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Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf
This new edition of Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf has been revised and updated to make learning this variety of Arabic easier and more enjoyable than ever before. Specially written by an expert for self-study and classroom use, the course offers you a step-by-step approach to spoken Arabic of the Gulf, together with an introduction to reading signs, business cards, advertisements and other realia. No prior knowledge of the language is required. Each unit presents numerous grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary summaries throughout. Features new to this edition By the end of this rewarding course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Arabic in a broad range of situations. Audio material on CD and in MP3 format is available to purchase separately. Recorded by native speakers of Arabic of the Gulf, this material is an invaluable component of the Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf course. It reinforces the material from the book and contains useful pronunciation exercises.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 27, 2021
Colloquial Arabic of the Gulf ** Read, studied & referred to in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE (August - December 2021)
December 28, 2021
Good for cultural information, subpar for actual Khaleeji grammar/vocabulary.
March 16, 2018
Thank you very much, Mr. Holes for this groundbreaking work. Please do not hesitate to contact me via my profile if you would like to participate in a podcast interview about the history and challenges of writing this book.
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The following text is relevant material copied and adapted from my review of Teach Yourself's "Complete Spoken Arabic" review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
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The book features the, in the reviewer's opinion, ideal presentation of a foreign language: uninterrupted dialogues reflecting everyday situations with full translations and helpful explanatory notes, when needed, and, of course, with accompanying high quality audio recordings, which are entertainingly expressive - often features whoops of joy or dismay or grunts of disapproval. When you are sitting at your desk studying a language in an inherently sterile way, this kind of voice acting is extremely welcome.
In this book, the Arabic is transliterated into the roman script, and bases the transliteration letter for letter on how this dialect of Arabic would be written in the Arabic script. This has the advantage of being more accessible than pages of arabic script, yet has the disadvantage of not teaching you how to read.
In the end, I think that, since this is an oral language and not a written one, the choice was a sound one.
Note for linguists and otherwise careful students: one should compensate for this "word for word" transliteration from the original orthography: it first appears like a transliteration of the sounds of the language but in fact the halfway-house system ignores facts about the phonology of the language that would ideally have been represented (such as the difference between the low-front vowel "a" and the allophonic short mid-front vowel, also written "a" but realised more like "e," or such as the fact that the vowel in the word "al" is just as often pronounced with the allophonic sounds "el", "il" or "ul").
The only other mass market option, "Teach Yourself"'s Complete Spoken Arabic of the Arabian Gulf is better presented (in the use of pictures; better positioning of vocabulary lists; more effective typography; cleaner division of sections etc), yet is less well-padded than this book. In this book one sees a broader range of registers of the language. The chapters feature more idiomatic language, more jokes, more expressive dialogues and less typical text-book fare such as a description of a traditional wedding, opinions on the deleterious effect of TV programming on the youth, and a radio drama where a man desires his friend to murder his wife.
..."Teach Yourself"'s book IS, however, more insightful into the (non-linguistic) cultural realm of gulf Arabs (holiday destinations, leisure activities, climate and food) and therefore less focused on linguistic rules than Holes's more academic book... Choose according to your preferences, although you’ll probably have to use both books thoroughly to gain a base in this neglected language.
In conjunction with other resources, the book will certainly teach you a lot about basic sentence forms such as “there is” “I / he /she / they have” “it is” “I / he / she / they saw/ did/ went” and “see! Do! Go!” Etc. What is lacking in both books, therefore, is the breadth of structures and shades of meanings needed to give a full portrait of the language, such as that which the proverbial 101 facing-page translations of the "Assimil" books usually provide, however I sympathise that, since these books are obliged to cater to absolute beginners, they are limited in the space they can afford to material more relevant to those looking for a more realistic challenge. Even the mighty "Assimil" have made this compromise for their MSA Arabic books, and the reality of the market has meant that we have had no Gulf Arabic edition whatsoever from them.
-------------
The following text is relevant material copied and adapted from my review of Teach Yourself's "Complete Spoken Arabic" review (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)
-------------
The book features the, in the reviewer's opinion, ideal presentation of a foreign language: uninterrupted dialogues reflecting everyday situations with full translations and helpful explanatory notes, when needed, and, of course, with accompanying high quality audio recordings, which are entertainingly expressive - often features whoops of joy or dismay or grunts of disapproval. When you are sitting at your desk studying a language in an inherently sterile way, this kind of voice acting is extremely welcome.
In this book, the Arabic is transliterated into the roman script, and bases the transliteration letter for letter on how this dialect of Arabic would be written in the Arabic script. This has the advantage of being more accessible than pages of arabic script, yet has the disadvantage of not teaching you how to read.
In the end, I think that, since this is an oral language and not a written one, the choice was a sound one.
Note for linguists and otherwise careful students: one should compensate for this "word for word" transliteration from the original orthography: it first appears like a transliteration of the sounds of the language but in fact the halfway-house system ignores facts about the phonology of the language that would ideally have been represented (such as the difference between the low-front vowel "a" and the allophonic short mid-front vowel, also written "a" but realised more like "e," or such as the fact that the vowel in the word "al" is just as often pronounced with the allophonic sounds "el", "il" or "ul").
The only other mass market option, "Teach Yourself"'s Complete Spoken Arabic of the Arabian Gulf is better presented (in the use of pictures; better positioning of vocabulary lists; more effective typography; cleaner division of sections etc), yet is less well-padded than this book. In this book one sees a broader range of registers of the language. The chapters feature more idiomatic language, more jokes, more expressive dialogues and less typical text-book fare such as a description of a traditional wedding, opinions on the deleterious effect of TV programming on the youth, and a radio drama where a man desires his friend to murder his wife.
..."Teach Yourself"'s book IS, however, more insightful into the (non-linguistic) cultural realm of gulf Arabs (holiday destinations, leisure activities, climate and food) and therefore less focused on linguistic rules than Holes's more academic book... Choose according to your preferences, although you’ll probably have to use both books thoroughly to gain a base in this neglected language.
In conjunction with other resources, the book will certainly teach you a lot about basic sentence forms such as “there is” “I / he /she / they have” “it is” “I / he / she / they saw/ did/ went” and “see! Do! Go!” Etc. What is lacking in both books, therefore, is the breadth of structures and shades of meanings needed to give a full portrait of the language, such as that which the proverbial 101 facing-page translations of the "Assimil" books usually provide, however I sympathise that, since these books are obliged to cater to absolute beginners, they are limited in the space they can afford to material more relevant to those looking for a more realistic challenge. Even the mighty "Assimil" have made this compromise for their MSA Arabic books, and the reality of the market has meant that we have had no Gulf Arabic edition whatsoever from them.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews