|] TEACH YOURSEL RABIC P| R. Smart s a complete course in written and spoken Arabic. you have never learned Arabic before, or if your rabie needs brushing up, Teach Yourself Arabic is for nu, Teach Yourself Arabic is unique. Jack Smart explains erything clearly along the way and gives you plenty of portunities to practice what you have learned. The aded structure means that you can work at your own ice, arranging your learning to suit your needs. The urse contains: A detailed introduction to the Arabic script and pronunciation Units introducing and explaining the basic constructions of Arabic Further units of dialogues, reading passages, notes on gulture and more functions of Arabic ction on Arabic numerals __ BE sisos =o (guided learning —with more than 30 million win ii | vies sold workdwide—the Teach Yourself series | * fades ver 200 titles inthe fields of languages, ey fs ts spr ander ese svc hie oMreosactes7sn0 i 1S8N 0-1 Hes s7si-s | Ml : 4g 6 6 i a a a g az 5 5 = 5 5 ARABICARABIC J. R. Smart TEACH YOURSELF BOOKSTomy Mother and Father Long-renowned as the authoritative source for self-guided learning - with more than 30 milion copies sold worldwide ~ the Teach Yourself series includes over 200 titles in the fields of languages, crafts, habhias, sports, and otter lesoes activities. Brtish Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Smart, J. R. Arabic. — (Teach yourself books) 1. Arabic language. — Grammar L Title 4971782421 P6207 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-B0895 First published in UK 1986 by Hodder Headline Pic, 338 Euston Road, London NW13BH Aiet published in US 1992 by NTC Publishing Group, 4255 West Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood (Chicago), linois 60846 ~ 1975 US A Copyright © 1986 J. R. Smart {n UK: Al rights reserved, No par ofthis publication may be reproduced or {ransmited in any form or by any means, electronic of Mechanica, wekcng Bhotocopy, recording, of any information storage and remove seen thout permission in writing from the publisher or under leer forthe Copyright Lice {@brogrephic reproduction) may be obtained trom the Copyrignr ven ‘Agency Limited, of 90 Tottenham Court Rood, London Wik ape Pesca ights reserved. No part ofthis Book may be reproduced, stored in a mochenit, OF transmitted in any form, or by any means, electone, Puspanieal, Photocopying, or otherwise, without prior permission Putas photocopy ‘without prior permission of NTC ‘Typeset in Malta by Interprint. Printed in Groat Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading, Borkshire, First published 1986 Reissued 1992 Impression number 20 19 18 17 Year 1999 1998 1997 1996 Contents (A reference guide to the structure of the course and the grammatical content of the units) Introduction ‘The Arabic Script and Pronunciation 26 indefinites. Adjectival phrases. Numerals 1 to 10. Word shape ClaCiC?. 35 uit 2 . Veruaoeal sentences. Proper nouns. Pronouns. Question-mark eee mean art tences. Word shape C'aaC?iC*. 42 Unit 3 | Gender and sex. The feminine ending. Plurals’ of inanimates. Agreement of words. Prepositions. “There is’ and ‘There are’. Word shape maC'C?uuC?. 49 Unit 4 Demonstratives. Singular demonstratives. Demonstratives with nouns. Adjectives with demonstrative-noun phrases. "This is @ and ‘This is the...” type sentences. Word shape maC'C?aC, Telling the time. Unit 5 58 Possessive constructions. Pronoun suffixes. The feminine ending in Possessives. Simple possessives. Adjectives with possessive con- structions. Indefinite possessives. Demonstratives with passessives Word shape CluC?uuC?. Unit 6 _ eae Root consonants and word shapes. The three-consonant root. Roots, word shapes and meaning. Notation of the roots. Phonetic nature of the roots. Analysis of word shapes. Using a dictionary.vi Arabic Unit 7 The Arabic verb. The past tense. Subject pronouns. Word order and agreement. Agreement of verbs coming after their subjects The verb with pronoun suffixes. Particles used with the past tense. Words beginning with vowels. Unit 8 ‘The verb ‘was/were’. The accusative marker. Simple ‘X was/were YY" sentences. The negative verb laysa — ‘is/are not’. X became Y" sentences. Equational sentences with “inna. kaan with other verbs "He had done... Word shapes muC!aC?C4iC?, muC*aC?C?aC? and taC* CHIC? Unit 9 Plurals; general principles. The internal plural. The external (suf- fix) plurak masculine and feminine. Agreement of adjectives in the plural. Plural personal pronouns. Plural of the demonstratives. Dual nouns and adjectives. Dual verbs and pronouns. Word shape C'aC?C?aaC’. Unit 10 Formation and translation of the present tense. kaan with the present tense. The future. Variations of the present tense. Negative particles