘I don’t understand’ in Arabic. The topic for today seems to be Ma haða. I keep confusing miftah and maktab since they sound similar to me. Sarah jokes I must love books, since I learn qalam and kitab quickly. My favorite word is qamees – I think I discovered the origin of the Spanish word la camisa. The best part about today was learning how to spot individual letters in a word, and my homework is to dissect all new words. I’ve already done it. And oh yeah, I find out reading Arabic involves a lot of Guess The Vowel… New words (I cheated and used Google Translate to get some Arabic words, but for others I had to use Intellark from scratch) The order is IPA pronunciation - Arabic spelling - meaning. Ma haða? ما هذا What is this? Ahaða qalam? اهذا قلم Is this a pen? Hal haða qalam? هل هذا قلم Is this a pen? Law samaht لو سمحت Please La afham لا أفهم I do not understand La لا No Naam نعم Yes Miftah مفتاح key Maktab مكتب desk Qalam قلم pen Kitab كتاب book Qamees قميص shirt Nadʒm نجم star Sareer سـرِر bed Kursi كرسي chair Edited by Zireael on 24 February 2013 at 12:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 3 of 152 23 January 2013 at 2:27pm | IP Logged |
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I found a Polish website which has some useful information. The second link below the line contains Arabic lessons. A word of warning, the site has absolutely horrible colors.
Apparently, what Sarah called ‘the feminine marker’ ـة is properly called ta marbuta. And the vowel diacritics are called tashkeel and their names are َ fatha, ِ kasra and ُ damma. Also, a hamza ء can be supported by an alef, ya or waw. However, I’m still stunted when it comes to typing Aisha... Well, using this I can now type Ila إلًى and Ila Al-leqaa إلًى اللقاء correctly. And I found this which has some interesting info on pronunciation and writing, too. Using this, I can practice the pronunciation of khaa and the emphatic consonants ta, dad and saad. I tried dissecting some words I couldn’t type earlier… Ila إلًى ى ل &n bsp;إ Aisha عائشة ة ش &n bsp; ا ع What is the missing letter? It should be a hamza, but I can’t read it… And two new phrases I learned from Sarah via FB: أنا أكره الشتاء I hate winter ء ر &n bsp;ك أ ء ا &n bsp;ت ش &nbs p; ل ا ثلج snow ج ل &n bsp;ث Can’t find a good English-Arabic dictionary with pronunciation, so I don’t know how to pronounce these. *** For discussion on what version of Arabic I’m actually learning, see: this post 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4874 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 4 of 152 02 February 2013 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
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I really like the way you write your log! It's like getting some free Arabic lessons and it's fun to compare the words with Hebrew and Persian. Quite a few similarities.
Regarding guessing the vowel, my Hebrew teacher said it's kind of like doing crossword puzzles. I thought that was a nice way to put it :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 5 of 152 05 February 2013 at 5:02pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks!
Do you know how to insert a table or get rid of these &n bsp; ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 6 of 152 09 February 2013 at 9:51am | IP Logged |
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No lessons this week, will see about next week.
The only online dictionary with phonetics I managed to find: http://www.firdaous.com/en/0023.htm So now I know snow is talj and winter is sita’ Also, some links to loanwords lists I found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Arabic_loanwords_in_Eng lish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_of_Arabic_on_other_la nguages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_influence_on_the_Spanish _language 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 7 of 152 12 February 2013 at 6:57pm | IP Logged |
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I found this site, which is with 99% certainty the site Sarah used to find our textbook.
I can guess the topic of the coming lesson is going to be Man haða? مان هذا i.e. Who's that? I also did the two vocabulary tests for Lesson 1, without looking at my notes nor reviewing, and got 75% and 80%, respectively. One question, though: why does the online speaker append -un to EVERY word I click on? Qamees becomes qameesun and qalam becomes qalamun... EDIT: OK, now I know it's the tanween but how the heck is it supposed to clarify pronunciation, I have no idea Edited by Zireael on 18 February 2013 at 1:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4657 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 8 of 152 14 February 2013 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
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Installed Anki 2.0 and put in vocabulary from Lesson 1. I'll add vocabulary from further lessons tomorrow, after I come home from the doctor's.
How do I add a 'pronunciation' field in Anki? Right now, I've got Arabic words and their English equivalents... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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