Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf [Book only]

461 Pages·2015·4.63 MB·English

by  Clive Holes

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COLLOQUIAL ArABIC Of THe gULf: The Complete Course for Beginners has urs T Q A r A B I C
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Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough gin U A
treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to ne L
communicate confidently and effectively in Arabic of the gulf in a broad range of rs f L O f T H e g U L f
situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
COLLOQUIAL ArABIC Of THe gULf is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth
of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular
The Complete Course for Beginners
practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and english
translations of dialogues can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists
throughout.
Clive Holes
Key features include:
• A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their
speaking, listening, reading and writing skills
• Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar
• An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises
• realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations
• An overview of the sounds of Arabic of the gulf

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, COLLOQUIAL ArABIC Of THe gULf is
an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses
in Arabic of the gulf.
Colloquials are now supported by free AUDIO available online. All
audio tracks referenced within the text are free to stream or download
from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. recorded by native speakers,
the audio complements the book and will help enhance learners’ listening
and speaking skills. ✔✔ Master the everyday
language
Cover photograph: Dubai
United Arab emerates Towers ISBN 978-1-138-95812-8 ✔✔ up-to-date cultural
© Peter Bowater / Alamy situations
www.routledge.com ✔✔ accessible and
9 781138 958128 thorough
Routledge titles are available as eBook editions in a range of digital formats
Colloquial
Arabic
of the Gulf
THE COLLOQUIAL SERIES
Series Adviser: Gary King
The following languages are available in the Colloquial series:
Afrikaans German Romanian
Albanian Greek Russian
Amharic Gujarati Scottish Gaelic
Arabic (Levantine) Hebrew Serbian
Arabic of Egypt Hindi Slovak
Arabic of the Gulf Hungarian Slovene
Basque Icelandic Somali
Bengali Indonesian Spanish
Breton Irish Spanish of Latin America
Bulgarian Italian Swahili
Burmese Japanese Swedish
Cambodian Kazakh Tamil
Cantonese Korean Thai
Catalan Latvian Tibetan
Chinese (Mandarin) Lithuanian Turkish
Croatian Malay Ukrainian
Czech Mongolian Urdu
Danish Norwegian Vietnamese
Dutch Panjabi Welsh
English Persian Yiddish
Estonian Polish Yoruba
Finnish Portuguese Zulu (forthcoming)
French Portuguese of Brazil
COLLOQUIAL2s series: The Next Step in Language Learning
Chinese German Russian
Dutch Italian Spanish
French Portuguese of Brazil Spanish of Latin America
Colloquials are now supported by FREE AUDIO available online. All audio tracks
referenced within the text are free to stream or download from www.routledge.com/
cw/colloquials. If you experience any difficulties accessing the audio on the
companion website, or still wish to purchase a CD, please contact our customer
services team through www.routledge.com/info/contact.
Colloquial
Arabic
of the Gulf
The Complete Course
for Beginners
Clive Holes
First published 1984
Reprinted 1986, 1992, 1994, 2000, 2004, 2005
by Routledge
This edition first published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1984, 2010 Clive Holes
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Holes, Clive, 1948–
Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf : the complete course for beginners /
Clive Holes. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. Arabic language—Dialects—Persian Gulf Region—
Grammar.  2. Arabic language—Dialects—Arabian Peninsula
—Grammar.  3. Arabic language—Textbooks for foreign
speakers—English.  I. Title.