governing the present tense. Prepositions with the pro- noun suffixes. Word shape C'uC?aC¥ad’ Unit 11 The Muslim festivals. The Islamic calendar. Question words. How to say ‘to have’. Thematic sentences. Unit 12 The oil age. Forming adjectives from nouns. Comparative and superative adjectives Use of comparatves and superlatives ‘Unit 13 The Islamic conquests. Relative clauses. Relative pronouns. “Some, ‘all’, ‘each’ and ‘every’. Numerals 11 to 99. Unit 14 ‘Arab sovial structure. regular nouns. Conjunctions. “Still and ‘almost Unit 15 ‘At the airport. Greetings and modes of address. Giving orders. Irregular imperatives, Negative commands — ‘Dont... Vocative 4 85 96 Mt 124 138 150 167 180 Contents Unit 16 ‘Arabic literature. The passive of the verb. Rules for forming the passive. Unit 17 ‘Abu Nuwas and Harun al-Rashid. Conditional sentences - “If X, then Y', Masculine plurals and duals in possessive constructions. Unit 18 ‘Tourism in Egypt. Adjectives of colour and physical defect. Exhortative verbs. Appendices 1 The Arabic Verb Table 1: Prefixes and suffixes 238 Table 2: Verb stems, participles and verbal nouns deriving from sound roots 240 Table 3: The doubled verb 245 Table 4: First-weak verbs 248 Table 5: Hollow verbs 251 Table 6: Third-weak verbs (third radical waaw) 254 Table 7: Third-weak verbs (third radical yaa’) 256 Table 8: Third-weak verbs (third radical waaw or yaa’ with i- characteristic) 258 Table 9: Third-weak verbs: derived forms 260 2 The Arabic Numerals 3 Internal Plural Shapes 4 Hints for Further Study Key to the Exercises Arabic ~ English Vocabulary vii 197 22 235 236 262 266 270 an 299Acknowledgments T should like to acknowledge with gratitude the help and en- couragement over the years of all my teachers, colleagues and friends who have contributed indirectly to the writing of this book. In particular I should like to thank the Professor and staff of the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, especially Dr R. el-Enany who spent many patient hours in discussion, made innumerable valuable suggestions and checked all the Arabic texts. My special thanks are also due to my wife Frances and daughters Mairi and Kirsty for their unfailing support and encouragement while this book was being written. IRS Introduction ‘The Arabic taught in this book is the written and officially spoken means of communication between over 100 million Arabs of some twenty nations stretching from the Atlantic coast of North Africa in the west to the Sultanate of Oman in the east and from Syria in the north to Sudan in the south. It has existed without major change since the seventh century ap and the continuous literary output of this long period is one of the greatest achievements of civilised man. This is a self-teaching book, not an Arabic grammar in the traditional sense, and the aim throughout has been to bring the student up to the standard where he or she will be able to read a newspaper with the aid of a dictionary and converse with educated ‘Arabs in the literary language which serves as a lingua franca between Arabs from different countries. To make this task easier, some liberties have been taken with traditional Arabic grammar which may alarm the purists, both ‘Arab and European. As you will soon be learning, Arabic is written in a so-called ‘defective’ script. This means (among other things) that the short vowels are not written. Now many of the grammatical endings of the noun and the verb are, in fact, short vowels and consequently do not appear in print. Knowing what they are is, therefore, an academic exercise for, being absent, they cannot contribute to the meaning. Feeling that Arabic is difficult enough for the beginner without hhis being asked to learn unnecessary rules and facts, I have ruthlessly pruned all such grammatical paraphernalia from the text of this book and mentioned them only in passing in footnotes. Once the basic structures of the language bave been learned from this book, the full grammatical apparatus can easily be tacked on by the student with academic leanings. Reference to two excellent traditional grammars is given in the hints for further study in Appendix Four.2 Arabic How to use this book ou will find that the Units in this book vary considerably in length. This is because the material has been arranged logically, cach unit up to Unit 10 dealing with a specific compartment of Arabic grammar and sentence construction. By the end of Unit 10, all the basic constructions of the language have been taught, and Units 11 to 18 fil in the gaps by means of illustrative texts dealing i grammatical points being Picked out in analyses and special sections. Vocabulary is kept tos minimum in the earlier lessons, and there is much