Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log (Now Levantine Arabic, MSA and French)

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Doitsujin
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby Doitsujin » Thu Aug 18, 2016 3:54 pm

I wish you good luck with your studies!

Here are two websites that you might find helpful:

1. Fuzzy Arabic dictionary (look up Arabic words phonetically)
2. Arabic Elixir FM Online (noun/verb analysis/inflection etc. )
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Expugnator
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9931
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby Expugnator » Thu Aug 18, 2016 11:19 pm

LadyGrey1986 wrote:Today I had a small crisis of faith. I am a little jealous of the people in this forum who read books, binge-watch series in their target languages like nobody's bussiness after one or two years of studying. I have the sinking feeling that I can understand more of an average Spanish newsarticle than of an Arabic text, despite never having studied Spanish in my life. Not that I am belittleling the efforts of those who study Spanish!


Don't be. Arabic and Spanish are two wholly different games. After 4 years of Georgian or Russian or Mandarin I can't binge-watch series or read novels quickly as I would in Italian after three months of study. Romance and Germanic languages are transparent or semi-transparent languages with a lot of common vocabulary which allows you to study from the source after few months of study, while languages further away require you to learn nearly all the required vocabulary before you are able to get the gist of a novel or a TV series.
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LadyGrey1986
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Fri Aug 19, 2016 5:50 pm

This made me laugh today

Image

The text says: This text has no other purpose than to terrify those who're afraid of the Arabic language"

Full disclosure: I haven't made the translation myself.

As far as studying goes, I have completed the first two chapters of Al_Kitaab. I still haven't started working with my frequency dictionary. :shock:
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Doitsujin
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby Doitsujin » Sat Aug 20, 2016 11:18 am

LadyGrey1986 wrote:The text says: This text has no other purpose than to terrify those who're afraid of the Arabic language"
Full disclosure: I haven't made the translation myself.
It you analyze the original Arabic text, you'll find out that it's slightly more poetic:

لا يوجد أي هدف لهذا النص إلا نشر الرعب في نفوس من يهاب اللغة العربية

It'd also make for a good textbook example sentence, because it features several frequently taught concepts in a single sentence:

1. Iḍāfa (genitive construction): نشر الرعب
2. Exceptions with إلا
3. Relative sentences with من
4. "Hollow" verbs: هو هاب / يهاب

BTW, this particular bag was created by Haifa print shop Rock Paper Scissors. Here's a better image:

Image

BTW, you might also find the legendary free DLIFLC grammar “All The Arabic You Never Learned The First Time Around" (pdf link) by James M. Price helpful.
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LadyGrey1986
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Wed Aug 24, 2016 11:08 pm

Summer has arrived late in the Netherlands and we are experiencing a mini heat-wave. I am still working on my Arabic though!
On Tuesday, i had my weekly skype session with my tutor. We dealt with telling the time and days if the week. This is actually pretty straight-forward in Arabic. Sunday is موم الاحد ( joom al-a7ad or the first day), Monday is the second day and so on). There are two exceptions
Friday is يوم الجمعة (day of the gathering, refering to fact that Friday is the holy day for Muslims and people gather in mosques to pray. Saturday is يوم السبت, which comes from the sabbath.

I have started to notice three important differences between Damascene dialect and MSA:
- the qaf ق disappears and becomes a glottal stop. Caveat: people from the Tartous/Latakkia muarea do pronounce the ق
- Syrians use مو (mu) to negate sentences without a verb and not لا
- I want is bidi and not ureed.

Mid-session, I blurted out "d'accord". Heaven knows why.
That is all folks!
Last edited by LadyGrey1986 on Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:47 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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LadyGrey1986
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Tue Aug 30, 2016 9:45 pm

As it Tuesday again, time for a little update. This week, life intervened as far as learning languages is concerned. I am going back to school to become......a teacher of Dutch as a second language. I have no experience in teaching, so it is quite a leap..
Nevertheless, I decided not cancel my weekly skype session. We started with a little chat about my favourite movie, which I hadn't prepared as well as I should have. We also covered giving directions and demonstrative pronouns in Syrian Arabic...
As for as vocabulary goes, I am focussing on the vocabulary from my Syrian Arabic a Functional Course as well as additional words provided by my tutor during my sessions. My frequency dictionary will have to wait..
For MSA, I will start with All the Arabic You Never Learned The First Time Around. According to its introduction, even those working full time should be able to finish Part 1 in 5 days. We shall see said the zen master..
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LadyGrey1986
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Tue Sep 06, 2016 4:41 pm

Unfortunately, it looks like I will have to cancel my weekly Levantine session. My computer screen just won't function. And I am not sure wether I like the idea of doing skyping with my smart phone.

I have nothing special to report. I am still working through my courses. I am half-way the second chapter of Syrian Arabic A Functional Course. I am now learning how to give directions.
I am also working on the third chapter of the first part of All The Arabic. I am hoping to finish Part 1 (5 chapters) this week. All the Arabic is a great tool, even though it is obviously catering to an American audience. One of the drill wants you to write down the names of the American Vice-President, the minister of Defence and the minister of Foreign Affairs. I also find the author a bit condescending about the abilities of learners of Arabic as a second language. I can understand what an Idaafa is, thank you. It may be tongue-in-cheek, but it is wearing thin after a while. Last criticsm: it starts with explaining cases. I really wonder why. Colloquial Arabic drops the word endings used to indicate cases, as do most Arabs when reading a text in MSA.
Nevertheless, the grammar is presented in a very concise and clear manner. Still recommended!
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LadyGrey1986
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Wed Sep 07, 2016 6:28 pm

Today, I am suffering from wanderlust, I am very interested in the MENA region, Farsi/Persian has been on my hitlist for a long time. Since my course to become a teacher will only start next month, I have decided to give Farsi a try and see how it goes, This is what the Arabic Student has to say about it:

[url]Even though Persian and Arabic are not in the same language family, because of the Arab occupation of Iran along with Islam about 30-40% of the words in Persian are either Arabic words or derived from Arabic roots.[/url]

Moreover, knowing Persian will give my a headstart in understanding Iraqi and Gulf dialects.
Does anyone have some free resources to recommend me? Is FSI Persian any good? Unfortunately, I don't have the financial means to take Italki lessons for Farsi.
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby A Callidryas » Wed Sep 07, 2016 7:20 pm

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LadyGrey1986
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Re: Ahlan wa Sahlan on Lady Grey's Language Log

Postby LadyGrey1986 » Wed Sep 14, 2016 8:21 pm

Today is worth a little update. I have finished the first part of All of the Arabic. This part basically explains all the grammar except for the verb system. I defintely feel like I have learned a lot. I wasn't able to complete it in five days though!
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