Comments on: A song of freedom

By: Aziza

Aziza — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:00:40 +0000

Ahlan Thomas,
I think that you could hear both on Al-Jazeera. For example, if you listen to the news which written to be read, you should hear all the voweling, etc. However, if there is a speaker who is commenting or answering a question, then the degree of grammatical details they give will depend on their background and whether they use standard or colloquial in their answer. News readers and correspondents are expected to use Standard Arabic all the time even when they ask questions.
I hope this answers your question. If not, please write again.
Salam,
Aziza

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:58:10 +0000

Dear Aziza,
what is it I would hear on AlJazeera:
The boy drinks.
al-waladu yashrabu. – OR – al-walad yashrab.
The (2) men swim.
ar-rajulAni yasbaHAni. – OR – ar-rijAl yasbaHUn.
They (female) eat a sandwich.
hunna ya’kulna shaTIratan. – OR – hom ya’kulUn shaTIra.

Or something else in each case.

Thank you for your patience,
افلسطين الحرية
Thomas

By: Aziza

Aziza — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:17:02 +0000

Dear Thomas,
Thank you very much for your message and well done for all the hard work you have done to learn Arabic. I think that whether you learn things like dual and detailed conjugation tables depends on your aim of learning Arabic and which dialect. If you want to speak Arabic but not write it, then you can limit yourself to the grammar of the dialect you want to learn, e.g. Egyptian. However, if you want to write the language, then you must learn the detailed grammar of the written language. In my opinion, colloquials are more economical and more simplified versions of the standard, and you need to know both to have a good grasp of the language.
I have posted some information about dual and about conjugation in the grammar section. I think that I will also post on comparing the grammar of both Standard and Egyptian Arabic with a focus on pronouns and verb conjugations. I think that this will help you see the similarities and differences between both of them.
Please be careful about generalizations like dual and verb conjugations being obsolete in media Arabic. They are not! In fact, if you listen to AlJazeera or Al-’Arabeya or any other news outlet, you will listen to standard Arabic which observes all the aspects that you may think are obsolete.
If I have missed any point you raised, please let me know and I will write again.
Salam,
Aziza

By: Aziza

Aziza — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:04:52 +0000

Dear Fayrouz,
Thank you very much for the lovely comment. I am so sorry the link does not work. Please try to copy and paste the link in another browser page. I had to download it on my computer before I could play it. I prefer this one because the music is very nice. I am sure you will like it if you could get it to work.
Thank you very much for the youtube link. I will add it to the post.
salam,
Aziza

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:49:58 +0000

Dear Aziz,
I have a question concerning learning Arabic.
I`m studying completely on my own because I couldn`t find a course around where I live.
I recently completed the Michel Thomas method (Egyptian) Arabic Foundation and Advanced courses, MT is just great, makes Arabic sound less complicated then other languages I speak. Unfortunately the booklet only gives transliteration, no Arabic script.
But then I went for Rosetta Stone and in the very first lesson they throw homma (male and female) and hunna at me: yaqra`u, taqra`u, yaqra`Ani, taqra`Ani, yaqra`Una, yaqrA`na. No first and second person so far.
Also they pronounce all the case endings. (bintAni, waladun, mar`atul etc.)
I also have a self study course in German that goes to quite a good level and that course gives quite a differing, much reduced, verb table, almost identical to the one the MTMethod courses give (af”al, taf”al, taf”alEn, yaf”al, taf”al, naf”al, taf”alUn, yaf”alUn)
So my question is this: does it make sense at all to remember the dual and learn all those verb endings Rosetta gives me? Because from what I read elsewhere they are practically obsolete and are not even used in highbrow news media.

Thanks for your reply.