repetition of Words in the exercises. Note that these exercises have been in- troduced at specific points within the units, and they should be done as and when instructed. Do not attempt to get through whole unit at a time; rather, read the material and do the exercises for cach section, then review the whole unit when you have finished. This is a self-teaching course, and it is essential that each fit is thoroughly mastered before you go on to the next. Although full cross-references are given, nothing is repeated. Your plan of study should go something like this: ‘The Arabic Script and Pronunciation This introduces the Arabic fript, which is much simpler than it first looks. Obviously you will have to learn this thoroughly before proceeding, and many practice exercises are given. Pronunciation is dealt with, but of course this is much easier to pick up if you have access to’a native speaker. If you can get hold of one, listen to him and ignore the written instructions which are at best a poor substitute for the real thing. Units 1-10 These are all structured in the same way: First, there is set of sentences and/or phrases which illustrate the the unit, and not just those in the initial text. Since Arabic 's slaoct {ever Printed with the vowel signs, the policy of this book has bees to give them only in the vocabularies (and in a few difficult Introduction 3 i . his is up to you the texts). What you do about t! situation ad that you will eventually have to read unvowelled (eee) It you can read the vowelled vocabularies and 1 ca el the sound of the words, so much the bette. aoe aay a know in the text, anc f words you do not knot Cihihehe ey ae kien ema et Alte the Rat Tew units, transliterations of the tests are given in the Key al the end of the book. itis ied that you its 11-18 These are set out differently, as it is assum eae firm grasp ofthe basic structures of the language. Each ord a ed by a lis ha text, followed by 2 ot y The neat sien i I translation of the text into ‘The next section is a literal translati ; Sat pl gin English which follows the Arabic word for word as far as possible. You are asked as an exercise 10 convert thi into : and a the Key. idiomatic English, and a version is given in ; Gina grammatical points occurring a teens ae te picked analysis, and special sections are devoted to com sai: portant features Some information about Arab life and Society are given in the Background to Text sections i Id have r indices deal with matter which woul seeened too muct yeace within the Units oF which could nat te learned inductively. The most conspicuous example isthe Arabic | grammar books verb, I have found that most traditional the i i half, then have to devote test of Arabic grammar in te fist ha then have to ly not muc hole of the second half to the verb. This is ot : fun, and very resriotive on the choice of texts, so here the verb has been relegated to separate tables, each with its own set of expla: ming the two tenses are, natory notes. The basic rules for forming s are, of i he recommendation is that eac course, given within the units, and U painion ata type of verb encountered should be looked up i s (reterences are given), and. time deveted to learning. the con ations by heart as you go along. Other topes covered inthe appendices are the numerals, wich af dificult to use correctly, and the internal plral and is most common patterns. There is also a stction recommending tionaries and books for further study.The Arabic Script and Pronunciation Basie characteristics 14 Arabic, whether handwritten, typed or printed, is cursive, i.e. the letters (with certain exceptions noted below) are joined to each other by means of ligatures. There is no equivalent in Arabic of the separate, independent letters used in European type-faces. There are no capital letters, and punctuation presents no difficulties as the conventions have been borrowed from European sources. 2. The script is written from right to left, and consequently books and magazines begin on what looks like the back page. The numerals, on the other hand, are written from left to right, in the same way as European numerals (which are derived in varying forms from the Arabic signs). 