Customer Reviews

Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds (Al-Kitaab fii ta allum al -Arabiyya - a textbook for Arabic)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Recognize that Alif Baa is a college textbook designed as part of a three-year Arabic program. It is very detailed, but includes a lot of linguistic information that a beginner doesn't want. Al-Batal designed this as the definitive text on the Arabic Alphabet, and it is, but if you just want to learn how to read and pronounce Arabic in order to start studying, then you should go for a simpler text. Awde's "The Arabic Alphabet" is the one to choose.
Alif Baa will tell you all the different regional pronunciations of each letter, different handwriting variations, etc. IMHO, that is too distracting for the beginner who just wants to unscramble the script and distinguish k from m, and so forth. The problem is that this book doesn't identify what is essential and what is nice to know, so people come out confused about three different regional pronunciations of one letter, rather than learning jiim = j, etc. These differences don't become important until you have progressed well into Arabic.
Also, the Al-Batal series seems to guard the answer keys to their textbooks like state secrets, one of the biggest student complaints.
And of course, $40 is a lot to plunk down if you can get what you want out of an $8 book (like Awde's).

This book is by far the best introduction to the Arabic writing system that I've been able to find. The accompanying CD's do what no other books dedicated to teaching the Arabic alphabet do, which is teach the sounds of Arabic at the very same time it teaches you individual letters. "Teach Yourself Arabic Script" for example only describes the particular sounds, which can be very different from English sounds and which one usually needs to hear in order to produce.

"Alif Baa" is also bound on the right-hand side, so the reader instantly gets used to the feel of a book which starts on what seems like the back page. Also, the size of the letters when they are introduced is fairly large so that the reader can see the shape of each letter and their sometimes confusing details, since Arabic letters are often variations on a particular theme. The page layouts are neat and uncluttered, the typeography on even the smaller-printed text is crisp, and write-on lines for student answers are ample.

Also, it is not necessary to purchase the videotapes to make full use of this text, as one reviewer complained. In each chapter there is a page dedicated to a cultural note which is illustrated through video scenes, but this is only an introduction to basic conversation in the Cairene dialect and not an instrinsic part of the book's main task, which is to teach the shapes and sounds of the Arabic alphabet. Contact information for the publisher is given in the back, and the answer key might be obtained from the press, I haven't tried yet. Once a reader has diligently worked through Alif Baa, she or he will be able to jump right in to any basic Arabic course and indeed have a major advantage, since none offer as thorough an introduction to reading and writing Arabic is this title.

This book is a very well-considered introduction to Arabic letters and sounds. It focuses on the difficulties English speakers have in recognizing and pronouncing letters such as "DHaa" vs "daal". The companion cassettes are absolutely necessary; the book is worthless without them. Exercises consist mainly of differentiating between similar-sounding words, and distinguishing what letter actually appears in a spoken word. No "answers" to the exercises are given, but I found none were needed. The book is intended to take 6 weeks of study to finish.

I first learned to speak Arabic with this text and I now use it when I teach. I have used many texts (some written and published in the Arab world), but non come close to the simplicity of Alif Baa. One thing the editors could work on is updating the pictures in the book. They are dated and almost silly to look at.

I've been studying Arabic for about a year now (with a couple months' break in the middle) and have been through several other books that introduce the Arabic alphabet. Based on the recommendations of several other reviewers, I ordered the book and the answer key from Georgetown Press. I got the newest version, which is in DVD format. I am very impressed. In the Introduction section, not only do they pronounce all the sounds of the letters, they have a video image of someone pronouncing them. This is really helpful, as not only do you hear the difference, you can also see how the shape of the mouth and position of the tongue changes for the different sounds.

I'm already pretty comfortable with the alphabet, having used Mace's book as well as some other sources, but I've already learned several new things working through the first chapter of this book. They also have video footage of someone writing the letters, so you can see how they are formed.

While I will eventually have to go to school somewhere or do a study abroad to get more experience speaking Arabic in real-life settings, I find Alif Baa a great start for self-directed study. I strongly urge people to buy the DVD edition of this book and the answer key as well--from Georgetown press if not available here.

This work has its strengths. First, it comes with 3 audio CDs; and in learning to pronounce correctly at least some of the Arabic letters that have no equivalent in our alphabet, audio demonstration is indispensable. (Written description will not do.) Second, no one can say that this work is not basic enough. It is about as basic as basic can be; and this will surely make it seem attractive to anyone intending self-instruction and having no prior education in Arabic.

