Teach yourself Arabic
An illustration will make the next point clear. Ketaba has a vowel between the first and the second radical, vaKTuBu has not. The beginner, especially in trying to hear the language, finds it hard to believe the syllable.
The syntax is slightly simplified. The spoken tongue varies from place to place and differs from the written by the loss or degeneration of inflexions and a different vocabulary. It is written only in jokes in comic papers, dialogue in novels, and sometimes in short stories. The Arab sits on the floor and cats with his fingers; when he wants to eat or sleep his food or bed is brought to him. The result is that many words, indispensable in English, scarcely occur in accounts of native life. For ' table * Syria uses Italian, Egypt a Greek, and Mesopotamia a Persian word.
This book is an introduction to written Arabic which is understood from the Atlantic to the frontiers of Persia. It will not help a man to talk on the day of his arrival but it will quicken his progress in talking after the first month or so.
Words, which have been fully explained in the lessons, are left out of the vocabulary. Proper names, which come in the examples, have not been transliterated in the phonetic alphabet. In the transcription, j and y have their English sounds. Owing to the nature of the type in this book many of the vowels are to the left of the consonants instead of being directly above them.
Some contents:
1. NOUN AND ARTICLES.24
2. GENDER.23
3. CASH.
4. NUMBER.
5. BROKEN PLURALS.43
6. PERSONAL PRONOUNS.48
7. VERB—PERFECT.53
8. IMPERFECT INDICATIVE .... 58
9. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS .... 63
10. ADJECTIVES.67
11. IRREGULAR NOUNS.72
12. IMPERATIVE—PARTICIPLES—INFINITIVE . . 77
13. MOODS.81
14. NEGATIVES.85
15. MORE ABOUT CASES.90
16. WEAK—HOLLOW—VERBS .... 90
17. STRONG VERB—DERIVED STEMS ... 100
18. PASSIVE.108
19. THAT—CONJUNCTION.Ill
20. ADVERBS.117
Author: Arthur Tritton
Publication Date: 1943
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