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Arabic vocabulary - filling in the gaps | ||
Tags: Vocabulary learning | Arabic | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| ilanbg Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6192 days ago 166 posts - 189 votes  Speaks: French, English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (classical), Persian | Message 1 of 7 21 August 2010 at 5:03am | IP Logged |
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I've been studying Arabic for a few years now, have done immersive study abroad, and feel like I have a pretty
solid vocabulary and grasp of the language. At this point, I feel like the best thing I can do beyond my continuing language classes is supplementary vocabulary. I was wondering if anyone knew of the 100 most common words in Modern Standard Arabic (or, even better, 500 or 1000)? To make sure there aren't any obvious and important words I somehow failed to learn. Second to that, I'd also be interested in a list of the most common words in English (I can find the Arabic translations myself). And similarly: My goal is to develop a professional fluency with vocabulary specifically targeted toward politics (since, I am hoping to work in the Middle East through U.S. State Department within the next year). I realize that's a broad topic, so I suppose it could be rephrased as "media" vocabulary, i.e. vocabulary around topics regularly discussed in the media. Naturally, I'll continue reading/listening to Arabic media, but I'd also be interested in available resources for developing more specific vocabulary. (I already have The Top 1000 Words for Understanding Media Arabic by Kendall.) Edited by ilanbg on 21 August 2010 at 5:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Doitsujin Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5102 days ago 1256 posts - 2363 votes Speaks: German*, English | Message 2 of 7 21 August 2010 at 9:33am | IP Logged |
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Many older textbooks based their vocabulary on:
The Basic Word List of the Arabic Daily Newspaper by Moshe Brill (1940) A more recent Arabic frequency word list is: Frequency dictionary of modern newspaper Arabic by Wolf-Dietrich Fromm (1982) (AKA "Häufigkeitswörterbuch der modernen arabischen Zeitungssprache") Both are no longer in print, but many larger libraries have them. Routledge will publish a brand-new Arabic word frequency dictionary in November: A Frequency Dictionary of Arabic: Core Vocabulary for Learners by Tim Buckwalter, Dilworth Parkinson (2010) You might also find the the following book useful: Using Arabic Synonyms by Dilworth Parkinson (2005) Edited by Doitsujin on 21 August 2010 at 4:26pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| daristani Senior Member United States Joined 6926 days ago 752 posts - 1661 votes Studies: Uzbek | Message 3 of 7 21 August 2010 at 5:07pm | IP Logged |
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There are also some other books that might be helpful:
"Media Arabic" by Julia Ashtiany "Media Arabic: A Coursebook for Reading Arabic News" by Alaa Elgibali and Nevenka Korica "Advanced Media Arabic" by El Mustapha Lahlali "Let's Read the Arabic Newspapers" by Howard D. Rowland 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6701 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 4 of 7 21 August 2010 at 10:03pm | IP Logged |
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Modern Arabic Vocabulary Clinic
Build Your Arabic Vocabulary Pocket Arabic Vocabulary Arabic in a Flash Arabic Vocabulary Study Cards On-Line Egyptian Arabic Course Edited by translator2 on 21 August 2010 at 10:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| apparition Octoglot Senior Member United States Joined 6432 days ago 600 posts - 667 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), French, Arabic (Iraqi), Portuguese, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Pashto | Message 5 of 7 22 August 2010 at 1:26am | IP Logged |
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I suggest reading aawsat.com, daralhayat.com and aljazeera.net and make a list of the
words you don't recognize (or just look them up as you go). That's an easy way to find important, modern words for professional speakers of Arabic, because if you can't decipher the articles of a major newspaper, you aren't going to understand MSA very well when it's spoken to you, especially with respect to politics. Your own productive vocabulary, of course, needn't be so wide, but it's good to expose yourself to the possibilities. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ilanbg Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6192 days ago 166 posts - 189 votes Speaks: French, English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (classical), Persian | Message 6 of 7 22 August 2010 at 11:28pm | IP Logged |
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Those are all excellent suggestions. I have a lot of material now to explore.
Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ANK47 Triglot Senior Member United States thearabicstudent.blo Joined 6879 days ago 188 posts - 259 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (classical) | Message 7 of 7 25 August 2010 at 4:25am | IP Logged |
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With listening a lot of people learning Arabic have trouble spelling the word they heard so they can't look up its definition. That's why places where you can find a transcript along with the audio are best. Such places are GLOSS (gloss.dliflc.edu)and Weekly Training Events (wte.dliflc.edu/search.aspx). I have some transcripts from Al Jazeera on my blog as well.
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