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How do my Arabic friends communicate? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| osaieh Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5936 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 9 07 July 2009 at 11:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hello all, I'm curious about something. I have a couple of friends who are native Arabic speakers. One is Egyptian, one is Saudi I believe, and 2 are Moroccan. I hear them speaking in Arabic to eachother all the time, and they don't seem to have any difficulty understanding eachother at all. But it is my understanding that each of these groups speak a different dialect of Arabic, some being so different that they aren't mutually intelligable (I'm mainly refering to the Moroccans vs the other two).
I even heard my Egyptian friend comment once about when she heard one of my Moroccan friends speaking to her parents, saying that the Moroccans "killed the language" and that she could barely understand what they were saying. So the logical assumption would be, since they can't understand eachothers dialects, that they were speaking to eachother in MSA. But I've also heard that most Arabs can't or don't like speaking in MSA, and would rather speak English or French if possible. Well they all can speak English (although to varying degrees), but when together they generally choose Arabic. So I want to ask your opinions. Do you think that they're speaking MSA or their dialects? Maybe certain ones are speaking their dialect while the others speak MSA? I would ask them, but I'm not sure they would understand the question. What do you think is most likely? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6368 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 9 08 July 2009 at 12:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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From my understanding, Egyptian Arabic is a popular language/dialect to learn even in other Arabic-speaking countries because a lot of music and movies come from Egypt. I think (but don't know for sure) that Saudi Arabic is mutually intelligible with Egyptian Arabic, so your Moroccan friends must have been using an Eastern dialect to be able to carry on a conversation.
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| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5811 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 3 of 9 08 July 2009 at 1:29am | IP Logged | |||||
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Is there any reason you can't ask them? I suspect the previous poster is correct, but I'd be interested in a definitive answer.
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| osaieh Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5936 days ago 14 posts - 14 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 9 08 July 2009 at 1:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I suppose I can try to ask them, I just don't know if they would understand what I was talking about, since most native speakers don't tend to know much about their own language lol.
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| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6259 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 5 of 9 08 July 2009 at 3:30am | IP Logged | |||||
I know what osaieh means. Yes, they will probably not understand the question. Even if they understand it, they will not answer it correctly, because if they are not linguists, they will be mostly unaware of how do they speak. osaieh, to answer your questions, first I should quote this from a previous thread:
When Moroccans and Egyptians meet, they would usually speak in the closest form of their dialects to MSA. They would avoid the peculiar words. If an American with Southern dialect is speaking with a foreigner in English, would he use words like "buggy", "jitney" or "trolley" to refer to the shopping-cart? But some peculiar words is mutually intelligable to most Arabs. For example: Egyptians say: 'ayiz aruuh el bayt (I want to go home) Levantines say: baddi ~ ~ ~ Saudis in Hijaz (Western dialect): abgha ~ ~ ~ Saudis in Najd (Central dialect): abi ~ ~ ~ Hadhramis: baghait ~ ~ ~ Yememnis: ashti ~ ~ ~ Omanis: areed ~ ~ ~ or baghi ~ ~ ~ Sudanis: dayer ~ ~ ~ Moroccans: bghit ~ ~ ~ or bghi ~ ~ ~ Whatever word you use, the vast majority of Arabs will understand it, but usually will use their equivalent word. So it is not uncommon to hear a conversation like this: Sudani: shunu dayreen tishrabu? &nb sp; (what would you like to drink?) Saudi: ana abi aseer burtugal. aish tabi? (I want orange. What do you want?) Egyptian: ana 'ayiz tuffah (I want apple) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 6 of 9 08 July 2009 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Broadly speaking, Maghrebi forms of Arabic (including Moroccan) are said to be very different from those found further east. I found this account interesting that even then, some communication is still possible.
Sometimes, with languages with very wide dialect variations, speakers from different areas seem to strip out the most blatant features of their own dialect, to ease communication. This is not just the case with Arabic but seems particularly common there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6259 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 7 of 9 08 July 2009 at 6:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, they are different, but communication is possible for this reason: If you have a good understanding of literary and less frequent Classical Arabic words, you can easily see how all dialects are derived from Classical Arabic. For example, in the Jordanian dialect if you want to say "I want to go" you say "biddi arooh". Of course, this is different from classical which would be "ureedu an athhab." However, the "biddi" comes from "b-widdi" (which is kind of like "in my desire") and the "arooh" is one of the Classical Arabic ways to say "to go." You can see the connection to Classical. In Moroccan: "bghii namshi." It's completely different, but it is still derived from Classical! The "bghii" comes from form VII of the verb "b gh a" and the "masha" in Arabic means "to walk" and thus has acquired the meaning "to go." They are all based on classical Arabic. So that's why speaking one dialect will make it much easier to pick up and understand the others. But if a foreigner learn a dialect, he may not be able to understand the other distant dialects? why? Because he is not familiar with Classical Arabic which most Arabs are familiar with, through the Quran, the Hadiths, and the medieval literature and poems. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| icing_death Senior Member United States Joined 5861 days ago 296 posts - 302 votes Speaks: English* | Message 8 of 9 08 July 2009 at 6:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hashimi, I thought you said one could understand the Quran if they understand standard arabic. Wouldn't that mean knowing standard would serve the same function as knowing classical in regards to aiding communication between different dialects?
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