Prof_mu3allim

Here is a demonstration he did at Harvard https://youtu.be/wS_-7B1FAbE

Some of the calligraphy fonts he mentioned are in this pic:

https://www.hajinoordeen.com/browsegallery

To be or not to be? Arabic simply said :bugs-no: to verb to be :gigachad-hd:

Yes, we don’t use verb to be (in the present tense).

 

In Arabic, we have two types of sentences:

If a sentence begins with a noun (or pronoun), that’s a nominal sentence.

If a sentence begins with a verb, that’s a verbal sentence.

 

Let’s talk about the nominal sentence. It refers to the present tense, and does not require verb to be. It consists of two parts:

مُبتَدَأ

mubtada’ the subject of a nominal sentence (literally means the noun that starts the sentence)

خَبَر

khabar the predicate of a nominal sentence “the comment”. The word also means a piece of news.  

Examples:

أَنتَ أَحمَد

You [are] Ahmad ‘anta ‘aHmad

 

عَلي سَعيد

Ali [is] happy عalii saعiid

 

More examples

هَذا كَلب

This [is] a dog hazaa kalb

الكَلب سَريع

The dog [is] fast al-kalb sariiع

 

Arabic doesn’t have an indefinite article fyi.

Think of it this way: when you read or hear a sentence that begins with a noun, that is a "setup" and so you'd just wait for the "punchline" i.e. the predicate (خبر, comment, news).

This means you can express a lot in Arabic without knowing any verbs :cool-bean:

 

Verbal sentences:

 

A verbal sentence starts with a verb, and has this basic word order: verb + subject + object or complement.

فَتَحَ الكَلب الباب

The dog opened the door fataHa al-kalb al-baab

 

كَتَبَ الوَلَد اِسمه

The boy wrote his name kataba al-walad ‘ismh

 

More examples

وَجَدَ الكِتاب

He found the book wajada l-kitab

وَجَدَت الكِتاب

She found the book wajadat al-kitab

   

Choose the correct answer

خَ + ل + م + مَ + ف = ؟

1) جَلممَف

2) خَلممَف

3) خَاممَف

4) خَلمَّف

Transliterate your answer.

man manna min mannin munna min l-mannaan

 

Some natives might have trouble understanding it even with the diacritics

This   ّ   is called shadda, it's written above a consonant to indicate that it's doubled. What that actually means is that the consonant should be double the length in pronunciation, e.g.:

فَهَّم

fahham to explain (make someone understand), pronunciation

 

spoiler

The shadda happens when a consonant occurs twice without a vowel in between. And it changes the meaning of the word of course.

 

Here is a calligraphic writing of the tongue twister in riq3a

 

Who wants to learn about the remaining two short vowels?

Let's talk a bit about the verb aspect of the root system:

Being a Semitic language, Arabic has a derivation system, whereby from a single root (defined as a three-letter combination), you can derive a whole array of related meanings. So from the root 3-l-m علم we get the verbs 3alim عَلِم (to know), 3allam عَلَّم (to teach), اَعلَم a3lam (to inform), ta3allama (to learn), ista3lam اِستَعلَم (to inquire).

Furthermore, the way each of these verbs is related to the basic root 3-l-m علم also helps with vocabulary acquisition. So whereas 3alima (to know) is the simple form verb, 3allama عَلَّم (to teach) is a 2nd form verb (the middle root letter ل l is doubled), and we use the 2nd form for causation. So literally 3allama عَلَّم means to cause someone to know, and therefore to teach. Similarly, ta3allam تَغَلَّم (to learn) is the 5th form, which is a reflexive of the 2nd form. So ta3allam literally means to cause yourself to know, and therefore to learn. And again ista3lam اِستَعلَم (to inquire) is the 10th form, which is used for requests. So ista3lama literally means to request to know, and therefore to inquire.

Arabic has 10 verb forms. You just take the 3 root letters (consonants) and put them in the pattern of the desired verb form, that is the jest of it at least. Each verb form carries an intrinsic meaning in it.

For example, Form III often has the meaning of carrying out an action with someone else.

Example

meaning	3rd Form	meaning	Basic Verb
to correspond with someone	كاتَب	to write	كَتَب

To get form III you just add a long vowel 'alif ا after the first root letter and a fatHa over the second.

