Archive for 'Pronunciation'
Arabic Connected Speech: What Gets Assimilated? Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Apr 20, 2017
When people speak, it is common that certain sounds get assimilated, dropped, or blended. In English, for example, “does she” is pronounced as “dushee” in connected speech. In Arabic, the most common assimilation and/or dropping occurs with the definite article ال and with the alif of imperative tri-consonantal verbs (i.e. verbs that have a root…
The great extent of diversity in Arabic Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Apr 19, 2017
Every Arabic learner probably had to face the fact that Arabic is not a single language and there is a high variety: Standard Arabic, and a low variety: regional dialects, more than 20 of them. Today, we are using a short video that illustrates, very well, the great extent of this diversity. It shows…
Learn Arabic vocabulary for 30 mins Posted by aziza on Mar 31, 2017
Today, I present a nice video I found on YouTube which I will use with my daughter over the weekend. I like the video so much because it is very useful and easy at the same time. It is a list of words in Modern Standard Arabic which are related to everyday life and which…
Arabic Definiteness: Formation, Meaning, and Assimilation Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Mar 30, 2017
Typically, nouns and adjectives in most languages are made definite by articles. ‘the’; ‘le, la, les’; ‘die, der, des’ are the definite articles in English, French, and German, respectively. In Arabic, nouns and adjectives are made definite using ال which is appended to the beginning of the word, as in these examples: مَدِينَةٌ جَامِعَةً حِذَاءً…
Tanween [Nunation] in Arabic: Types, Meanings, and Assignment Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Mar 23, 2017
In an earlier post, we learned that basic Arabic diacritical marks have linguistic values. So does the Arabic nunation, i.e. tanween تَنْوِيْن. Besides its distinct pronunciation, it has both grammar- and meaning-related values. There are three types of tanween: fatH ( ً ), denoted by double fatHah kasr ( ٍ ), denoted by double kasrah…
Arabic Diacritics: Important But Neglected Posted by Ibnulyemen اِبْنُ اليَمَن on Mar 15, 2017
Generally, diacritics are marks that are added to letters and have pronunciation- and/or meaning-related values as well as grammatical values. In Arabic, diacritical marks are: the fatHah َ , a semi-flat hyphen-like added on top of the letter, the kasrah ِ , similar to fatHah, but put below the letter, the Dhammah ُ, a mark…
“Habibty”; Amr Diab Posted by Fisal on Dec 21, 2016
Ahlan, Arabic fans! Today I am presenting a beautiful song by Amr Diab عــَـــمــْـــرو دِيــَـــاب . The song is entitled “حبيبتي /Habibty/” which translates as “My Beloved”. Like all of Amr’s songs, the song is in the Egyptian slang Arabic (Cairene Arabic). The song “Habibty” is number six in the album “أحلى و أحلى /Ahla…