Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds (Paperback)

~ (Author), (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

Product Description

The beauty of the Arabic language, both spoken and written--and the richness of the Arabic-speaking world, its history and culture--has recently become of increasing importance and a matter of revelation for the English-speaking world. It is essential as this new century unfolds, that understanding develops between nations--and language is the magic key.

The Al-Kitaab Arabic language program is among the English-speaking world’s most widely used Arabic language learning texts. Alif Baa with DVDs: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds is the first part of the Al-Kitaab program. This revised, second edition contains updated readings, new and revised exercises, and completely new audio/video materials on two DVDs bound into each volume.

In teaching the sounds and letters of Arabic, Alif Baa provides a variety of exercises aimed at developing the crucial nascent skills of reading, listening, writing, speaking, and cultural understanding. In conjunction with learning how to read and write the alphabet, Alif Baa introduces about 150 basic vocabulary words, including conventional forms of politeness and social greetings.

Standard Arabic vocabulary is distributed throughout the book, enhanced by the visual and audio materials on the DVDs and implemented in practical exercises. It introduces a range of Arabic from colloquial to standard in authentic contexts, including social greetings in dialogues that take place in an Egyptian context, the most widely-used and understood Arabic dialect.

Finally, Alif Baa includes capsules on Arab culture as well as an English-Arabic glossary. Alif Baa provides the essential first twenty contact hours of instruction that are the foundation for the rest of the Al-Kitaab language program.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Georgetown University Press; 2 Pap/DVD edition (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589011023
• ISBN-13: 978-1589011021
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #45,365 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 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).

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

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.

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.