السلام عليكم و بسم لله الرحمن الرحيم
What books should a beginner buy to learn Arabic?
Even with all of the amazing free resources available online for students studying Arabic, anyone who is really serious about becoming fluent in Arabic will need to invest in some good old fashioned books.
Whether you are studying Arabic on your own or in a formal classroom setting, return to this website often for updated resources and links for the most useful books, CDs, DVDs, and MP3 files essential for the serious student of Arabic as a foreign language.
UCLA has a useful resource bibliography page which lists books helpful to students and teachers of Arabic as well as other foreign languages at their reference site http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Default.aspx .
Amazon.com also sells an increasingly impressive number of high quality books, cds, and dvds related to learning Fusha, Modern Standard Arabic, and even common spoken Arabic dialects such as Egyptian, Lebanese, Gulf (Khaligi), Moroccan, and more. Below the following description of diglossia are some texts that I have either personally bought or have am considering buying (InshaAllah) sometime in the future for my personal language learning library.
Diglossia exists when native speakers of a language must master two or more distinct forms of their native language and switch between those forms depending upon the social situation.
Arabic is often used as a textbook linguistic example of Diglossia because distinct different forms of Arabic are used for formal writing and reading versus daily conversation between family and friends.
Click on the following scholarly paper published by a professor of the University of Michigan to read more about the Diglossia of Arabic. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~andyf/diglossia1.html.
Thus, it is important for those who are serious about becoming fluent in Arabic to realize that they must study and master al-Fusha if they are interested in religious and classical texts, Modern Standard Arabic if they wish to read modern Arabic books, newspapers, and text, and they must also learn to speak and understand a colloquial Arabic dialect. It should be noted that each twenty-two Arabic-speaking nation has a distinct colloquial Arabic dialect, although some are more closely related to each other than others.
Al-Fusha is also known as Classical Arabic, and it is the language of the Holy Quran, Islam, and all classical Arabic texts from the advent of Islam until modern times. Modern Standard Arabic is very closely related to Al-Fusha, but it includes modern vocabulary and also many foreign word borrowings from French, English, and other languages for culinary and cultural borrowings as well as such modern technologies as computers and telephones. Modern Standard Arabic is sometimes referred to as an "artificial" language because even native-speakers of Arabic have to formally study it in school in order to master it. Modern Standard Arabic is the formal written language of modern Arabic, but it is used as a spoken language in very formal social situations such as business, politics, and also for media reporting in print newspapers and via spoken news reporting on the radio, on television, and online.
However, as the following article points out, Al Fusha and Modern Standard Arabic alone do not prepare a potential tourist with the colloquial language skills necessary to buy a cup of coffee in Cairo or Damascus...let alone ask for directions to the train station -- and then buy the ticket in Beruit!
Egyptian Arabic is one of the most widely understood colloquial Arabic dialects primarily because for many, many years Egypt was the leading producer of Arabic language movies, television programs, and commercial music popular thoughout the Arabic-speaking world. Even though increased output of commerically produced movies, music, and other multimedia productions from the other Arab countries now rivil or even surpass Egypt's media output, it is still helpful to study colloquial Egyptian Arabic.
One of the most well known and well respected aural language learning programs is Simon and Schuster's Pimsleur Language Program. Click here for free online demos of the Pimsleur Language Programs. . In addition to the
Pimsleur Language Program series for Egyptian Arabic, Eastern Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic, there is another aural language series published in the UK by Michel Thomas Method Language Learning Homepage. . Click on the following link for a free online demo of the Michel Thomas Egyptian Arabic series.
There are also many helpful resources for learning to speak and understand Arabic dialects on Amazon, including the links listed below:
Some argue that Levant Eastern Arabic colloquial dialects such as Syrian, Jordanian, Lebanese, and Palestinian dialects are somewhat easier for students of Modern Standard Arabic to master because those dialects are somewhat closer to al-Fusha as well as Modern Standard Arabic.
Alif Baa: Mulitmedia and Books to Learn the Arabic Alphabet
Arabic-English Dictionary by Hans Wehr, Paperback with Free Super Saver Shipping on Amazon
Arabic to English Dictionary by Hans Weir
Al Mawrid, Arabic/English Dictionary
Click on the following links for pre-searched lists of the best books, kindle books, and resources available on Amazon.com related to the key word searches listed below. These lists are for books that I own or have borrowed in the past and found to be useful. Remember to check your local library too! You don't always have to buy books. Sometimes the local libraries have helpful resources availabe to be borrowed for free!:
Link to List of Good Beginner Books for Learning Arabic
Link to List of Useful Books for Intermediate to Advanced Students of Arabic
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