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Arabic of Egypt Colloquial Arabic of Egypt provides a step-by-step course in spoken Egyptian Arabic – the most widely understood dialect in the Arab world. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Egyptian Arabic in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required. Key features include: • Arabic in romanization form throughout, with optional Arabic script supplement • emphasis on modern conversational language with clear pronunciation guidance • progressive introduction to the Arabic alphabet to aid familiarity with simple labels and signs • grammar section and bilingual glossaries for easy reference • stimulating exercises with lively illustrations • new e-resources at www.routledge.com/9780415811316 offering supplementary materials for teachers and learners, including extra activities (and answers), vocabulary lists and cultural information, ideas for group activities linked to each unit in the course, listing of the complete Arabic alphabet, notes comparing Egyptian and Standard Arabic and downloadable additional audio tracks. Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, this new and revised edition of Colloquial Arabic of Egypt offers an indispensable resource both for independent learners and for students taking courses in Egyptian Arabic. Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on two CDs or in MP3 format, or comes included in the great value Colloquial Arabic of Egypt pack. Recorded by native speakers, the audio complements the book and will help enhance learners’ listening and speaking skills. By the end of this course, you will be at Level B1 of the Common European Framework for Languages and at the Intermediate–Mid level on the ACTFL proficiency scales.

THE COLLOQUIAL SERIES Series Adviser: Gary King The following languages are available in the Colloquial series: Afrikaans Albanian Amharic Arabic (Levantine) Arabic of Egypt Arabic of the Gulf Basque Bengali Breton Bulgarian Burmese Cambodian Cantonese Catalan Chinese (Mandarin) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French

German Greek Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Kazakh Korean Latvian Lithuanian Malay Mongolian Norwegian Panjabi Persian Polish Portuguese Portuguese of Brazil

Romanian Russian Scottish Gaelic Serbian Slovak Slovene Somali Spanish Spanish of Latin America Swahili Swedish Tamil Thai Tibetan (forthcoming) Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish Yoruba Zulu (forthcoming)

COLLOQUIAL 2s series: The Next Step in Language Learning Chinese Dutch French

German Italian Portuguese of Brazil

Russian Spanish Spanish of Latin America

All these Colloquials are available in book & CD packs, or separately. You can order them through your bookseller or via our website www.routledge.com.

Colloquial

Arabic of Egypt

The Complete Course for Beginners Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar

Third edition published 2014 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 © 2014 Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar The right of Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised 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. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. First edition by Russell McGuirk published by Routledge 1986 Second edition by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar published by Routledge 2004 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 Wightwick, Jane. Colloquial Arabic of Egypt : The Complete Course for Beginners / Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar. -- Third edition. pages cm. -- (The Colloquial Series) Text is in English and Arabic. 1. Arabic language--Textbooks for foreign speakers--English. 2. Arabic language-Dialects--Egypt. I. Gaafar, Mahmoud. II. Title. PJ6307.W52 2014 492.7'82421--dc23 2013036779 ISBN: 978-0-415-81131-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-415-81133-0 (audio CDs) ISBN: 978-0-415-81132-3 (pack) ISBN: 978-0-415-81134-7 (MP3s) ISBN: 978-0-203-07047-5 (ebk) Publisher’s Note This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the authors.

Contents

Acknowledgements

x

Introduction

1

The sounds of Arabic

4

The Arabic alphabet

8

1 áhlan wa sáhlan! Hello and welcome!

10

In this unit you will learn about: •greetings and simple courtesies •saying your name •saying where you come from •singular pronouns (‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’) •making simple sentences •how the Arabic script works •how to recognize these Arabic letters:

çäÜG

2 9ílti My family

25

In this unit you will learn about: •members of the family •plural pronouns •describing possession •masculine and feminine words •asking simple questions •how to recognize these letters: •reading some simple words in Arabic script

…¿

vi

Contents

3 tíshrab shay? Would you like some tea?

43

In this unit you will learn about:

•offering food and drink •accepting and refusing politely •some Egyptian dishes and drinks •jobs and occupations •making words plural •how to make simple sentences negative •recognizing these Arabic letters: ê ì ñ 4 fíihaa takíif? Does it have air conditioning?

61

In this unit you will learn about:

•describing places and objects •talking about where something is •using adjectives for description •rooms of the house and household items •pronouncing ‘emphatic’ letters •recognizing these Arabic letters: ∫ ¢T ¢S 5 eh kamáan? Anything else?

77

In this unit you will learn about: •saying what you want and need •talking about quantity and price •Egyptian souvenirs •picnic food •colours •more about plurals •numbers 1–100 •recognizing these Arabic letters:

® • ¢V ¢U

Contents

vii

6 shákluh eh? What does he look like?

98

In this unit you will learn about: •describing appearance and age •parts of the body •items of clothing •talking about what people are doing now or in the near future •recognizing these Arabic letters:

PO

7 kída áHsan That’s better

113

In this unit you will learn about:

•comparing things •buying tickets •means of transportation •expressing likes and dislikes •agreeing and disagreeing •recognizing these Arabic letters: R

Q

8 muráaga9a Review

134

9 Hayáati My life

139

In this unit you will learn about:

•days of the week •time •describing your routine •present/future tense of verbs •recognizing these Arabic letters: Ω

´Æ

viii

Contents

10 baHíbb Sayd is-sámak I like fishing

160

In this unit you will learn about:

•describing your pastimes •making sentences negative •giving advice •electronic communication •recognizing these Arabic letters: ¥

±

11 9ála Tuul! Straight on!

