Alif Baa : Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds [Paperback]

Kristen; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Al-Tonsi, Abbas Brustad (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Georgetown University Press; Package edition (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087840273X
• ISBN-13: 978-0878402731
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,851 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Detailed Text - But Better Beginner Options Available, March 18, 2005

By 

zift (Molokai, Hawaii, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alif Baa : Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds (Paperback)

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).

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superior introduction to a potentially daunting task, January 13, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alif Baa : Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds (Paperback)

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.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to Arabic letters and sounds., February 15, 1999

By A Customer

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

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.