Arabic

by A.S. Tritton

You can really teach yourself Arabic from this little book. It is well printed, very cheap, pocket size and just over 300 pages. I am aware, from an experience of a number of years in teaching languages of this group, that Dr, Tritton's mrthod of attack is sound and productive of good results. Professor Norman Snaith

Genres: Language, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Owlseyes]

The book was first published in 1943. I've got a 1967 edition. Tritton's criticism of the language, at the introduction, deserves analysis, because I'm not sure I agree with all his points.

(1) Arabic is so different [obviously, from English] because the verbs "to be" and "to have" don't exist. "To become" is used in exchange for "to be".

(2) Arabic has a "monotonous sounding". Basically, most words derive from roots (radicals made of 3 consonants) upon which are generated 70 word patterns; by adding sufixes or prefixes or vowels to these radicals.

(3) The verb has no tense, only 2 forms: action completed or not. The author suggests some "verb poverty".

(4) Speech has only 3 parts: noun, verb and particle. The syntax is quite "simplified".

(5) On meaning; the sense of the root usually develops derived meanings. Example: "to push money to someone" is equivalent to "pay someone".

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes it's an older book, but I've been trying to teach myself arabic from several books, and this is the one I keep coming back to for points of grammar. It has a strange fascination. Other books do conversation better, but this is great for understanding the written language. Plus it fits in my pocket. It was the first oriental language book I ever bought, and I read it from cover to cover till it fell apart, on a 2 month working holiday in the wilds of Ardnamurchan, Scotland, whenever we were stuck inside a caravan due to torrential rain (often!) nice place, by the way, but oh, the midges!