Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle Cloud Reader.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
A Basic Course in Moroccan Arabic Paperback – June 30, 2003
| Richard S. Harrell (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
Enhance your purchase
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageArabic, English
- PublisherGeorgetown Univ Pr
- Publication dateJune 30, 2003
- Dimensions1 x 6.25 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100878403876
- ISBN-13978-0878403875
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Product details
- Publisher : Georgetown Univ Pr (June 30, 2003)
- Language : Arabic, English
- Paperback : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0878403876
- ISBN-13 : 978-0878403875
- Item Weight : 15 ounces
- Dimensions : 1 x 6.25 x 9.25 inches
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
This book teaches the language from an academic, grammar-based standpoint, not the situation-based lessons you will find in most language courses written for tourists. As others have mentioned, some of the vocabulary is outdated, it does not use the Arabic alphabet, and explains things in grammatical terms that I am not familiar with (I'm no linguist). However, I still found it usable since each lesson made a grammatical point, explained it, and showed several examples on the audio, so I picked it up by example.
There does not appear to be any other detailed resource for learning Moroccan Arabic. There are travel phrasebooks and their audio equivalent, that's about it. That fact alone makes this course worth the 4 stars I gave it.
I found it rewarding to work through this book, and check in on the phrasebooks from time to time, to see if the phrases made more sense (and they did!). Also by combining the practical vocabulary found in the phrase books with the sentence structures in this book, I can say a whole lot more than I find in either book.
There is a section of conversations in the back, for which there is no audio. I wish there was audio available for those, as that would make that section more useful.
If you are serious about learning Moroccan Arabic and understanding it, I recommend this book. If you want to quickly learn some conversational skills because you are planning a visit, this is not the book for you. It would be easier to learn some French, and you would be understood equally well.
Although written in 1965, the basics of the Moroccan dialect are well represented in the text, albeit in what might be called a more formal version of the dialect than one generally hears on the streets or in daily conversations. The book introduces the basics of Moroccan Arabic, both grammar and vocabulary, in a logical and progressive manner over the course of 130 short lessons. Each lesson essentially contains a short text, which is followed up by grammatical notes, exercises and vocabulary. The second part of the book contains ninety-seven dialogues that are presented in transliteration along with their English translations. Whenever I take a look at this text, it seems I get the feeling that this could really be an excellent book if it weren't for the irksome transliteration. In my mind, that just won't go away...
On that note, my heartfelt suggestion to anyone wanting to learn any dialect of the Arabic language is to first learn to read and write the Arabic script. That way you won't have to waste your time learning different methods of transliteration, which often lead to incorrect pronunciation anyway. Keep in mind that learning to read Arabic is not like learning to read Chinese or Japanese, with their thousands of characters, since the Arabic alphabet only contains twenty-eight letters. While it certainly looks rather confusing at first, especially since the letters connect to one other, with some practice and determination most people, regardless of their background, can pick it up rather quickly. Unfortunately, as it stands now, I don't know of a major text dealing specifically with Moroccan Arabic for English speakers that uses Arabic script, so the book under review seems to be about all there is for now. However, although it's rather slim and doesn't really set out to teach the language in detail, the 'Lonely Planet Moroccan Arabic Phrasebook' does use both Arabic script and transliteration, so those who can read Arabic might find it more useful, although it certainly doesn't offer the same depth of coverage as the text in question.
Overall, I would suggest getting this book if you really need a text specific to Moroccan Arabic, but keep in mind that you might need a Moroccan to help you with the pronunciation and transliteration at the beginning. The book mentions that cassette tapes (and now MP3 files) are also available to go along with the text, so I'd certainly consider those in order to learn correct pronunciation...especially since the cryptic transliteration that this book used certainly isn't going to help in that regard.
