Customer Reviews

The Arabic Alphabet: How To Read and Write It

5 star:		(96)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Very good if you just want to spell out Arabic signs, know a "little something" about Arabic (for those with an amateur interest in philology or linguistics), or you just think the script looks cool. Also very good as a companion to "Teach Yourself Arabic Script". I've had to put my study of Arabic on hold (unfortunately, but I'm going back to college for linguistics classes). I used both, and think this one should come first. It has some information on ligatures (I think it was one page) and bare minimal information on handwriting (two pages) and grammar (scattered about). However, it fulfils its goal in very little time and space with some good side information. You learn the alphabet, and most importantly, vowels and other markers (the no-vowel and double-consonant markers). Some other books don't bother with these markers since they are not used in normal print or handwriting. I found that I was able to remember pronunciations of vocabulary much more easily if I could add the vowels. There is also a respectable amount of vocabulary. It is mostly geared towards reading the Koran or newspaper. However, since there is almost no grammar, and therefore no grammatical exercises, one must resort to rote memorization (which I found rather difficult) if one wishes to retain any vocabulary.
So, definitely start with this book. However, don't stop here if you want to know more than the basic script. "Teach Yourself Arabic Script" has more information on handwriting forms (some are a bit different), ligatures (common in handwriting), and enough basic grammar to make sense of signs and newspaper headlines.

First, the Arabic text is large and the print quality good, making it easy to distinguish double dots from dashes, loops from blips and so forth. Also, all the Arabic is vowelled, which should be obvious for a beginners' book but is frequently omitted. The authors show you the direction the pen should trace in forming the letters and do it on a horizontal line. The pronunciation tips are extremely helpful, particularly for several of the letters without an English equivalent. I found that the first chapter, a brief introduction to the structure of Arabic, did indeed help "reduce the sense of strangeness" about the language. The style of the writing and overall presentation of the book have the knack of making it all seem easy. Clearly, this book was written by experienced and masterful teachers.

My only complaint is that there is no accompanying tape, which means the only practice the book gives you is to copy out the few sample words provided for each letter and the short Koran verse at the end. A tape and workbook would make this complete.

I bought this book so that I could learn the Arabic alphabet, and eventually learn a little Arabic. I thought learning the Arabic alphabet would be very difficult since it nearly looks like the random scribbles of my four year old daughter. I was amazed at how quickly this book allowed me to transform those scribbles into their corresponding letters and sounds. I read the entire book in one night, and now have a basic understanding of the Arabic alphabet. With a little more practice, I'll be ready to start learning words and grammar.

This book is exactly what its name implies, a good introduction to the Arabic alphabet. It does a good job of introducing the letters as they occur in different positions, introduces some basic vocabulary and gives you a good grounding for further study. It accomplishes this goal in less than 100 pages in a very accessible, non-intimidating way.

I say this is a good start because to actually read and write Arabic one would need to know more grammar and some of the nuances of the script which are not covered. However, for an introduction this is very thorough and some of the shortcomings are discussed in the spotlight reviews, so I won't repeat them here.

As a Westerner who has a casual interest in learning Arabic and Arabic script, I found this book to be ideal. A good accompaniment to it is Read and Speak Arabic for Beginners which for about $12.00 gives you some basic vocabulary, a 1 hour CD to help with pronunication and a set of flashcards to review recognizing words. This book and the one I'm reviewing make an excellent, inexpensive and fun introduction to a very difficult language.

Whether you are just curious about Arabic letters or are contemplating a serious study of the language Awde and Samano's user-friendly book is a great starting place. By the time you finish its ninety-five pages you will have acquired a modest reading/writing capability and will be able to recognize words and letters that follow the standard naskh script that is found in most Arabic books and newspapers. The book is self-contained and uncomplicated - great if all you want is to know the alphabet and don't want to be burdened with extraneous info. For those who intend to undertake a serious study of the Arabic language, mastering this book will enable you to bypass those awful transliteration and romanization schemes that accompany many introductory texts. The book also deals with ligatures (special combinations of letters) that other texts often omit. Inexpensive and easy to follow, you cant go wrong with this one.

If you want to learn Arabic and are wondering where to begin this is THE book for you!

I have found that in language study one of the grandest obsticles in getting away from European based languages is learning to read them. An alphabet, while essential for literacy is a pretty daunting task for those of us lacking photographic memories. Arabic especially so as there can be up to 4 forms of each letter. (Don't let that scare you, this book makes it simple!)

This book is truely wonderful in focus and presentation. Letters are introduced to the reader in a friendly manner and then instantly used in example words to help cement them into the mind. Letters with similar apperances are pointed out and introduced in a manner that subtle differences become more of a blessing than a curse in sound distinction. And the best part, when you are finished with this short book you can READ Arabic script. This opens up a world of other material including;
1. Books which deal with the classical language and barely touch on the alphabet, leaving the student to their own discipline of route memorization.
2. Arabic- English dictionaries which use Arabic script for Arabic words.
3. any Arabic script you happen to see anywhere.

