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Dialects of Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Paskwc Pentaglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5523 days ago 450 posts - 624 votes  Speaks: Hindi, Urdu*, Arabic (Levantine), French, English Studies: Persian, Spanish | Message 25 of 69 22 February 2010 at 2:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Aqua,
I would say that Gulf and MSA would suffice in your case. Gulf would allow you to manage most of the informal things you would face and MSA should help you in a professional setting. Whatever remaining gaps could be plugged by either English, which you already know. Also, you may be surprised as to how little Arabic you need to know in order to live in the Gulf. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aquablue Senior Member United States Joined 6228 days ago 150 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 26 of 69 22 February 2010 at 3:01am | IP Logged | ||
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How similar is Gulf to MSA? Are they mutually intelligible?
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| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5412 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 27 of 69 22 February 2010 at 8:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I disagree with Saif, learning a dialect first would only harm any possibility of learning MSA.
MSA is a standard language so you can understand the structure and the grammar no matter how hard it is, simply cuz it's structured...but dialects are not organized, and i can speak in hundred different way in dialect and verbalize any word in the world which would confuse any foreigner. We won't look at foreigners speaking MSA in funny way, actually it would be funnier if he speaks some dialect. My advise is to learn MSa first, know the structure, the grammar and everything, and then at that time you can learn pretty much any dialect simply cuz you know the roots and the basics of the language and you can twist and verbalaize any word. Edited by Kinan on 22 February 2010 at 9:32am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5412 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 28 of 69 22 February 2010 at 9:22am | IP Logged | ||
If you know MSA you would understand Gulf easily after hearing it for little time. The Gulf dialects as any other dialect has new words that MSA and other dialects speakers don't know like "وايد" which means "a lot" "كثيرا"...also the pronouncation and the way of talking is different but can be understood after training the ear for some time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5657 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 29 of 69 22 February 2010 at 9:23am | IP Logged | ||
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A couple of points. First of all, I think the Italian-Portuguese-Spanish-Romanian paradigm is actually pretty accurate IF you add in one more aspect -- take it back a few hundred years to a period when most educated romance language speakers also had a reading knowledge of Latin. Does that make sense? Yeah, Romanians can't just talk to Spaniards without either changing languages. But Romanians and Spaniards who both know a some Italian and can read Latin probably can communicate pretty well. The same is true with Maghribyiin and Lebanese who both have some familiarity with Egyptian from the media and can read MSA.
Second, if there's one thing I've learned for sure in the last year, it's that one should definitely start with MSA. It's simply a matter of resources. Arabic in general does not suffer from an overabundance of quality study materials, and the situation is simply pathetic for most of the dialects. For Egyptian and Syrian, there are a few good courses (and even they tend to be rare or expensive or both), and beyond that there is very little at all. MSA is not as good as French in this regard, but it certainly beats the dialects easily. Take my word for it, I learned this the hard way. Finally, to chucknorrisman: I think the most important differences are phonological. Qaf becomes Hamza, Jeem becomes Geem, the vowels do all sorts of crazy stuff, and in general the sound of the language is very different. There are also lots of grammatical differences. As with (I believe) all of the dialects, the case and verbal aspect system disappears. Negation is very, very different, and the nuances of the verb system are quite different as well. Active participles are used much more, and of course, lots of vocabulary comes from the Coptic substratum. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5294 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 30 of 69 22 February 2010 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why would it hurt to study Egyptian dialect before MSA? It would definitely be easier to go from MSA to dialects, but I don't see how the vice versa can hurt, I think it can only help a bit..
"We won't look at foreigners speaking MSA in funny way, actually it would be funnier if he speaks some dialect. " I see... My purpose in learning Arabic has more to do with traveling and culture, though. Aren't ordinary people more comfortable with dialects? Or would the situation kind of be comparable to a Japanese or an Italian tourist in America speaking AAVE? I definitely will get to MSA after I finish a dialect, but I just thought learning a dialect would make the learning curve easier. Edited by chucknorrisman on 22 February 2010 at 1:00pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| aquablue Senior Member United States Joined 6228 days ago 150 posts - 172 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 31 of 69 22 February 2010 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Vernacular American English is the majority dialect in the USA, not AAVE. So, you can't compare in this sense, given that Egyptian, etc.. are majority dialects.
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| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5412 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 32 of 69 22 February 2010 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | ||
There is no harm in trying your way, after all if you love learning a dialect first then go for it, atleast it would be a good motivation. Keep us with updates and good luck. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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