I keep getting confused between
عند (used for possession) and
هناك ("there is"), because in Hebrew the single word יש has both of these functions. But I think my experience with Hebrew is still doing more good than harm. For example, I saw the word
ذهب ḏahab, meaning gold, and once I remembered that the Proto-Semitic consonants *ḏ and *z are merged in Hebrew I instantly memorized the Arabic word, because the Hebrew word for gold is זהב (zaháḇ).
An important thing to note is that Tiberian Hebrew does have a ḏ sound but that is the soft version of ד (daled) that comes after a vowel unless the consonant is doubled; this ḏ sound is completely unrelated to the Proto-Semitic consonant *ḏ that is preserved in Arabic. It is only a coincidence that they sound the same.
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I'm making pretty quick progress on the
Ahlan wa Sahlan workbook. I may finish it by the end of the year after all. There isn't much vocabulary in the last two chapters and I just put the twelve new vocabulary words for the last chapter into my Anki deck. The beginner textbook has 24 chapters. They seem a bit more involved than the Workbook chapters. I don't know how long it will take me to do each one but it would be cool if I could get through the beginner and intermediate textbooks in 2021. If I can get through a chapter a week and the intermediate textbook isn't much longer than the beginner textbook, that should be doable.
I ended up ordering a copy of Assimil's
Perfectionnement Arabe. It was pretty expensive because I think the advanced books are all out of print except for Business English, but I think it will be worth it. At 70 lessons, it is almost as long as the beginner's course (which has only 77 lessons). I am too tired to get through an Assimil lesson some nights but I am still making steady progress. I'd say it takes me three real-time weeks to get through two weeks of Assimil lessons. I have just over 17 weeks of lessons left including the Advanced course; at my current pace that should take me about six months.
Pimsleur is going very slowly without a commute. I am only completing a couple of lessons a week at the moment. But some progress is better than none. Once I'm taking the kid to daycare again, I should be back to my usual rate of 4-5 lessons a week.
On the other hand, I'm half-way through the Duolingo course after less than two months of total work, so I should be done with it by the end of February.
I'm hoping that I can start working in DLI Basic Arabic once I'm done with Duolingo. It has over 50 hours of audio, which is more than the length of three levels of Pimsleur. However, Pimsleur audio is completely self-contained; 45 hours of Pimsleur Audio take 45 hours of work. But DLI is not self-contained. I will need to use Anki to memorize vocabulary and possibly dialogs as well. So those 50 hours of audio will likely correspond to 100 or more hours of total work.
I want to start working on Levantine Arabic as I finish my MSA resources. When I finish Assimil, I'm thinking of getting
Speaking Arabic by J. Elihay after seeing a very positive
thread about it here. I may see if I can get my hands on the French version instead since that was the author's native language. I have a thing for reading in the original when possible.
There is also a DLI Syrian Arabic course. It has just over 30 hours of audio, not quite as long as the Basic Arabic course but still substantial. I'm not sure if I'll get around to it, though, because I think I want to switch to Hebrew as soon as I'm done with all of my MSA courses.
Speaking Arabic and Pimsleur Eastern Arabic can be done concurrently with my longer MSA courses because they will replace shorter courses.
Of course, all time estimates depend on me not getting distracted and switching to another language. My track record suggests that I'm not likely to avoid this, but we'll see how it goes.
Progress-o-Meter™عربي : Pimsleur MSA
: Duolingo Arabic
: Assimil
L'arabe : Ahlan wa Sahlan Workbook