179

In this unit you will learn about: •places around town •understanding directions •giving instructions •different types of verbs •recognizing this Arabic letter: •how long vowels are written in the Arabic script

h

12 inbasáTt fi faránsa? Did you enjoy yourself in France?

194

In this unit you will learn about:

•how to talk about past events •months of the year •calendar dates •recognizing these Arabic letters: ∑

√

Contents

13 min zamáan A long time ago

ix

211

In this unit you will learn about:

•comparing past and present •higher Arabic numbers and dates •the verb ‘to be’ in the past •forms of the verb •how to read Arabic numbers 14 máT9am in-niil The Nile Restaurant

232

In this unit you will learn about: •making restaurant reservations by phone •making suggestions •some typical Egyptian dishes 15 muráaga9a Review

247

Structure summary

253

Arabic script supplement

276

Key to exercises

300

English–Arabic glossary

327

Arabic–English glossary

350

Acknowledgements We would like to acknowledge the various reviewers who via the publisher gave us detailed and invaluable feedback on the first edition of Colloquial Arabic of Egypt. Their input has helped enormously when preparing this third edition. We appreciate also the support we received from the Routledge team, particularly Samantha Vale Noya, Andrea Hartill, Isabelle Cheng and Sarah May. Thanks also go to our families in England and Egypt for helping us with the photographs – and acting as models in some of them – and to Charles and Maha for the pictures of their elegant villa in Ein Sukhna. For the new edition recordings, we would like to thank Najla Shawqi for adding her voice to the existing models, and our good friend Eric for the audio recording.

The publishers would like to thank the following for the permission to reproduce photographs: p77: Henk Vrieselaar/Shutterstock; p178: Zurijeta/Shutterstock; p179: Patryk Kosmider/Fotolia; p206: photka/ Shutterstock; p222: TanArt/Fotolia

Introduction The Arabic language Arabic is often thought of as having separate ‘spoken’ and ‘written’ forms. The ‘spoken’ being the various dialects of the 20 or so Arabicspeaking countries, and the ‘written’ being the Standard Arabic taught in all schools and understood by educated Arabs. It is true that most conversations take place in the colloquial language and most written material is in Standard Arabic. But the factor determining which is used has more to do with the formality of the situation rather than how the communication is delivered. A high-level televised political debate would probably be conducted in Standard Arabic but a soap opera would be in colloquial. Communication between different Arab nationalities tends to include at least elements of Standard Arabic where dialects might contain unfamiliar words. Egyptian colloquial is perhaps the most vibrant and universally understood of the many spoken dialects of Arabic. Egypt is the centre of popular Arab culture, exporting its films, soap operas, popular programmes, songs and advertisements to fill the mushrooming airtime of the Arabic TV channels. The differences between the colloquial and the Standard are less apparent the more elevated the subject matter becomes. Even at the basic level, it tends to be vocabulary that is most affected. The structure of the language remains largely recognizable. So, whichever way you approach the language – from an initial study of the colloquial or of Standard Arabic, you will be able to expand your knowledge to other areas.

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Introduction

How to use the course Colloquial Arabic of Egypt will introduce you to the spoken Arabic of Egypt, using the capital city Cairo as its model. Egypt is a big country and accents vary from region to region, but the Cairene dialect is the most widely understood and therefore the most useful. We strongly recommend that you study Colloquial Arabic of Egypt with the accompanying audio. It is very difficult to master the sounds of Arabic without hearing them spoken by native speakers. The audio not only includes all the dialogues recorded by authentic Egyptian actors, but also additional listening and speaking exercises which will help improve your fluency. Sections of the course that appear on the audio are marked with the headphones symbol. Above all, it is important to enjoy your learning and to have a go at communicating right from the start. Nobody will mind if you make a mistake and foreigners speaking Arabic are still rare enough for you to make a real impression.

Structure of the course Colloquial Arabic of Egypt is comprised of 15 units, two of which are review units (Unit 8 and Unit 15). The other teaching units are based around two or three natural dialogues. Here are the main features of each unit: Summary of aims An initial summary of the main teaching points of the unit to prepare you for what you will learn, or for later reference. Dialogues The dialogues have all been carefully scripted not only to present the language, but also to convey the Egyptian patterns of speech and sense of humour. Vocabulary Each dialogue is followed by a vocabulary panel showing new and significant items of vocabulary.

Introduction

Language points These sections expand on the language of the dialogue, explaining important language structures and expressions. Cultural points Some concepts require more explanation, for example an indication of their cultural significance, or in which situation they are used. Information of this kind is given in these sections. Exercises The numerous exercises and activities encourage your active participation and consolidate what you have learnt. All four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are included. Downloadable eResources A new feature of this edition is the free downloadable eResources (www.routledge.com/9780415811316). You will find a host of useful material that will help you with your study: additional practice activities, extra topic vocabulary, cultural information, reference material and downloadable audio. All of this material is linked to particular sections of the course and marked with the eResources symbol. The Arabic script Each teaching unit ends with a section introducing you to the Arabic alphabet, giving you the opportunity to read some of the vocabulary of the unit in Arabic script. When you feel more confident, you can use the script supplement and the glossaries to enhance your reading skills.

Abbreviations used in the course sing. pl. fem. masc. lit. adj.

singular plural feminine masculine literally adjective

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