Keywords around libraries المكتبات Posted by Hanan Ben Nafa on Sep 6, 2021 in Arabic Language, Literature, Uncategorized, Vocabulary
Welcome to this new blog post مرحبا بكم في هذه المدوّنة جديدة 🙂 Today, we’re going to learn about the theme of libraries المكتبات and some of the keywords المفردات الرئيسية around them – in Standard Arabic العربية الفصحى. The post will be vocabulary focused.
Photo by Pixabay from Pexels
A library مَكْتَبَة
As may of you probably know, the word ‘Maktabah’ is derived from the root كـ تـ ب, i.e. write/writing.
From this root, we have three keywords around the theme of libraries and these are:
‘Kataba’ كَـتَـبَ = (he) wrote
‘Kitaab’ كِـتَابْ = a book
‘Kaatib’ كَاتِبْ = writer/author
– The plural form the word ‘library’ it is مكتبات libraries.
*A library مكتبة could be both a place for reading books مَكَانٌ لِقِرَاءَةِ الكُتُبِ and a place buying books مَكَانٌ لِبَيْعِ الكُتُبِ.
While it’s usually called a bookstore مَتْجَرُ كُتُبْ in the latter case, in the Arab world – interestingly – this phrase is not used much in everyday Arabic and is a bookstore is simply called a library مكتبة!
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Keywords round books:
To write يكتب
To read يقرأ
To browse/ skim يتصفح
Words كلمات
to buy (acquire) books يقتني كتب
Book series سلسلة كتب
Number of pages عدد الصفحات
سنة النشر Publishing year
الطبعة The edition
Summary نبذة
Book introduction مقدّمة كتاب
Blurb دعاية
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At the book fair في معرض الكتاب:
Publishing house دار النشر
The publisher الناشر
Ward جناح
List of books قائمة الكتب
Best selling books الكتب الأكثر مبيعًا
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Book Genres/ Categories فِئات/تصنيفات الكتب:
At any library or a book fair, you will find that books are usually categorised مُصَنَّفة into these categories التصنيفات/ الفئات. These are some of the main ones:
Fiction Books الكتب الروائية
Non-Fiction Books الكتب غير الروائية
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Fiction & Literature الأدب والخيال
الروايات Novels
القصص Stories/Tales
السِير والمذكرات Autobiographies and diaries
الأدب الإسلامي Islamic Literature
المسرحيات Plays
Journalism & Media الصحافة والإعلام
Political books الكتب السياسية
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Economics & business الاقتصاد والأعمال
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التاريخ والجغرافيا History & Geography
الأسرة والطفل
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Translated Books كتب مترجمة
Islamic Books الكتب الإسلامية
الفنون Arts
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Philosophy الفلسفة
علم النفس Psychology
كتب التنمية البشرية Self Development Books
Self help books كتب تطوير الذات
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One of the very famous libraries (as a cultural centre مركز ثقافي) is: Bibliotheca Alexandrina مكتبة الإسكندرية.
If interested, you can watch this vlog that provides a quick tour of the library – in Egyptian Arabic.
Online Arabic stores are a bit scarce, but those few ones do provide shipping شحن of actual books (paperback books كتب ورقية) to most countries.
I personally used this popular bookstore to buy paperback books:
They also provide electronic ones/ kindle editions.
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About the Author: Hanan Ben Nafa
Hi, this is Hanan :) I'm an Arabic linguist. I completed my PhD in Linguistics - 2018. My PhD thesis was entitled Code-switching as an evaluative strategy: identity construction among Arabic-English bilinguals. I'm also a qualified public service translator & interpreter.