 

Another example of Form II

meaning	Form II	meaning	Basic Verb
to remind (make someone remember)	ذَكَّر	to remember, recall	ذّكّر

We get form II by doubling the second root letter, indicated by the   ّ   diacritic.

 

 

Again here is what @prolepylene said about the Arabic root system:

It’s pretty great. At first I wasn’t sure how it was substantially different from the Latin root system, but comparatively to English the Arabic root system is everywhere throughout the language. As you learn the forms and patterns you can break down basically all verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs to a base form and a pattern that you can use to infer meaning.

:meow-knit: DW natives use only one of them, which I think a lot of you already know :meow-coffee:

In this lesson we will learn about ’alif-hamza أ

We learned about the long vowel 'alif ا in our last lesson.

Now here is a fact: there are no words which begin with a vowel! :walter-shock:

Oh you think I’m talking about Arabic? Go ahead, pronounce 'our, if, it, up, I, on'. In English, the sound you make every time you say a word that begins with a vowel is not a vowel sound, it’s actually called a glottal stop. And the reason why you don't know this is because English has no letter for the glottal stop.

In Arabic, the hamza ء represents the glottal stop and, like other consonants, it can be a carrier of vowel sounds. You wanna practice the sound of a glottal stop? It’s the sound you make every time you say a word that begins with a vowel or the Cockney pronunciation of “little bottle” (pronounced without the t’s)

A glottal stop is a catch in the throat produced by holding one’s breath and suddenly releasing it.

 

Some nerdy stuff

Centuries ago the hamza didn’t exist and the glottal stop was represented by an ’alif ا . Then the symbol for the hamza was developed and added to the ’alif, like a diacritic, to indicate that it’s a glottal stop, and not a long vowel. The combination أ s called ’alif-hamza, the first letter in the alphabet.

:meow-coffee:

Remember: An 'alif at the beginning of a word is always gonna be a glottal stop, never a long vowel, whether there is a hamza ء or not. There are no words that begin with a vowel.

The hamza is transliterated as an apostrophe.

 

Pronunciation Examples

أَسَد

'asad lion, pronunciation

 

أَب

'ab means father, pronunciation here and here

 

أَخ

'akh brother, pronunciation here and here

 

أَنتَ

'anta you (masculine)

 

أَنتِ

'anti you (feminine)

 

أَحمَد

'aHmad (Ahmed)

 

Check the comments for more!

Also who is still actually interested in these lessons?

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Previous Lessons

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5th

6th

I came across this answer on r/askhistorians:

The grandparent of Arabic script is the Aramaic alphabet (strictly speaking, it's an abjad rather than an alphabet, since it only has consonants). Surviving early examples of Aramaic are "blocky":

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stele_Salm_Louvre_AO5009.jpg

However, there are joined curvy versions of Aramaic script:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peshitta_(1).jpg

Many alphabets (and abjads) have two forms like this: a blocky form, often preferred for carved inscriptions, and a cursive (joined and often curly/curved) form often preferred for writing with a pen or brush. We see blocky and cursive forms of Greek:

Blocky

Cursive

Cursive

 

and Latin:

Blocky

Cursive

Cursive

 

As noted above, Aramaic is the grandparent of Arabic. The parent is Nabatean:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nabatean_kingdom_language_scripts.jpg

The answer to why Arabic script is cursive is simple: its direct ancestor is a cursive version of Nabatean.

The use of cursive Arabic for writing with a pen is not unusual; this is a feature of many scripts. What is more unusual is a adaptation of the cursive script for carved inscriptions:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DSC07601_-_Merida_Museen_(28107819291).jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dawadariyya3.png

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arabic_inscription_in_Jaffa_2_rows.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qutb_Minar_Minaret_Delhi_India.jpg

Square versions developed, which suit some applications well, such as tilework:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jame_mosque_yazd_tilework.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meknes_Medersa_Bou_Inania_Calligraphy.jpg

Fundamentally, Arabic script developed in an environment where the pen was important. If carving stone/wood or impressing on clay tablets were the usual methods of writing, Arabic script might have been quite different. The widespread adoption of cursive scripts was almost certainly due to new writing technologies: pen and a suitable material for writing on. In many cases, the "carved" remained in common use for important manuscripts, with the cursive form being an informal script. For Arabic, with a cursive ancestor, the cursive form was pervasive, as seen by the sculptural examples above. These carved examples were auxiliary - the main mode of writing was the pen. As stated in a hadith "The first thing God created was the pen.,

 

For more on the origins of Arabic script and the cursivisation of its ancestors, see:

Saad D. Abulhab , "Roots of Modern Arabic Script: From Musnad to Jazm", 2007. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=bb_pubs

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Btw Arabic is an impure Abjad.

