Beginner - It's Arabic

Another fascinating, and very different, lesson: thank you both. I did know of a few of those words had Arabic origins, but many were new and the history was very interesting.

Not related to anything, but the number of words containing the 'r' sound reminded me... Perhaps being an English speaker, and perhaps being from Australia where we drop an audible r sound from words quite frequently compared to some accents/dialects of English, I really struggle with the 'rolled r' sound in Arabic -- and often it is not clear what I am saying to Arabic speakers. Perhaps the answer is practise, practise, practise, but do you have any hints as to how to force me to make an audible 'r'? My thanks.

@climacus, glad you liked this lesson :-)

With regards to the Arabic letter 'Raa', yes I imagine that it can be difficult. I believe that some Arabic speakers also find it difficult pronouncing the English equivalent.

One important difference between the two is that the tong is used during the pronunciation of the Arabic letter. When you pronounce the letter, your tong needs to touch the ceiling of your mouth and then let go. With the English counterpart, you don't use your tong at all, just your lips...

Like you said, practice makes perfect :-) I recommend trying to pronounce words that contain a strong 'raa' sound, like the Arabic words for Rabbit and Big for example. If you search these words in the Audio Dictionary, you will be able to hear the pronunciation at will and practice at the same time.

It’s definitely do-able, there are many people who have learned Arabic and managed to perfect the sound, so never give up.

Thanks Moshaya for the suggestions and encouragement; off to the dictionary I go...

@climacus, one more tip :)

Try to pronounce the Arabic letter with your mouth open a little, don't move your lips, you just need to use your tong. Hopefully this will help force out the Raaaa.

Good idea to teach us words coming from Arabic! I think you should repeat this fascinating issue once in a while!
In my class here I have two Italian co-students and they are always shouting out when they find an Arabic word similar in their language, one of them usually claims that the Arabic word comes from Italian ;-)

Climacus, maybe it could help you to try with words which have a shatta on the raa and where the pronounciation is much stronger, like (حرية)=hurriya ? Just an idea... :)

Thanks Moshaya and Na7la; very helpful. I remember having to practice the letters with shatta [I was taught it was "shadda"...is that a dialect difference?] when I started learning Arabic and it was a help going over them and comparing them to their near-equivalents without the shatta.

And luckily practising ر in my lunch break at my desk at work does not sound as strange as it did when I was [probably too loudly ;-) ] practising ع, غ and خ when I first started learning Arabic. :cheese:

And I continue to dig deep and discover more to the dictionary: the "Test yourself" section is amazing.

Thank you to all of you for the great work here, and to all the students too with the discussions and helpful comments.

Fyi - It's shadda - شَدَّة

Thanks a lot for this new style lesson. Like it! I think everyone can enjoy no matter he/she is an Arabic learner or not.Actually,monsoon,mattress,cotton and safari has become Japanese but I didn't know they are from Arabic. This type of lesson really helps to remember new words easily,Hope we can have another one again.

Btw,Arabic word 'قبلي',which means a hot, dust-carrying desert wind in North Africa,is widely recognized by many Japanese during couple of decades,but by completely different meaning. When a Japanese less than in their 50s would imagine Miyazaki Hayao animation by hearing 'Ghibli'. They hardly know the original meaning though!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_Ghibli#Name

Well,I just wanted to say this unnecessary addition! %-P

Is it a new feature or an omission that there is no Dialogue coming with this lesson, and no Audio transcript?

Sorry for the shadda-confusion... looks like I have a very strong accent too, Climacus ;-)
Thanks for the correction Mohammed!!

@tau, no this is not standard. This particular lesson did not require a dialogue, hence that, and the audio transcript, were not included

Thank you Moshaya & na7la; I think my 'r' is becoming a bit more audible with the practices suggested.

On the topic of Arabic words and English, I read an article saying the English word 'apricot' comes from البرقوق, which if my book here is right is actually a plum -- so English apricot comes from Arabic plum: language is wonderfully strange and interesting.

@climacus, yes برقوق is actually plum in Arabic. It's funny how things turn out. Interestingly enough, plum is actually مشمش in Arabic.

I am a beginner of this new language but i really want to learn this language because i am so depressed..When i came in uae i just knew my mother language and english. Now its been almost a year that i am staying here and till now i dont know how to speak arabic, may be because i never showed any importance in speaking arabic but now i realized that it is very important if we plan to stay here for our carrier ... Help me guys and show me the easiest part to learn this language.

@mdnahidkhan, you're here at ArabicPod, and have access to a lot of resources to learn Arabic. Start by going through the beginner podcasts. All the best ;-)

@mdnahidkhan

Nice to meet you, I'm sure you'll enjoy learning Arabic here without being stressed out.I've studied for about a year now,since I'm not in an Arabic speaking country, I really envy your situation.I'm looking forward to your progress. Let's enjoy learning ! :coolgrin:

I cant seem to see/find the audio pdf...