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Conversationally useful Arabic dialect? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5197 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 1 of 8 13 September 2010 at 11:34am | IP Logged |
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Before you answer, please read!
When I say "conversationally useful," I'm referring to a dialect's ability to be both understood AND to be able to understand another dialect. I DON'T simply mean how widely understood a dialect is. Egyptian is often cited as being the most widely understood dialect. However, suppose that although an Egyptian may be understood by speakers of other dialects, he cannot understand what they are saying. Someone speaking an Egyptian dialect is limited to only speaking with other Egyptians and the dialect is therefore less "conversationally useful" than it first seems. Moroccan Arabic is often cited as the most exclusive dialect. However, suppose that a Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian can carry on conversation. Moroccan Arabic is therefore more "conversationally useful" than it first seems... arguably more useful than Egyptian, since the number of Moroccan, Algerian, and Tunisian speakers is equal to or greater than the number of Egyptian speakers. So! My question is: Which Arabic dialect is the most "conversationally useful?" This can be answered in terms of the number of speakers than one can converse with, or the number of countries in which one can have conversation. Thanks! P.S. I know there can be no definitive answer. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5987 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese | Message 2 of 8 14 September 2010 at 10:09am | IP Logged |
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I can only add a short anecdote here, but it might be helpful. I used to have two Arabic speaking coworkers, one from Kuwait and one from Jordan. I asked them what they spoke with each other, and the Kuwaiti said that he could understand and speak the Jordanian/Lebanese variety of Arabic, so the two of them used that.
Unfortunately I have no idea if this was because he had commonly heard it before, or if it indicated some skill with languages (although honestly the Jordanian was much better at English than the Kuwaiti, so maybe he was better at languages). I know the sample size is too small for judgment, but it's left me with the vague impression that the Jordanian/Lebanese dialect would be better to learn than Gulf Arabic. Hopefully someone with much more knowledge of the matter can confirm or deny this. Edited by doviende on 14 September 2010 at 10:10am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ANK47 Triglot Senior Member United States thearabicstudent.blo Joined 7098 days ago 188 posts - 259 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 3 of 8 15 September 2010 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
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Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, and Palestinian are all more or less mutually intelligible (as long as the speakers don't go into too much slang). If you add all of those together do you get a population bigger than that of Morocco, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia?
No matter what the answer is I would suggest you learn Egyptian or Syrian/Lebanese. You'll have a lot more media to keep you motivated and interested in the language, plus they are arguably more Arabic than the Moroccan dialect. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| glavkos Triglot Newbie Greece glavkos.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5239 days ago 13 posts - 15 votes Speaks: Greek*, English, Esperanto Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 8 15 September 2010 at 12:57pm | IP Logged |
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@Ank47 That is very useful because I had my first steps in learning Arabic and had decided to do Egyptian. I am glad that you confirm that it was right. Thanks a lot.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6273 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 5 of 8 15 September 2010 at 1:50pm | IP Logged |
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I would suppose that conversational dialects situated at about the middle of the Arabic-language area would tend to be most widely comprehensible. So Egyptian and Levantine Arabic might both qualify, and not be too different from one another either. Whereas the varieties present at the geographical extremes (Moroccan to the west, Iraqi to the east) would definitely be excluded.
The trouble with Arabic dialects generally is that it is often the common words that change from dialect to dialect. Words for foods, time expressions, ("yesterday" and "tomorrow" vary a lot from dialect to dialect), that kind of thing. More abstract vocabulary is close to the literary standard and does not change. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5197 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 6 of 8 15 September 2010 at 3:03pm | IP Logged |
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Thank you all for the response! Very informative.
Alright, so my real reason for this and several other recent posts in this forum is that I am considering learning Moroccan Arabic... as in going there to live with a host family and study. This thread and others are all trying to validate that decision, haha. I speak Spanish, and currently live in the middle of nowhere Thailand (have been for nearly two years). Learning Thai has been great, but I know that once my time is up here, I will have very, very, VERY little opportunity to speak Thai. I want to learn Arabic, but fear having another language that sits on the backburner never being used. Morocco being right across from Spain seems like the right opportunity to learn a dialect of Arabic that, with a little work, can be frequently maintained along with my Spanish. Anyone want to tell me, "good idea?" Haha, that's basically what I'm looking for. Or any thoughts on the plan... I would still like to see what others think is the most conversationally useful dialect of Arabic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nebojats Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5197 days ago 89 posts - 120 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Thai Studies: French, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Italian | Message 7 of 8 15 September 2010 at 3:07pm | IP Logged |
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I also wonder...
For anyone who is studying or speaking Arabic out there... If one learns Egyptian or Levantine dialect, is North Africa linguistically inaccessible? It seems that way from what I've gathered on these forums. I recently read in the New York times that in U.S. colleges, the number of students studying Arabic is skyrocketing. Will any of these future Arabic speakers be able to get along in the Maghreb? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| WH2010 Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5173 days ago 13 posts - 52 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 8 27 September 2010 at 4:35am | IP Logged |
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Nebojats,
I speak a dialect from the eastern part of the Arabic world. When two people from Morocco converse, I understand almost nothing. However, I am still able to communicate with Moroccans myself. This is because Moroccans slow down their speech and speak in a more "eastern" prosody when speaking with easterners. However, this may not be possible in rural or isolated areas of Morocco. Hope that helps. 4 persons have voted this message useful |
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