3. In learning the script, it would be very helpful to appreciate the underlying principle that each letter has what we shall call a ‘mecleus form, ie. an essential basic stem. This nucleus form is a concept useful only in learning the script, as in practice it only ‘occurs in the case of six specific letters which by convention do not Join to the letter which follows them. The rest of the letters always appear with one or more of the following features: (q) a ligature joining them to the preceding and/or following letter (6) if at the end of a word, a final ‘lourish’ This is best illustrated by an example, for which we shall take the letter which has the sound of English s in ‘sit’ Nucleus form ww With both preceding and following ligatures au With one ligature and final flourish Separate (after a non-joining letter) Cp from the above it should be obvious that the basic part of the “ter, the nucleus which represents the sound ‘sis the basic three Pronged formas, so the ligatures and final flourish are extraneous.The Arabic Script ard Pronunciation 7 tek 6 Arabic separ eee ‘Transliteration It is quite easy to draw a parallel with European handwriting: form showing both ligatures > = kh Nucleus form d te With both ligatures . a With one ligature and final flourish a 1 The only difference is that in the European system the nucleus 3 . dh forms occur quite freely in print and typescript, while in Arabic they do not, as even type-face is only an adaptation of the . r handwritten form and still cursive, 2 I g = 2 4. With the exception of the first letter alif, all the Arabic letters 2 — a are consonants, Alif and the vowels (which are not considered as s letters of the alphabet) are discussed separately on pp. 13-15 and “ga 18. The Arabic alphabet is given in its traditional order, which s sh ‘ should eventually be learned so that dictionaries may be consulted. yo Alphabet table yee s | Note that transliterations are Eny letters, combinations of v D letters or special signs used to represent Arabic sounds for learners. wr ‘These are fully discussed in the section on pronunciation on pages > T 9-12. To simplify the table, a separate form is given for each letter, | showing the final flourish, if any. This may, when required, be . DH joined to a preceding letter with the same ligature which is used on 2 the nucleus form. . ‘Arabic Separate Nucleus form ‘Transliteration ee name form showing both ligatures pap gh alif | Ll (See page 18) ce bat Lod) b a ‘ ~. ” { 3 4 aa’ os t a ; \ k a oo th J iim i m Had’ = H8 Arabic Arabic Separate Nucleus form ‘Transliteration name oa showing both ligatures mun J 0 ae ee bh wand ig 5 v yaa’ ~s— + y (hamza) % (See page 18) 0 Notes to alphabet table: 1 The letters marked with an asterisk (*) do not, by convention, join to the letter which follows them, 2 The letters :« uyn, ghayn and haa’ Present some difficulty in isolating a nucleus form. In the former two (which are identical except for the dot), the ‘gap’ between the horns of the letter by given is medial, ie. for use in the middle of a word, 3 In material printed in North Africa, you will sometimes find the faa’ with one dot below, and the qaaf with one dot abone 4 The separate/final form of the yaa’ can be written with or without the two dots (see page 21), ‘As in any cursive writing system, slight variations in the ligatures and the Position of the letters relative to the line of script cceus ip various type-faces and even more so in handwriting. None of these should present any difficulty, but the following standard combina- tion of laam and alif, which is always used, should be learned: Separate Joined (to preceding letter only) SS _y The Arabic Script and Pronunciation 9 Pronunciation of the consonants bic consonants are very difficult for Europeans to SO A es canal te attempt accurate pronunciation, Prperwise you will be unable to distinguish between words whos Gutccnce in trating, depeads, for Inman on the dition ee futween Hand b, D and @ ete. Obviously, as in all ageoeee the best thing t0 do is enlist the aid of a native speaker. If his onunciation varies from the instructions given below, as it may ell do, depending on which part of the Arab world he comes from, suopt his system and imitate his sounds. The ear, in this case, is much more useful than the eye. Some reference has been made in the following notes to English dialects and the more familiar European languages. This is done in the hope that you might find it easier to get hold of a Scotsman or a Spaniard than a Lebanese or a Libyan! Group One The following are pronounced more or less as in English: vd jt Jl S ¥ (es) et Fh (shoe) sm ci of on od sk 3 Ww (was) Group Two ‘These occur in English, but care must be taken: thas in ‘think’, ‘through’, ete. (not as in “this, ‘these’ > dhas the English th in ‘the’, ‘that, ‘then’, The dh transliteration has been used to distinguish this sound from the preceding one (th). This is important in Arabic, 5.38 in ‘sip, ‘pass’, etc. ~ not the z-sound of s in ‘these’, ‘pins’, ‘feeds’ and so on. 2h is the ordinary English f-sound in ‘house’, ‘behind’. In English this sound often disappears (‘vehicle’, vehement’), but in Arabic it must always be sounded, even in such positions as sahm (sah-m), shibh (shib-h).