PJ6853.H64 2009
492′.770916535—dc22 2009002438
ISBN: 978-1-138-95812-8 (pbk)
Typeset in Helvetica
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
Contents
Introduction ix
How to use this book xi
Pronunciation guide xvii
Unit 1 1
1.1 Expressions of quantity; 1.2 Orders and requests;
1.3 ʻPleaseʼ,ʼThank youʼ, ʻBe so kindʼ; Vocabulary; Cultural point:
The Gulf States and the GCC; Reading Arabic
Unit 2 10
2.1 The Arabic equivalent of ʻtheʼ; 2.2 The ʻdualʼ; 2.3 The plural;
Vocabulary; Cultural point: History (1): the Portuguese;
Reading Arabic
Unit 3 23
3.1 ʻHow much/How many?ʼ 3.2 Prices; 3.3 Numbers 1 to 10;
3.4 Greetings; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Food and cooking;
Reading Arabic
Unit 4 37
4.1 Simple descriptive sentences; 4.2 Noun-adjective phrases;
4.3 Some other types of adjective; Vocabulary; Cultural point:
Standard Arabic and Gulf Arabic; Reading Arabic
Unit 5 51
5.1 Numbers 11 to 1,000,000; 5.2 Age; 5.3 Telling the time;
5.4 Personal pronouns; 5.5 ʻWho?ʼ and ʻWhat?ʼ; Vocabulary;
Cultural point: Currencies, banknotes and stamps;
Reading Arabic
Review Unit I 69
vi Contents
Unit 6 73
6.1 Expressions of place; 6.2 The verb: past tense; Vocabulary;
Cultural point: History (2): the British; Reading Arabic
Unit 7 88
7.1 Past-tense verbs: verbs beginning with a glottal stop;
7.2 Past-tense verbs: ʻhollowʼ verbs; 7.3 ʻTo say that …ʼ;
7.4 ʻTo ask whether …ʼ; 7.5 liʼannʻbecauseʼ; 7.6 Expressions of
manner; 7.7 Further expressions of time; Vocabulary; Cultural
point: The Islamic Year; Reading Arabic
Unit 8 104
8.1 Noun phrases; 8.2 The elative adjective; 8.3 Word order;
Vocabulary; Cultural point: Building traditions; Reading Arabic
Unit 9 119
9.1 Past-tense verbs: ʻdoubledʼ verbs; 9.2 Past-tense verbs:
ʻweakʼ verbs; 9.3 Time conjunctions; 9.4 Ordinal numbers;
9.5 Months; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Traditional dress: men;
Reading Arabic
Unit 10 133
10.1 Relative clauses; 10.2 Demonstrative pronouns; 10.3
Demonstrative adjectives; 10.4 The negative in equational
sentences; 10.5 ʻSomebodyʼ and ʻnobodyʼ; Vocabulary;
Cultural point: Traditional dress: women; Reading Arabic
Review Unit II 150
Unit 11 155
11.1 The imperfect verb: basic forms; 11.2 The imperfect verb:
different stem types; 11.3 Review of verb forms; 11.4 The uses
of the imperfect; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Marriage: traditional
and modern; Reading Arabic
Unit 12 174
12.1 Verb strings; 12.2 The imperative: strong verbs;
12.3 The imperative: other types of verb; 12.4 The negative
imperative; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Driving; Reading Arabic
Unit 13 195
13.1 The active participle; 13.2 The passive participle;
Vocabulary; Cultural point: In the market; Reading Arabic
Contents vii
Unit 14 213
14.1 The derived themes of the verb (1); Vocabulary; Cultural
point: Football; Reading Arabic
Unit 15 233
15.1 The verbal noun; 15.2 Coordinated negatives; 15.3 Compound
adjectives; 15.4 ʻSelfʼ; Vocabulary; Cultural point: History (3): the
Indians; Reading Arabic
Review Unit III 250
Unit 16 255
16.1 The derived themes of the verb (2); 16.2 Conditional
sentences; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Tribes; Reading Arabic
Unit 17 272
17.1 Quadriliteral verbs; 17.2 ʻTo wish/wantʼ and ʻto preferʼ;
17.3 Verbs with double objects; Vocabulary; Cultural point:
Religion, sect and ethnicity; Reading Arabic
Unit 18 286
18.1 Diminutives; 18.2 Uses of ábuand umm; 18.3 ʻHow big!ʼ,
etc.; 18.4 ʻSo-and-soʼ; 18.5 Forms of personal address; 18.6
Exhortations; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Pearls; Reading Arabic
Unit 19 300
19.1 Verb strings involving kaan/yikúun; 19.2 More conjunctions;
19.3 ʻAs ifʼ; 19.4 Expressions meaning ʻI thinkʼ; 19.5 ʻSomeʼ and
ʻeach otherʼ; 19.6 Adverbs in -an; Vocabulary; Cultural point:
Arabiizi;Reading Arabic
Unit 20 316
Texts; Vocabulary; Cultural point: Colloquial poetry; Reading
Arabic
Answer key 326
Appendix 1: Variations in pronunciation 375
Appendix 2: The Arabic script 380
Gulf Arabic–English glossary 386
English–Gulf Arabic glossary 411
Introduction
Who is this book for?
