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

by Mahmoud Al-Batal (Author), Kristen Brustad (Author), Abbas Al-Tonsi (Author)
Key Phrases: vowelled texts, long vowel alif, frontal quality, Ustaaz El-Shinnawi, Arabian Peninsula, North Africa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Highly recommend this second edition...The DVDs add considerably to students' mastering of the material -- Modern Language Journal, 2006 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description
With a set of three audio CDs, this text is intended for anyone interested in learning modern Arabic as a living language. The first part of the Al-Kitaab language program, it embodies two main premises: that the student can and should learn to recognize and produce the sounds of Arabic correctly from the very beginning, and that the student should be introduced to the full range of the Arabic language and cultural continuum - colloquial, modern standard, and classical. In teaching the sounds and letters of Arabic, this text provides a variety of exercises aimed at developing all skills: reading, listening, writing, speaking, and cultural understanding. In order to teach Arabic as used by Arabs, including social aspects of Arab culture, this book and its accompanying CDs introduce the student to the colloquial dialect of Cairo, the most widely spoken and understood in the Arabic-speaking world. "Alif Baa" introduces about 150 basic vocabulary words, including social greetings and politeness formulae, most of which are common to standard Arabic and one or more dialects. The book and CDs focus on reading skills, aural recognition, and oral production through extensive drills and accompanying videos. Including authentic materials from newspapers and magazines and skits filmed in Egypt, as well as an English-Arabic glossary, "Alif Baa" lays the groundwork for the rest of the Al-Kitaab language program. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Georgetown Univ Pr (August 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878402926
• ISBN-13: 978-0878402922
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #942,356 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great beginner book, October 6, 2006

By	Colin (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

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

I used Alif Baa (with DVDs) in Arabic 101 at the University of Maryland (Baltimore County) and it's probably the best beginner book I have encountered. The DVDs are great and add a lot to the text and exercises. It even shows a chart with the letters, and you can click on the appropriate character to hear and show someone pronouncing it in several different voices. Great idea. Lots of exercises to listen to and write down. And, for $5, there's an answer key to Alif Baa which will help an awful lot if you want to teach yourself.

15 of 15 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 - Book & Audio CD Edition (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).

19 of 20 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

This review is from: Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds - Book & Audio CD Edition (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 left-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.