MODERN STANDARD ARAbic - Playaway

SIMON & SCHUSTER’SPIMSLEUR MODERN STANDARDarabicreading booklet

Travelers should always check with theirnation's State Department for currentadvisories on local conditions beforetraveling abroad.Graphic Design: Maia Kennedy and ‰ Recorded Program 2012 Simon & Schuster, Inc. Reading Booklet 2012 Simon & Schuster, Inc.Pimsleur is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio,a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Mfg. in USA.All rights reserved.

acknowledgmentsMODERN STANDARD ArabicVoicesEnglish-Speaking Instructor . . . . . . . . . . . Ray BrownArabic-Speaking Instructor . . . . . . . . . . . . Alex TamerFemale Arabic Speaker . . . . . . . . . . . Gheed MurtadiMale Arabic Speaker . . . . . . . . . Mohamad MohamadCourse WritersDr. Mahdi Alosh Marie-Pierre Grandin-GilletteEditorsShannon Rossi Mary E. GreenReviewerIbtisam AlamaEditor & Executive ProducerBeverly D. HeinleProducerSarah H. McInnisRecording EngineersPeter S. Turpin Kelly SauxSimon & Schuster Studios, Concord, MAiii

table of contentsReading LessonsIntroduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Arabic Alphabet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Reading Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arabic Alphabet Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Diacritical Marks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .136810Lesson One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Lesson Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Lesson Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Lesson Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Lesson Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Lesson Six . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Lesson Seven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Lesson Eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Lesson Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Lesson Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Lesson Eleven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Lesson Twelve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Lesson Thirteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Lesson Fourteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Lesson Fifteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Lesson Sixteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Lesson Seventeen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Lesson Eighteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Lesson Nineteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Lesson Twenty (with diacritics) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Lesson Twenty (without diacritics) . . . . . . . . . . . 34iv

MODERN STANDARD arabicIntroductionModern Standard Arabic (MSA), also known asLiterary or Standard Arabic, is the official languageof an estimated 320 million people in the 22 Arabcountries represented in the Arab League. Arabic isthe fourth most-commonly-spoken language in theworld, and it is one of the six official languages ofthe United Nations.MSA is derived from Classical Arabic, whichis the language of the Qur’an (the holy book ofMuslims) and other early Islamic literature. ClassicalArabic and MSA share almost the same grammarand sentence structure, as well as much vocabulary.MSA, however, has evolved over time and droppedsome of the more archaic words and phrases and hasadded new technical and scholarly vocabulary as thetimes have changed.Modern Standard Arabic is the written languageused for all Arabic books, newspapers, street signs,magazines, official documents, and business-relatedmaterials. Because all Arab children learn ModernStandard Arabic in school, and because most Arabshave exposure to MSA through media, print,religious practices, and certain work-related or socialsituations, most educated Arabic speakers are ableto use MSA as a lingua franca to communicate withone another regardless of their nationality or spokennative dialect.

MODERN STANDARD arabicIntroduction (continued)There are two variations of MSA: the writtenand the spoken. Written MSA is largely the samethroughout the Arab world, while the spoken canvary based on geographical location, usage, context,and regional dialect. It should be noted that spokenMSA has more grammatical license than writtenMSA, as speakers tend to drop grammatical endingsin their speech. In our course, you will sometimeshear the endings and sometimes not. This reflectscurrent usage, which tends to be variable and particular to the speaker and / or situation. While MSAhas no native speakers of its own, most educatedArabs can speak, read, and understand MSA.Because MSA is used for writing and in formalor specific situations, Arabic speakers use their firstlanguage, or native dialect, in most situations whenconversing informally or casually. Often, dependingon the situation, speakers of the same dialect canbe heard to switch between MSA and their nativetongue, mixing the two languages while speaking.This usage of two different varieties of the samelanguage, used in different social contexts, is knowas diglossia.2

MODERN STANDARD arabicThe Arabic AlphabetThe Arabic alphabet dates back to pre-Islamicperiods and has been adopted as well by neighboringcountries whose language is not Arabic, such as Iran,Afghanistan, and Pakistan.The Arabic writing system is easy to learn andmaster because the Arabic alphabet has a highcorrespondence between sound and symbol. Thismeans that a letter is pronounced almost the same inevery word position.The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters in additionto the hamza (glottal stop) and two variants ofexisting letters (alif and taa’). A number ofdiacritical marks complement the alphabet. Theseare signs written above or below the letters; they arelisted on page 10, after the alphabet chart.There are two categories of Arabic letters. Thefirst category contains “one-way connectors” becausethey connect only to the “preceding letters” orletters to the right. They do not connect to “followingletters” or letters to the left. These are: ا د ز ر ذ و ى ء The remaining letters of the alphabet constitutethe letters of the second category. They connectto both preceding letters (to the right) and follow3