This book has been written for anyone who needs to acquire a solid
working knowledge of the educated colloquial Arabic spoken in an area
extending from Basra in southern Iraq, down through Kuwait, Bahrain,
eastern Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. No
previous knowledge of Arabic is assumed. The emphasis is on the
acquisition of a workingknowledge; therefore, language items needed
at the major points of social contact between Gulf Arabs and Western
residents are given pride of place. Teachers, engineers, businessmen,
military personnel and others who need to be able to communicate in
spoken Arabic in schools, offices, shops, markets and the workplace
should find this book highly useful. Grammatical explanation is given
only where it serves some clarificatory purpose, and much of the book
is given over to examples and exercises of a type that the writer hopes
the learner will find relevant in coping with day-to-day living in the Gulf.
Some texts deal with the customs and beliefs common to the area,
and in each unit there is a Cultural point that gives further useful
background information on culture, society and history. There is also
a simple introduction to reading Arabic road signs, shop signs and other
basic types of ʻpublic textʼ written in Literary Arabic.
What is ‘Gulf Arabic’?
It is estimated that Arabic is spoken as first language by some 250–300
million people, living in a vast geographical area that extends from
Morocco to Oman along a west–east axis, and as far south as northern
Nigeria and southern Sudan. Pockets of Arabic speakers can be found
x Introduction
in such far-flung places as Central Asia and Zanzibar. Clearly, in such
a large area, there is bound to be considerable dialectal diversity,
comparable to the differences between what in Europe are considered
separate but related languages: Italian and Spanish, Polish and
Russian or Dutch and Standard German. The factor that unites the
speakers of this Babel of dialects is the Arabic literary language, which
shows relatively little regional variation, and is used for all written
communi cation throughout the Arab world. The subject of this book is
the educated spoken (not written) Arabic of one fairly large area – the
Arabian Gulf – in which, despite dialectal variants that may be specific
to the particular states that lie along it, there is such a commonality of
usage that it is possible to describe a single set of language forms that
will be completely understood in every part of it. This set of language
forms is what will henceforth be referred to as ʻGulf Arabicʼ – a variety
of Arabic that refers not so much to the Arabic spoken in any one state,
but to a variety that is increasingly used by Gulf Arabs from different
Gulf states when they converse with each other and with outsiders. In
its sound system, grammar and vocabulary, ʻGulf Arabicʼ represents a
kind of distillation of the common features of all Gulf dialects, while
avoiding the peculiarities of any one area. It also shows the influence
of Literary Arabic in its vocabulary, because its users tend to be
educated. From the foreignerʼs point of view, this type of spoken Gulf
Arabic is likely to be the most useful. Most of the data and examples
that were collected for this book come, in fact, from Bahrain – but,
where justified, a note of important alternative forms is made.
The Western resident will find that even a modest knowledge of Gulf
Arabic will hugely repay the effort expended to acquire it. The Arabs
are extremely proud of their linguistic heritage, and feel flattered and
impressed by Westerners interested enough to have tried to learn their
language. From a personal point of view, too, it is very satisfying to be
able to make sense out of the babble of unintelligible speech that
surrounds one from the moment of arrival at the airport. Apart from its
practical value, Gulf Arabic provides a good jumping-off point for the
further study of the Arabic language and its culture, should the learner
feel inclined. Linguistically, Gulf Arabic is relatively close to Literary
Arabic, while, culturally, what remains of Bedouin society provides a
modern-day insight into the values and social conditions that gave birth
to Islam.