Why, then, am I not inclined to recommend this work enthusiastically? Put bluntly, ALIF BAA IS A POOR VALUE FOR ANYONE INTENDING TO UNDERTAKE A COMPLETE SELF-DIRECTED STUDY OF ARABIC. Unless you buy Alif Baa directly from the publisher, the book does NOT come with an answer-key. Purchasing the key separately will require you either to deal with used-book sellers or to deal directly with the publisher. The former course may require you to pay nearly half the price of Alif Baa just for the 12-page key. The latter course will involve either paying a small price for the key (plus shipping, I imagine) or else paying more than the price of Alif Baa in order to obtain the associated videotape, with which comes a free answer-key. That's right: part of each lesson in Alif Baa involves watching items on the video, which must be purchased separately. You could buy the cheap key and avoid the video and still learn the Arabic alphabet; but given how much you've already paid for Alif Baa, isn't it distressing to learn after you've already bought the book that you must then either pay a lot more or else restrict the use to which you put it?

Moreover, you can buy THE ARABIC ALPHABET: HOW TO READ AND WRITE IT (by Awde and Samano) for about a quarter of the cost of Alif Baa. Its lower cost is due largely, no doubt, to its lack of any audio supplement. In spite of this notable deficiency, however, this less expensive book is quite instructive; and its deficiency will ultimately be remedied by the fact that you'll need to supplement whatever grammar / vocabulary text you eventually select with some audio material. With these, you can then hone your pronunciation-skills as you would have done by using Alif Baa. (And if you intend later to study Qur'aanic Arabic, then you'll find this little book superior to Alif Baa, since it treats two features of Qur'aanic notation that Alif Baa completely ignores -- namely the use of letter-fusions known as "ligatures," and the representation of long vowel sounds by joint use of short and long vowel symbols.)

Therefore, if your plan is to teach yourself Arabic (i.e., to carry out a complete course of self-directed study), and you don't want to waste money, then don't get taken in by Alif Baa. There's a less expensive, but no less effective, way to go.

This book was a wonderful tool to use for learning how to read and write Arabic. I had previously tried several different methods for learning Arabic, with little success. The book is extremely methodical and breaks down the language to the most basic of blocks. I started using the book in January 2000, and within four months I could read Arabic.

This book is the first text I used to begin my journey in to Arabic. It's set up well, and it does it's job. I love the DVD, it's so cheesy but it allows you to see a real-life situation. The CDs alone are worth having, and I loved the writing exercises. It does what it is supposed to, but I am picky and would have preferred to have a better introduction to grammar and more words. I liked the combination of MSA and some colloquial Egyptian Arabic but my current professor frowns down on it, he's a purist! I would recommend this book if you prefer a slow start or are not a strong language learner and are attempting to this on your own. Most classes combine this book with the next text called Al-kitaab fii Ta'allum Al-'Arabiyya the second edition. I DO NOT suggest these as something you do on your own! If you are going at it alone, use Mastering Arabic first, it's designed for beginners and gives you a good, strong base.
Overall, this text is a good start, but it is just that a BASIC start, use in conjunction with another book or to supplement a class.

As a nonspeaker learning Arabic for the first time, I found this book VERY easy to follow. This includes 3 CDs to listen to sounds and vocab words. Alif Baa is the first book in a 4 book series, followed by Al-Kitaab Part I, Part II, and Part III. I am taking an Arabic course for the ARMY and this is the book we started off with. There are 10 units all together, with about 5 letters in each unit to learn, along with a cultural video at the end of each unit. In each unit there is space to practice writing your new letters and words containing letters that you already have learned, thus building your vocabulary at the same time. I would have to guess that this book should take the average person approximately 1 month to complete (Completing lessons each day of about 1 hour each day). By the end of the last unit, you will be reading real commercial advertisements and practicing word searches.

I just want to let anyone interested in this book to know that the exercises really are not useful unless you have an answer key so this book as nice as it is with the CD audio component is not useful without an answer key. The answer key can be found at the Georgetown University publications website for only $3 plus shipping, but even better the book with CD and answer key are sold as a package on this site. For anyone interested in buying this book I would direct them in the direction of the Georgetown University publications website for no other reason than the answer key is sold as part of the package with the book.