Arabic
Allow me to note, before I begin, that I am neither an expert in linguistics, nor am I a historian. I am, however, Lebanese. Arabic is my native language, but my dominant background education was mainly in English. I also studied French, German and Dutch, and I am currently living in the Netherlands. Being exposed to so many languages clarifies a lot of the cultural vagueness most monolingual people face. Language is not just a means for communication. It has a profound effect on how people think and even more profound effects on cultural evolution.
If you think German or Dutch grammar is difficult, wait till you sink your teeth into some Arabic. The Arabic language has its own unique rules, where (in some cases) the alphabet on its own is not enough to interpret the context. The complexity of the language is not only in its pronunciation but also in its conjugation.
Written Arabic:
The original ‘Koranic’ Arabic is what we in the Middle East refer to as “Formal” Arabic. It is mostly used in written form (newspapers, books etc.) and almost never used in speech. Although it never passes as colloquial, written Arabic remains a dominant form of communicating written ideas among Arabs, due to the wide variety of dialects and drastic changes that have evolved around the Arab world over the years. It ensures a certain measure of understanding and a unified interpretation among Arabs from different parts of the world. If you're from Lebanon and you pick up a Saudi newspaper, you would understand every word you read. On the other hand, if you’re a Lebanese who just met a Saudi, you might find yourself scratching your head on more than one occasion. Not to say that it’s a difference between night and day, but yes, even Arabs among Arabs sometimes find dialects hard to decipher and in many cases, extremely comical.
Spoken Arabic:
Here’s where it gets crazy. There are some similarities in pronunciation and dialect among adjacent countries, like Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, or the various parts of the United Arab Emirates, but the dialect varies widely from one part of the world to the other. Countries like Tunisia and Morocco almost have their own vocabulary. Now don’t ask me which country has the closest dialect to formal Arabic, because I don’t have a good answer to that… maybe Sudan?
The Arabic language does not recognize the G sound, which you might hear in words like: go, grape, gospel and so on. It does, however, have the J sounds, pronounced in a soft manner like “beige” or think “genre”. Nonetheless, countries like Egypt never use the soft J sound, instead they pronounce the same words with a ‘Gah’ sound. It is believed that they were historically influenced by the British and German mandates. In some tribal Arabic, the “AH” or “A” sound (think “apple” “ate”) is also replaced with the “Gah” or hard G sound.
Despite all the variations, Arabs around the world have a tendency to understand each other to a certain extent, and we have formal Arabic basics to thank for that.
The Koran and Ancient Arabic
Arabic evolved from an even more complicated and ancient form called Proto-Sematic. There existed some poetry and literature from earlier days, which used odd jargon and hysterical adjectives that would make any Arabic native crack up;(I came across those while taking an Arabic Literature class back in university) of course, those words are extinct nowadays.
Some verses in the Koran use complex wording and are not easily identifiable without proper translation. Those words are not tackled on a day to day basis, but funnily enough, many illiterate Muslims are able to recite the Koran word for word, due to its rhythmical and poetic arrangement.
Fun Facts and Cool Links
Ø The Arabic alphabet has 28 basic letters.
Ø Arabic goes from right to left.
Ø There is no IT in Arabic; it’s either a HE or a SHE, no matter what you’re talking about.
Ø Each letter can be pronounced in 3-4 different ways, depending on the conjugative UMLAUT or its Arabic equivalent.
Ø The countries that use Arabic as their official language are Algeria, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Western Sahara, Libya, Djibouti, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Chad, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait, Palestine, Sudan, Comoros, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Eritrea. (Hope I didn’t miss any.)
Ø There are about 255 million Arabic speakers around the world.
Ø There are two forms of G like letters: ġ - It’s like the French R. The other one is a soft J. (See example above.)
Ø There’s an odd sound of a Q, which comes from deep within the throat. The same applies to the D sound, where another version is spelled out by placing your tongue along the upper part of your mouth. For more about pronunciation, here are some fun youtube videos I found:
http://www.youtube.com/user/arabic4beginners
http://www.youtube.com/user/LearnArabicMe
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