MODERN STANDARD arabicThe Arabic Alphabet (continued)ing letters (to the left), hence the term “two-wayconnectors.”The alphabet contains three long vowels: – ا alif (/aa/) – ي yaa’ (/ii/) – و waaw (/uu/)The latter two function as consonants as well –“w” as in “wet” and “y” as in “yes.” There are threeshort counterparts of these vowels, pronounced abouthalf as long, represented by diacritical marks: fatHa ( َ ) Damma ( ُ ) kasra ( ِ )A tiny circle written above a consonant is calleda sukuun ( ْ ) and it represents the absence of avowel. In addition to these marks, there is a set ofdouble fatHa, Damma, and kasra. The short vowelsand their doubled version serve two purposes: (1)accurate pronunciation, and (2) grammatical marking, indicating cases and definiteness of the noun,and moods of the verb.The mark that resembles a tiny “w” is calledshadda ( ّ ). If this mark is placed over a consonant,it doubles the consonant sound. For example,4

MODERN STANDARD arabicThe Arabic Alphabet (continued)if this mark is placed over the letter “t” in sita, itmakes the word pronounced /sit-ta/ rather than /sita/.Its effect on the pronunciation of the consonant issimilar to the “k” in “bookkeeping.”A complete listing of the Arabic alphabet hasbeen included for your reference, beginning on page8. Each letter has four possible different representations, depending on its position within a word: anindependent form, as well as a beginning, a middle,and an end form. Initial - the first letter of the word startingfrom the right; Medial - all the letters in the middle; and Final - the last letter of the word, on the left.This listing is to be used only as a guide since allof the necessary information for beginning to readin Arabic will be given in the audio portion of theReading Lessons.5

MODERN STANDARD arabicReading LessonsIn these Reading Lessons you will learn to recognize and sound out the letters of the Arabic alphabet,starting with the letter alone, then combinationsof letters or short words, then progressing to wordcombinations and short phrases, increasingly building in length. The Arabic alphabet is systematicallyintroduced and you will learn to associate eachletter with the sounds of the Arabic language. Youwill not, at first, be reading for meaning, but rather forsound-symbol correlation. Eventually, when thesound system is mastered, you will be able to look atknown vocabulary and read for meaning.The reading items in the lessons have been selectedespecially to give you practice in Arabic sounds andsound combinations. Your vocabulary acquisition willbegin after you’ve learned the new, different soundsystem. You should read aloud, as directed. Theprocess of saying the words out loud will reinforceand enhance your Arabic language acquisition andwill help lodge the sounds of the Arabic language inyour memory.Some of the words and phrases you will read aretaught in this course, but many are not, and --- especially in the early lessons --- a number of them aresimply syllables rather than actual words. Actualwords are used more and more often as the num6

MODERN STANDARD arabicReading Lessons (continued)ber of letters introduced increases, and in the finallessons you will be understanding much of what youread.There are twenty Arabic reading lessons recordedat the end of the program. You may choose to do thereadings along with the units, starting with Unit 11,or all together after completing the course. If youare not already familiar with the Arabic alphabet,you may at first find that it takes some time to associate the appropriate sounds with each letter and/orgroup of letters. Therefore, we recommend that youtake the Reading Lessons at your own pace, repeatingeach until you feel comfortable proceeding to thenext. With a little effort, you will be astonished athow quickly you are reading Arabic.7

MODERN STANDARD arabicArabic Alphabet Chart(Read from right to left.)FinalPosition ـا ـب ـت ـث ـج ـح ـخ ـد ـذ ـر ـز ـس ـش ـص ـض ـط Medial InitialPositionPosition ـا ـبـ ـتـ ـثـ ـجـ ـحـ ـخـ ـد ـذ ـر ـز ـسـ ـشـ ـصـ ـضـ ـط ا بـ تـ ثـ جـ حـ خـ د ذ ر ز سـ شـ صـ ضـ ط 8Name dhaalraa‘zaaysiinshiinSaadDaadTaa‘ ا ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط

MODERN STANDARD arabicArabic Alphabet Chart (continued)(Read from right to left.)FinalPosition ـظ ـع ـغ ـف ـق ـك ـل ـم ـن ـه ـو ـي ـى ـة ـؤ - ـأ Medial InitialPositionPosition ـظ ـعـ ـغـ ـفـ ـقـ ـكـ ـلـ ـمـ ـنـ ـهـ ـو ـيـ ـئـ Name Letter ظ Dhaa‘ ظ عـ ’ayn ع غـ ghayn غ فـ faa‘ ف قـ qaaf ق كـ kaaf ك لـ laam ل مـ miim م نـ nuun ن هـ haa‘ ه و waaw و يـ yaa‘ ي - alif maqSuura ى - taa’ marbuuTa ة إ - أ hamza ء 9

MODERN STANDARD arabicLessonOneDiacriticalMarks(Read from right to left.)Name inTransliterationsukuunSound Letterno vowel follows, above the letterfatHaْnoneَashort vowel, above the letteruDammashort vowel, above the letterikasrashort vowel, below the letterُِّnoneshaddaindicates a double consonant, above the letter10

MODERN STANDARD arabic Lesson One 1. ا 11. را 2. دا 12. دار 3. داد 13. راد 4. دادا 14. راذ 5. ذا 15. دارا 6. داذ 16. رادا 7. ذاد 17. رادار 8. داذا 18. زا 9. ذادا 19. زار 10. ذاذا 20. زاد 11