It is possible to pick up some vocabulary from this book as it is introduced, however the vocabulary is more for examples and and being able to apply new letters immediately as you learn them. A briliant and useful learning device in itself.

Because of the nature of the Arabic languange the student will find that once reading is mastered the language itself is logically built and easy to learn. I wish there were books for more languages which made learning to read them this easy.

Highly recomended!

What a great little book. I am totally new to the Arabic language aside from knowing a few words here and there (only how to say them, not read or write them). I cannot afford to take classes right now so I decided to at least attempt to learn the alphabet on my own. Into my first few hours of study I was able to write down the phonetic spelling of the first few simple words and write them in Arabic without looking up the letters until after I was done. I mean -very- simple four or five letter words (without dipthongs or too many vowel marks) but I was very impressed considering I had no prior knowledge of the language. Now mind you, this is not an instant arabic book by any means.. and the script and rules of the language are detailed and oftentimes a little confusing. You will have to read it and re-read it and practice and memorize. But I think that this book puts it in straightforward, easy to understand terms that will help get you well on your way to further study. I'm glad I bought it. The text is large and the book is detailed enough without being too overwhelming. The explanations of how the language works and the patterns within it are very helpful. It has made some sense out of things that were, well, completely foreign to me. ;)

The only unfortunate things I can see is that, as another reviewer said, there is no accompanying tape. It would be nice to hear the sounds of the letters and the simple words and phrases they have included in the text. Especially since my High School Spanish seems to be getting in the way of my voicing the proper vowel sounds in Arabic. One can get a general idea though if one has a good vocabulary tape to work with. Also, I've noticed that in their examples of certain letters written -by themselves-, sometimes dots or loops are placed in a certain way. -Then- when you see the same letter used -in- one of the simple end-of-chapter words, it's just EVER so slightly different. It's not too terribly confusing and it's probably just a printing/font issue but it's worth noting.

Other than that I'm having a great time practicing my script and memorizing the characters and I can't wait to move forward.

I have been reading and re-reading this little booklet for several weeks, and it's quite helpful... There's something embarrassing about purchasing a "book" on such a basic topic. Therefore, I recommend thinking of this as a "booklet," which it really is, anyway, at under 100 pages.

The layout is as follows. First, there's a handy little "Introduction to Arabic," which warns the reader about such curious features of the language as a lack of clear distinction between nouns and adjectives. Arabic, evidently, has many such linguistic features, which are somewhat off-putting to a Western reader. I have been lucky enough to have taken a couple of linguistics courses, which made this brief chapter a little easier for me to get through. However, there's almost no linguistics terminology, and the chapter, on the whole, should be perfectly accessible to anyone. The next chapter is a sixteen page overview of the alphabet, giving the reader useful tips about how to pronounce, and memorize, the various letters. This chapter only gives the "initial" and "isolated" forms of each letter -- most Arabic letters change their appearance if they are in the middle of a word, or at it's end. The third chapter goes into more depth, and shows the "medial" and "final" forms of each letter. At the end there are some recommendations for further study; a verse from the Qu'ran for you to wrestle with; some notes about handwriting; a quick table of the alphabet for ready reference (bookmark this)!; and a map of the Arabic speaking world, with all the countries labelled in Arabic.

I like this booklet. It's inexpensive, and I think it's a good way to make the Arabic script less exotic and intimidating. If you decide to continue beyond this, let me just mention that I've asked around at several of Boston's numerous universities, and many of them seem to use the book "Elementary Modern Standard Arabic," by Peter Abboud and Ernest McCarus, published by Cambridge University Press. I am not going to pass myself off as an expert, however -- do some comparison shopping on your own, and see what you think.

All in all, this is a very nice idea for a booklet. Two thumbs up.

Good things come in simple packages. This booklet, soft-bound and printed on inexpensive paper, should be the beginning point for every westerner's attempts to learn Arabic. It addresses clearly the differences in underlying logic between Arabic and the various European languages, and explains them in simple terms. It removed, for me, various mysterious and seemingly incomprehensible elements that are glossed over in standard textbooks. I recommend it absolutely. It is much more than a "beastiary" for Arabic letters.

I am a college student at a school that doesn't offer Arabic as a language, and I wanted to learn it on my own without taking away too much time from my other studies (including another language- Russian). As someone who doesn't have an incredible amount of time to devote to the subject, and as someone with absolutely no knowledge of arabic whatsoever coming into it, this book is an EXCELLENT introduction to reading and writing the language. The book is broken down very simply, devoting time to each letter and the different ways they are written. The alphabet is known as a very difficult one for Westerners to master, especially when teaching oneself, but this book made the process very easy for me without taking much time. I highly recommend it to anyone who is learning this language for the first time, as the alphabet itself is the base off of which to learn everything else about the language. Fantastic.