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كتاب الحروف العربية
Interactive online Arabic alphabet book produced using the open source LARA platform.
30 pages, ebook
Published June 22, 2022
4 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 30, 2024
I've been having fun the last few days helping our Melbourne friend Cathy Weiss build the interactive Arabic alphabet book you can see here (view in Chrome or Firefox). I have been trying to master Arabic script for longer than I'd care to admit, and to my surprise I seem to have got there after just a few hours of playing with the app.
There are three main problems with the Arabic alphabet. First, many of the letters look quite similar; second, the appearance of a letter in general changes depending on whether it appears at the beginning, middle or end of a word; third, some of the letters are ones we don't have in the Roman alphabet. None of these problems are really very bad, but I found it strangely difficult to get past them.
The design of the app is simple but effective. Each page has three words, showing the letter in the three contexts where it can occur. You can view the page in either 'Words' or 'Letters' mode, using the controls at the top. In 'Words' mode, you can hover over a word to get a translation, or click on it to hear it spoken. In 'Letters' mode, clicking on a letter plays audio and also shows you a list of words that contain that letter.
I found it helpful to click around, comparing different words which contained the letter I was focussing on and consolidating the mental links between letters and sounds. When I thought I was done, I tested myself by going to Duolingo and Memrise and trying out their Arabic alphabet modules. I scored 99.5% on Duolingo and 100% on Memrise.
If you also try out the app, please consider answering the short questionnaire we posted on Google Forms! We'd love to get some feedback.
__________________________
Cathy has posted a revised version of the alphabet book (still here) which responds to Mustapha's very detailed comments.
I should add that we've been using this toolkit to build several more interactive alphabet books for various languages - there is a page here with links if you're curious.
June 25, 2022
The effort is much appreciated.
Here are some notes I've gathered:
• When teaching Arabic it is recommended to show all the short vowels (ḥarakāt) – and perhaps just skipping the last consonant.
• Use https://www.almaany.com/ thesauruses for the proper spellings.
• I've never heard that "dolphins" are referred to as "دخس". It is correct, rarely used, you'd rather see it as "دلفين".
• I liked the way there was an image of the map of Egypt next to the chicken to refer to the Egyptian Arabic word for chicken: فراخ.
It should be فرخة, in the singular form.
• جذع means a "trunk", but not the elephant's (خرطوم) but rather the tree's.
•نحل – ought to be نحلة (singular form).
• أوزّ – should be written as إوزّ
• سمك – ought to be سمكة (singular form)
• دعسق – should be written as دعسوقة and should have a ُ (damma) on the د.
• شمبانزي – should have a َ (fatha) on the ش.
• فراش – should be written as فراشة.
• خنّوص – should have a َ (fatha) on the ن. (It's a very specific and rarely used word)
• بعوض – ought to be بعوضة (singular form).
• قندس الأرض – is rather referred to as جرذ الأرض.
• بط – out to be written as بطّة (singular form).
•علجوم – should have a ُ (damma) on the ع.
•حلزون – should have a َ (fatha) on the ل.
•خنفساء – should have a َ (fatha) on the ف.
• ظربان – should have a ِ (kasra) on the ر.
• The turtoise's shell is referred to as درقة.
• عقعق – should be spelled العقعق and should have aَ (fatha) on both ع.
• بجع – ought to be بجعة (singular form) and should have a َ (fatha) on the ج.
• فقنس – should have a َ (fatha) on first 3 letters, with a stress (shadda) on the ن.
• سلحفاة – should have a َ (fatha) on the ل, and a ْ (sukoon) on the ح.
• بقر – ought to be بقرة (singular form).
• A tiger in Arabic is called ببر, but it's a common mistake to refer to it as نمر, which is acutally a panther.—just the image ought to be changed.
• بوم – ought to be بومة (singular form).
• نمل – ought to be نملة (singular form).
• A sloth bear is referred to as الدبّ الكسلان, and not just كسلان.
• Having a photo of a dog with a little boy, and having the word referring to "his dog" is an unrecommended choice.
• Having the ء separated from ا is wrong, as they are the same letter, which can be in even more forms (e.g. ى as well).
Here are some notes I've gathered:
• When teaching Arabic it is recommended to show all the short vowels (ḥarakāt) – and perhaps just skipping the last consonant.
• Use https://www.almaany.com/ thesauruses for the proper spellings.
• I've never heard that "dolphins" are referred to as "دخس". It is correct, rarely used, you'd rather see it as "دلفين".
• I liked the way there was an image of the map of Egypt next to the chicken to refer to the Egyptian Arabic word for chicken: فراخ.
It should be فرخة, in the singular form.
• جذع means a "trunk", but not the elephant's (خرطوم) but rather the tree's.
•نحل – ought to be نحلة (singular form).
• أوزّ – should be written as إوزّ
• سمك – ought to be سمكة (singular form)
• دعسق – should be written as دعسوقة and should have a ُ (damma) on the د.
• شمبانزي – should have a َ (fatha) on the ش.
• فراش – should be written as فراشة.
• خنّوص – should have a َ (fatha) on the ن. (It's a very specific and rarely used word)
• بعوض – ought to be بعوضة (singular form).
• قندس الأرض – is rather referred to as جرذ الأرض.
• بط – out to be written as بطّة (singular form).
•علجوم – should have a ُ (damma) on the ع.
•حلزون – should have a َ (fatha) on the ل.
•خنفساء – should have a َ (fatha) on the ف.
• ظربان – should have a ِ (kasra) on the ر.
• The turtoise's shell is referred to as درقة.
• عقعق – should be spelled العقعق and should have aَ (fatha) on both ع.
• بجع – ought to be بجعة (singular form) and should have a َ (fatha) on the ج.
• فقنس – should have a َ (fatha) on first 3 letters, with a stress (shadda) on the ن.
• سلحفاة – should have a َ (fatha) on the ل, and a ْ (sukoon) on the ح.
• بقر – ought to be بقرة (singular form).
• A tiger in Arabic is called ببر, but it's a common mistake to refer to it as نمر, which is acutally a panther.—just the image ought to be changed.
• بوم – ought to be بومة (singular form).
• نمل – ought to be نملة (singular form).
• A sloth bear is referred to as الدبّ الكسلان, and not just كسلان.
• Having a photo of a dog with a little boy, and having the word referring to "his dog" is an unrecommended choice.
• Having the ء separated from ا is wrong, as they are the same letter, which can be in even more forms (e.g. ى as well).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews