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20 February 2008, 17:04
From last month's DLI newsletter. It contains some pretty good insights.
http://www.dli-alumni.org/Newsletters/NewsletterXVII-Jan2008.htm
Editor's Note: This first of a two part article will deal with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
Colloquial Arabic: What Is It and How Does One Learn It?
by Howard D. Rowland*
*Graduate of 18-month DLI Russian course (1961-62), DLI Russian instructor (1973-77), DLI Arabic instructor (1984-87, 1990-99), Ph.D. in Arabic studies from U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1971)
Anyone who has studied Arabic and been familiar with it for any length of time definitely knows the following two things about it: 1) It is quite a difficult language to learn, and 2) It differs sharply from most other languages in that it is characterized by what is known as “diglossia,” that is, its literate native speakers use one form of Arabic as their written language, but quite a different form of Arabic as their everyday spoken language.
Of course, virtually all the world’s major languages have a gap of this sort, especially between the educated classes and those on the lower social, economic, and educational levels of society. But in nearly all cases the educated natives of the languages fluently and habitually speak—either normally or, if required by circumstances—the high-level, educated version of their language which is used for literary purposes. Thus political affairs pundits in the U.S. being interviewed on American TV speak almost exactly the same educated standard American English that is found in the books that they write and most U.S. college graduates speak, to a reasonable degree, a form of literate, grammatically correct, educated American English that is quite uniform throughout the country and differs only slightly in terms of regional pronunciation and intonation.
Arabic, however, because of its unique and very long history as a major world language, and because its speakers are dispersed over a very big area of the Earth’s surface, has evolved quite differently in terms of the forms of the language used in response to the situations in which they are employed.
There is, first of all, the written Arabic language which Arabs generally call al-lugha al-fusha (the eloquent language) and which is usually known in English as Classical Arabic (the language of the Koran, pre-Islamic poetry, and medieval and pre-modern writings) or Modern Standard Arabic (“MSA” for short) which, in terms of its grammar and vocabulary, is basically the same as Classical Arabic, but with more modern vocabulary, usages, and styles of expression.
This written language, in a highly standardized form, has been in use for all literary purposes throughout the Arab world since early medieval times and is essentially the same language today as it was 1,500 years ago. And this same ancient language is still used today for all written and official oral communication in nearly all situations that call for the use of “formal” language in an organized presentation.
But in addition to this written Arabic language, which all educated Arabs have at their command, there also exist the spoken Arabic colloquial dialects. These varieties of spoken Arabic all differ greatly from the written language and also differ from each other to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how geographically distant the native speakers are from each other. Thus a Syrian from Damascus will have no problem at all talking to a Jordanian from Amman or a Lebanese from Beirut. However, if this same Syrian has never met an Iraqi or an Egyptian before, he will have some some problems understanding the speech of someone from Baghdad or Cairo, but in general will be able to successfully communicate with him. But if he tries talking his Syrian dialect to someone from Casablanca, Morocco who speaks only the Moroccan Arabic dialect, he will certainly either find it quite difficult to understand him or throw up his hands and give up, realizing that they simply cannot understand each other’s dialect and have to resort to speaking in MSA, if they both can speak it, or even try communicating in English or French.
These regional or local spoken Arabic dialects are used by Arabs of all walks of life—regardless of class or educational level—for all informal communication situations in everyday life. However, utterances in the dialects are almost never found in writing, except in the case of satirical political cartoons in newspapers or occasionally in the dialogue portion of works of fiction by certain writers, particularly Egyptians.
Sometimes the two versions of Arabic get “mixed up” with each other. For example, an educated Arab having an informal discussion with his peers, normally in colloquial Arabic, might occasionally resort to using expressions or even entire sentences or utterances in MSA in order to add emphasis to what he is saying, making it sound more like an “official statement.” Or a person on TV being interviewed may not have such a good oral command of MSA, so he might “throw in” a lot of colloquialisms or usages from the spoken language which, strictly speaking, are not customarily allowed in a formal interview situation.
The more educated the discourse or the more “literary,” “scientific,” or “academic” the topic of discussion is, the fewer differences there will be in the forms and vocabulary of the written and colloquial versions of the utterances involved. For example, the newspaper headline I’m looking at right now, which is from the January, 2008 issue of The New York Times, reads as follows: “U.S. Announces Criminal Inquiry into CIA Tapes” I would translate that into Arabic (MSA, of course!) as:
“tu’lin al-wilayat al-muttahida tahqiqan jina’iyan
fi shara’it wakalat al-mukhabarat al-markaziya”
If an Iraqi journalist wanted to orally pass this information on to a colleague, his colloquial version would hardly differ from what the headline in MSA would be, that is, he might well say:
“il-wilayat il-muttahida ti’lin tahqiq jina’i
b-shara’it wakalt il-mukhabarat il-markaziya”
But then his colleague might reply in the Iraqi dialect, saying something like:
“sh-gilit? sudug rah yisawwun tahqiq hassa?
khal-da-nfukk ir-radyo. yimkin rah-nisma’ fadd khabar jidid ‘ala hash-shi”
Which means: “What did you say? Is it true that they are going to do an inquiry now? Let’s turn on the radio. Maybe we’ll hear some (new) news item about this matter.” But if this reply were rendered in writing in Arabic, it would have to be something like the following, in MSA:
“madha qulta? hal sahih annahum sa-yaf’alun tahqiqan al-aan?
fal-naftah ar-radyo. Rubbama sa-nasma’ khabaran jadidan ma fi hadha l-mawdu’”
When comparing the two versions of the colleague’s reply, you can certainly make a good case for saying that you are dealing with two different languages.
For an American linguist studying Arabic who aspires to be generally proficient in the language as a whole, there is unfortunately only one option: You are forced to, in effect, learn two languages: 1) MSA, in order to read Arabic in the media, in books, and elsewhere, and in order to understand anything presented orally—over the media or otherwise—which is official in nature, and 2) one of the major regional spoken Arabic dialects (such as Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Saudi, Tunisian, or Moroccan) in order to take part in all manner of normal informal everyday conversations with the native speakers of a given dialect area, no matter who they are and what their social or educational level is.
Furthermore, if you plan on going to different parts of the Arab world, you will have to be prepared to at least be familiar with the different vocabulary items, slightly different grammatical structures, and widely-varying pronunciations and intonations that you will hear.
Quite a daunting task, all in all, you might say. Indeed it is, but perhaps not so tough as it appears at first. Here’s why:
1. Arabs are very patient and forgiving when non-Arabs try to learn their language, and are usually quite happy if foreigners have learned any type of Arabic, wherever they have learned it. And if you can put together a sentence of three words or more in their language, either in speech or in writing, they are generally very favorably impressed.
2. If you have studied MSA before attempting to learn to speak a dialect (as is usually the case with foreign learners of Arabic), you’ll be happy to know that the dialects are generally far less complicated in terms of grammar and usage than the written language. It will be like learning a greatly simplified version of MSA, and thus will seem easy.
3. Most of the vocabulary of MSA and spoken Arabic is the same, although the “low-level,” practical, everyday vocabulary is often quite different. But this frequently-used body of vocabulary is something that you are likely to learn quickly and well, since it is used so often and you will hear it constantly from the native speakers.
4. As a foreign, non-native of Arabic, you can always “throw in” vocabulary and forms typical of MSA as you speak in dialect, and this will not greatly disturb the Arabs you are talking to, since they don’t normally expect you to have command of their spoken language. In other words, whatever you say when you speak with them is OK with them, as long as they understand it. Furthermore, there really are no official or accepted “grammatical rules” for speaking any form of colloquial Arabic, and their attitude toward foreigners learning to speak Arabic is much the same as that of Americans when listening to foreigners trying to speak English—that is, anything goes as long as it can be understood.
5. If you are able to speak MSA (using inflectional endings on nouns, verbs, etc. is not necessary), nearly all Arabs everywhere will be able to understand you—but not necessarily be able to reply to you in MSA. Educated Arabs, however, generally can reply in MSA, although sometimes only haltingly, since normally they only write and read in MSA and never speak it spontaneously in everyday conversation.
Editor's Note: The second part of this article will appear in our next newsletter.
http://www.dli-alumni.org/Newsletters/NewsletterXVII-Jan2008.htm
Editor's Note: This first of a two part article will deal with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
Colloquial Arabic: What Is It and How Does One Learn It?
by Howard D. Rowland*
*Graduate of 18-month DLI Russian course (1961-62), DLI Russian instructor (1973-77), DLI Arabic instructor (1984-87, 1990-99), Ph.D. in Arabic studies from U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1971)
Anyone who has studied Arabic and been familiar with it for any length of time definitely knows the following two things about it: 1) It is quite a difficult language to learn, and 2) It differs sharply from most other languages in that it is characterized by what is known as “diglossia,” that is, its literate native speakers use one form of Arabic as their written language, but quite a different form of Arabic as their everyday spoken language.
Of course, virtually all the world’s major languages have a gap of this sort, especially between the educated classes and those on the lower social, economic, and educational levels of society. But in nearly all cases the educated natives of the languages fluently and habitually speak—either normally or, if required by circumstances—the high-level, educated version of their language which is used for literary purposes. Thus political affairs pundits in the U.S. being interviewed on American TV speak almost exactly the same educated standard American English that is found in the books that they write and most U.S. college graduates speak, to a reasonable degree, a form of literate, grammatically correct, educated American English that is quite uniform throughout the country and differs only slightly in terms of regional pronunciation and intonation.
Arabic, however, because of its unique and very long history as a major world language, and because its speakers are dispersed over a very big area of the Earth’s surface, has evolved quite differently in terms of the forms of the language used in response to the situations in which they are employed.
There is, first of all, the written Arabic language which Arabs generally call al-lugha al-fusha (the eloquent language) and which is usually known in English as Classical Arabic (the language of the Koran, pre-Islamic poetry, and medieval and pre-modern writings) or Modern Standard Arabic (“MSA” for short) which, in terms of its grammar and vocabulary, is basically the same as Classical Arabic, but with more modern vocabulary, usages, and styles of expression.
This written language, in a highly standardized form, has been in use for all literary purposes throughout the Arab world since early medieval times and is essentially the same language today as it was 1,500 years ago. And this same ancient language is still used today for all written and official oral communication in nearly all situations that call for the use of “formal” language in an organized presentation.
But in addition to this written Arabic language, which all educated Arabs have at their command, there also exist the spoken Arabic colloquial dialects. These varieties of spoken Arabic all differ greatly from the written language and also differ from each other to a greater or lesser degree, depending on how geographically distant the native speakers are from each other. Thus a Syrian from Damascus will have no problem at all talking to a Jordanian from Amman or a Lebanese from Beirut. However, if this same Syrian has never met an Iraqi or an Egyptian before, he will have some some problems understanding the speech of someone from Baghdad or Cairo, but in general will be able to successfully communicate with him. But if he tries talking his Syrian dialect to someone from Casablanca, Morocco who speaks only the Moroccan Arabic dialect, he will certainly either find it quite difficult to understand him or throw up his hands and give up, realizing that they simply cannot understand each other’s dialect and have to resort to speaking in MSA, if they both can speak it, or even try communicating in English or French.
These regional or local spoken Arabic dialects are used by Arabs of all walks of life—regardless of class or educational level—for all informal communication situations in everyday life. However, utterances in the dialects are almost never found in writing, except in the case of satirical political cartoons in newspapers or occasionally in the dialogue portion of works of fiction by certain writers, particularly Egyptians.
Sometimes the two versions of Arabic get “mixed up” with each other. For example, an educated Arab having an informal discussion with his peers, normally in colloquial Arabic, might occasionally resort to using expressions or even entire sentences or utterances in MSA in order to add emphasis to what he is saying, making it sound more like an “official statement.” Or a person on TV being interviewed may not have such a good oral command of MSA, so he might “throw in” a lot of colloquialisms or usages from the spoken language which, strictly speaking, are not customarily allowed in a formal interview situation.
The more educated the discourse or the more “literary,” “scientific,” or “academic” the topic of discussion is, the fewer differences there will be in the forms and vocabulary of the written and colloquial versions of the utterances involved. For example, the newspaper headline I’m looking at right now, which is from the January, 2008 issue of The New York Times, reads as follows: “U.S. Announces Criminal Inquiry into CIA Tapes” I would translate that into Arabic (MSA, of course!) as:
“tu’lin al-wilayat al-muttahida tahqiqan jina’iyan
fi shara’it wakalat al-mukhabarat al-markaziya”
If an Iraqi journalist wanted to orally pass this information on to a colleague, his colloquial version would hardly differ from what the headline in MSA would be, that is, he might well say:
“il-wilayat il-muttahida ti’lin tahqiq jina’i
b-shara’it wakalt il-mukhabarat il-markaziya”
But then his colleague might reply in the Iraqi dialect, saying something like:
“sh-gilit? sudug rah yisawwun tahqiq hassa?
khal-da-nfukk ir-radyo. yimkin rah-nisma’ fadd khabar jidid ‘ala hash-shi”
Which means: “What did you say? Is it true that they are going to do an inquiry now? Let’s turn on the radio. Maybe we’ll hear some (new) news item about this matter.” But if this reply were rendered in writing in Arabic, it would have to be something like the following, in MSA:
“madha qulta? hal sahih annahum sa-yaf’alun tahqiqan al-aan?
fal-naftah ar-radyo. Rubbama sa-nasma’ khabaran jadidan ma fi hadha l-mawdu’”
When comparing the two versions of the colleague’s reply, you can certainly make a good case for saying that you are dealing with two different languages.
For an American linguist studying Arabic who aspires to be generally proficient in the language as a whole, there is unfortunately only one option: You are forced to, in effect, learn two languages: 1) MSA, in order to read Arabic in the media, in books, and elsewhere, and in order to understand anything presented orally—over the media or otherwise—which is official in nature, and 2) one of the major regional spoken Arabic dialects (such as Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Saudi, Tunisian, or Moroccan) in order to take part in all manner of normal informal everyday conversations with the native speakers of a given dialect area, no matter who they are and what their social or educational level is.
Furthermore, if you plan on going to different parts of the Arab world, you will have to be prepared to at least be familiar with the different vocabulary items, slightly different grammatical structures, and widely-varying pronunciations and intonations that you will hear.
Quite a daunting task, all in all, you might say. Indeed it is, but perhaps not so tough as it appears at first. Here’s why:
1. Arabs are very patient and forgiving when non-Arabs try to learn their language, and are usually quite happy if foreigners have learned any type of Arabic, wherever they have learned it. And if you can put together a sentence of three words or more in their language, either in speech or in writing, they are generally very favorably impressed.
2. If you have studied MSA before attempting to learn to speak a dialect (as is usually the case with foreign learners of Arabic), you’ll be happy to know that the dialects are generally far less complicated in terms of grammar and usage than the written language. It will be like learning a greatly simplified version of MSA, and thus will seem easy.
3. Most of the vocabulary of MSA and spoken Arabic is the same, although the “low-level,” practical, everyday vocabulary is often quite different. But this frequently-used body of vocabulary is something that you are likely to learn quickly and well, since it is used so often and you will hear it constantly from the native speakers.
4. As a foreign, non-native of Arabic, you can always “throw in” vocabulary and forms typical of MSA as you speak in dialect, and this will not greatly disturb the Arabs you are talking to, since they don’t normally expect you to have command of their spoken language. In other words, whatever you say when you speak with them is OK with them, as long as they understand it. Furthermore, there really are no official or accepted “grammatical rules” for speaking any form of colloquial Arabic, and their attitude toward foreigners learning to speak Arabic is much the same as that of Americans when listening to foreigners trying to speak English—that is, anything goes as long as it can be understood.
5. If you are able to speak MSA (using inflectional endings on nouns, verbs, etc. is not necessary), nearly all Arabs everywhere will be able to understand you—but not necessarily be able to reply to you in MSA. Educated Arabs, however, generally can reply in MSA, although sometimes only haltingly, since normally they only write and read in MSA and never speak it spontaneously in everyday conversation.
Editor's Note: The second part of this article will appear in our next newsletter.