:meow-bug: 5 and 6 from the top left corner are how people write it irl. And this is how computers do it لا.

:meow-fiesta: Yalla, let's learn some more Arabic :meow-fiesta:

ل + ا = لا

The letter ل “laam” is just an l and it's transliterated as l

 

The letter ا "’alif" is the long counterpart of the short vowel fatHa   َ   from 2 days ago.

The ’alif can make two sounds: a “light” aa as in “dad” and a “dark” aa as in “far.”

It's called dark because it's produced further back in the throat

The dark ا happens with the emphatic letters, basically these are letters pronounced further back in our throat and they affect the vowels in the same way.

 

BTW فار "faar", pronounced like far in English, means rat in colloquial.

ف + ا + ر = فار

 

Final	Medial	Initial	Independent / Isolated
ـل	ـلـ	لـ	ل
ـا	ـا	ا	ا

The ’alif is written from top to bottom ا in the independent position, but if it is connected to a preceding letter, it is drawn from bottom up ـا

The alif is whats called a one-way connector i.e. it only connect to the letter before it, so the letter following it will always be in the initial position :think-about-it: makes sense?

 

One-way connectors

ا د ذ ر ز و

We'll learn why the rest are one-way connectors in another lesson, it all makes sense.

 

Why? Why is the ‘alif ا a one-way connector?

How else would we tell the ‘alif ا and the laam ل apart? The one that is a straight line ا doesn’t connect to the following letter, while the one that has a tail ل does.

So لا, meaning no, is pronounced laa :bugs-no:

Listen to it here and here

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Here is what @bubbalu said about their experience learning Arabic with me, which you probably didn't get to read:

It was a great joy to study with mu3allim last year! They are very committed to language learning and internationalism. Over about four months I was able to get a good grasp of the alphabet, phonics, and simple declarative sentences. I am an early elementary teacher and work with a lot new arrival students and mu3allim helped me build the vocabulary to help them feel at ease and teach English phonics.

I recommend any comrades seriously interested in learning Arabic to take lessons with them!

4 months might seem like a lot of time but we only did an hour a week.

 

Previous Lessons

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5th

Answer the questions in the comments :stalin-gun-1::stalin-gun-2:

Baba Ghanouj marinated with olive oil, a Syrian appetizer

Egyptian falafel, which is made with fava beans instead of chickpeas:

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Desserts:

A cup of semolina and a cup of flour

Quick, crunchy Iraqi sweet dumplings without fermentation

A wonderful, fluffy cake

3 healthy desserts

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Let me know if there is anything not vegan.

:meow-bug: Yalla, let's learn some Arabic :meow-coffee:

خَلف = خَ + ل + ف

This   َ   is a short vowel.

Arabic has 3 long vowels and 3 short counterparts.

:wtf-am-i-reading:

The letter خ "khaa' " is pronounced like the Scottish pronunciation of loch and German ch in Bach - where is the dot placed?

Remember, the ح sound is produced without the vocal cords vibrating and so it does NOT have a dot.

ل makes an l sound

The letter's name is لام laam

 

ف makes an f sound

The letter's name is فاء *faa' *

 

This short vowel   َ  

is called a fat7a فَتحة and it is just a short diagonal stroke, which is placed above the letter it follows, e.g. بَ ba (remember, ب is b)

 

The fat7a   َ   , transliterated as a, is pronounced like the a in 'pat' or 'fat'.

So if you have a "meem" م (m sound) and you write a fat7a   َ   above the م it will look like this: مَ, pronounced ma

ب + َ + م = بَ + م = بَم

بَم is just bam

So خَلف is khalf, which actually means behind.

:comrade-doggo:

 

ع + َ + ر + َ + ب = عَ + رَ + ب = عَرَب

So عَرَب, study the ع , is عarab (Arab)

 

Pronunciation Examples

Transliteration	Eng	عَرَبي
khawf	fear	خَوف
fakhr	pride	فَخر
khabar, ’akhbaar	piece of news, news	خَبَر ، أَخبار
khaatam	ring	خاتَم

 

Short vowels are not part of the alphabet. The length of short vowels corresponds to the length of most English vowels, and the length of the long vowels is twice that of their short counterparts.

 

These posts are kinda like sneak peeks, even though I’m putting a lot of effort in them, so it's okay if you feel lost :blob-no-thoughts: but do let me know if you have any questions!

Answer the questions in the comments!

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Plug

Marhaba About 4 years ago I made a similar post and ended up teaching @[email protected] for almost 2 years, then last year I did the same thing and taught a couple of comrades. I can honestly say I love teaching my native tongue, especially to comrades!

So I wanna do it again!

I have my own course material, and ofc I make sure to adapt the lessons and study plan to my student’s interests and pace. I try to incorporate Comprehensible Input as much as possible. I believe language learning has to be fun, engaging, and things have to make sense. And believe me Arabic makes a lot of sense unlike English.

Let me know if you have any questions about Arabic or my approach to teaching. And dw about money, really, this is just a 'side hustle' that I enjoy, and so you can pay what you can!

You can dm me from a throwaway account if you want.

Arabic is nowhere near as intimidating as some of you might think, it actually has internal logic and consistency.

I'm just gonna quote what @prolepylene said about his experience learning Arabic:

 

Learning languages is hard, but I find it very rewarding. My lessons are fun, the language itself makes sense in a way that allows me to infer meanings and uses I don't explicitly know, and it teaches me about English almost as much as Arabic. Arabic as a language makes a lot more sense than English. A big part of it is that Arabic isn’t a bastard language of Germanic and Romantic influences, though the history of the Arabic world has left it with many loan words from the west. The other big thing is MSA (Modern Standard Arabic), though not really spoken colloquially, is actively managed to make it universal and easy to learn. In my opinion, the script is the least intimidating part of the language.

The [Arabic root system] is pretty great. At first I wasn’t sure how it was substantially different from the Latin root system, but comparatively to English the Arabic root system is everywhere throughout the language. As you learn the forms and patterns you can break down basically all verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs to a base form and a pattern that you can use to infer meaning.

 

And if there is enough interest we can have group lessons as well, let me know if you'd be interested in that.

Group Lessons

Might make it less 'intimidating' to give the language a shot or if someone has social anxiety. It will be a pay-what-you-want (or nothing at all) so the money barrier should be completely gone.

I'd expect scheduling to be a problem because of all the different time zones, but we can do it on the weekend and see what works best.

 

I'm more than happy to do trial lessons, commitment-free.

:party-blob: Yalla, let's learn some Arabic :party-blob:

The letter ع is a tricky one because it is foreign to English and all European languages.

The letter’s name is عَين (عayn) which also means ‘eye’.

It is produced from the middle section of the throat by restricting the flow of air. You should be able to feel the muscles contract when you put your hand on your throat. In a way, it is the voiced counterpart of ح i.e. the vocal cords vibrate.

If you practice enough, you will be able to pronounce عarab, عumar(Omar) and عalii (Ali) correctly.

The ع is NOT a vowel.

 

Final	Medial	Initial	Independent / Isolated
ـع	ـعـ	عـ	ع

By looking at all the forms, is it clear which is the core and which is the tail?

What is going on with the medial and final shapes you ask? It’s written this way so we don’t take the pen off the paper, which is an important consideration when it comes to the Arabic script lol. See the spoiler 👇

spoiler

 

It's commonly transliterated as 3 because it kinda looks like a mirrored ع.

 

Pronunciation	Eng	عَرَبي
3uud	Oud	عود
3aamil	worker, laborer	عامِل
wa3d / wu3uud	promise(s)	وَعد ، وُعود
ra3d / ru3uud	thunder	رَعد ، رُعود
juu3	hunger	جوع
naw3 / ’anwaa3	type(s)	نَوع، أَنواع
3arD / 3uruuD	presentation, show, offer(s)	عَرض ، عٌروض

You can also watch this video

 

Exercises

Use spoilers

ش + ع + ل + و = ؟

1) ثعلو

2) شعلو

3) شملو

 

م + و + ع + ج = ؟

1) ممعج

2) موعج

3) مرعج

 

Q3 Which one means door?

1) باب

2) توت

3) بَيت

 

Q3 Which one means animal?

1) روحي

2) حَيَوان

3) حَياتي

 

Previous Lessons

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