elysandler Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5406 days ago 22 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English*, French Studies: Latin, Spanish, Russian
| Message 1 of 69 17 February 2010 at 1:05pm | IP Logged |
Hello Forum,
So, I want to try to start learning Arabic, but I'm confused as to which dialect to learn, and furthermore as to how
unintelligible each would be to the other. I think that the most useful to me, and the one that would give me the
greatest opportunity to converse with native speakers is that spoken in Palestine - but how far doe that extend to?
Are there different Michelle Thomases to do? Or Pimsleurs? Is "Palestinian Arabic" even a real thing - do people in
the West Bank and Gaza speak the same language? Do they speak the same language as Egyptians, Lebanese etc?
Help1
Thanks
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Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish
| Message 2 of 69 17 February 2010 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
I suggest you start learning MSA Arabic as you have to learn it at some point anyway, and then you can feel inside yourself what dialect to choose.
For me, i find all other dialects strange and funny, even the one in Damascus, so they all vary from city to another and not from country to another.
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elysandler Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5406 days ago 22 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English*, French Studies: Latin, Spanish, Russian
| Message 3 of 69 17 February 2010 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
But you can understand people who speak other dialects? I'm just looking to understand what the differences are. Is
it like Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese (quite similar) or French and Haitian French (harder to understand)?
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Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish
| Message 4 of 69 17 February 2010 at 2:10pm | IP Logged |
Not all of them, for example i can't understand any word of Morrocan and Tunisian and even Algerian dialects, they are like a whole new language.
Egyptian is understood after hearing it for a while and the same goes for Gulf dialect but they look so unattractive to me, while Lebanese,Jordan and Palestinian dialects are completly understood with some differences in words and the way of speaking.
So it's a matter of taste, you should listen to all dialects and decide which one of them suits your ear and which one you fall in love with.
Edited by Kinan on 17 February 2010 at 2:11pm
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Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish
| Message 5 of 69 17 February 2010 at 2:14pm | IP Logged |
And like i said before, dialects change within the same country.
In Syria there are 14 cities and each city has its own dialect,some are extremely different to others.
For example i find the Damascus dialect very wussy, and Latakia's dialect very funny and unsexy, while in Homs they add the letter "o" to the second letter in all words.
"edited"
Edited by Kinan on 17 February 2010 at 2:16pm
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elysandler Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5406 days ago 22 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English*, French Studies: Latin, Spanish, Russian
| Message 6 of 69 17 February 2010 at 2:23pm | IP Logged |
Do you know of any good resources - online, audio or otherwise - for learning Arabic?
Thanks for all your help.
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Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish
| Message 7 of 69 17 February 2010 at 2:35pm | IP Logged |
Frankly no, it's not my target language so i didn't look for such things but i am sure if you search the forums you will find tons of resources.
Good luck.
Edited by Kinan on 17 February 2010 at 2:36pm
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Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5568 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish
| Message 8 of 69 17 February 2010 at 2:39pm | IP Logged |
One last thing, no matter what dialect you choose to learn you can still make yourself understood to thers and understand them by using MSA, and this is why i am suggesting you start with MSA. All schools in all Arabic countries use MSA in teaching and so everyone knows it.
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