A textbook for learners who have previously studied, or are concurrently studying Modern Standard Arabic and Arabic script and phonology--for example college students who have studied written Arabic but find they are unable to talk informally with their Arab friends. The audio exercises on the disk are keyed to the text, and drill students on listening and speaking. The first edition was published in 1989. Annotation :2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Using a field-tested, non-grammar-based approach, this book teaches a standardized variant of spoken Arabic and introduces beginning students to standard Arabic orthography.

This Arabic language-learning classic is now enhanced with a bound-in CD of MP3 files. Designed to provide beginners in Arabic with maximum linguistic and cultural exposure in a short period (about 100 hours of contact time), this book consists of sixteen lessons with dialogs and exercises dealing with day-to-day scenarios: greeting people, getting a taxi, making phone calls, asking directions, discussing the weather, and effectively communicating with police and duty officers. The lessons help the reader to navigate situations at gas stations, marketplaces, restaurants, and in their own households. Formal Spoken Arabic (FSA) is a kind of lingua franca that is more natural than speaking Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the literary form of the language. FSA uses the shared features of the various urban colloquial dialects, defaulting to Levantive (terms common to Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan) where the spoken dialects diverge. Each lesson includes cultural notes on American-Arab interactions, notes on learner strategies for managing Arabic conversations with a limited amount of language, and grammar explanations in clear, non-technical language. Although the main dialogue for each lesson is presented in Arabic script, transcriptions are used to accelerate spoken performance. The FAST Course includes grammatical explanations, English-Arabic and Arabic-English glossaries, appendices listing common idioms, courtesy expressions and other useful terms, instructor's notes, and drills aided and accompanied by the CD. Originally created for diplomats, this is an expanded and enhanced edition of a work originally developed by the U.S. State Department as a six-week intensive, or "FAST" (Familiarization and Short-Term) course, and is easily adaptable for students in Middle East area studies. Travelers heading for posts in the Arab world who quickly need to gain a basic ability to converse in day-to-day situations will find Formal Spoken Arabic FAST Course an invaluable companion.

Compare the vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar of MSA and 14 dialects (Algerian, Bahraini, Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Qatari, Saudi (Hejazi), Sudanese, Syrian, Tunisian, and Yemeni). Free audio downloads available at www.lingualism.com/ava If you’re learning Arabic, you’ve probably started with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Or perhaps a dialect? You might be learning both MSA and a dialect (or two!) in tandem. And you’re certainly aware that there are many more dialects out there. It may seem daunting. But just how similar and different are they from one another? If you’re curious, this book is for you. Arabic vs. Arabic: A Dialect Sampler lets you explore the vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar of 15 varieties of Arabic (14 dialects and MSA) through tables with notes and free, downloadable accompanying audio. You can go through the tables in order or skip around the book to see what catches your attention. The book really is meant to be a sampler platter to give you a taste of each dialect and a better understanding of just how varied the various varieties of Arabic are. The layout encourages the self-discovery method of learning. While the notes under many tables identify points of interest, you are encouraged to find patterns, exceptions, innovative features of dialects, and universals by studying the tables and listening to the audio tracks.

Until about 60 years ago, linguistic research on the Arabic language in the West was restricted to inquiries on Classical Arabic and the Classical tradition, and spoken Arabic dialects, with historical studies embedded within the broader field of Semitic languages. This situation is changing quickly, not only through the continuation of older research traditions, but also with the integration of new research fields and perspectives. With this expansion comes the danger of specialists in Arabic losing an overview of the field, and of leaving non-specialists without basic resources for evaluating domains of research which they may be interested in for comparative purposes. The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics will confront this problem by combining state-of-the-art overviews with essays on issues of perspective, controversy, and point of view. In twenty-four chapters, leading experts from around the world will lay out their own stances on controversial issues. The book not only evaluates ways in which questions and theories established in general linguistics and its sub-fields elucidate Arabic, but also challenges approaches which might result in accommodating Arabic to "non-Arabic" interpretations, and brings out the Arabic specificity of individual problems. The Handbook, in one compact volume, gives critical expression to a language which covers large populations and geographical areas, has a long written tradition, and has been the locus of major intellectual fervor and debate.