ARABIC LANGUAGE FOR BEGINNERS
Arabic is a very old language and alive today nobody today knows exactly how old it is. However the most conservative estimate in its written form it already exceeds 1,500 years. The proof thereof is that the Quran text was recorded onto animal skins and tree bark, during the time of revelation. That said, Arabic as a spoken language has been is common use since the Iron Age and is currently spoken as their mother tongue by more than 400 million people across at least 22 countries.Arabic is also the liturgical language for prayer, used by some 2 billion Muslims globally. Most of them are able to read the Arabic script with fluency eventhough many do not understand the Arabic language,
As such learning Arabic is in great demand and it's probably in greater demand today than it was between the 7th and the 20th century; during which time Arabic was the dominant language of scholarship throughout the Islamic empire. Islamic knowledge recorded in book form in Arabic by Arabic scholars was the impetus that dragged Europe out of the dark ages, hence many of the most advanced people in their fields of study today, learn Arabic for scientific and anthropological reasons, though most of them are not necessarily Muslim.
Having said that, Arabic as a language is not exclusive to Muslims, there are millions of Jordanian Maronites, Lebanese Melkites, Syriac Christians, Egyptian Coptic Christian, Melkites , Israeli Arameans and Palestinian Christians, etc, all of whom speak Arabic. Beside Arabic bibles have been in print for hundreds of years. The oldest Arabic bible known is the Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151, dated to 867 CE. It's kinda peculiar that most people never even heard of Christian Arabs but the reality of the situation is that pagan Arabs have lived in the Middle East prior to the birth of Christianity and have embraced it since.
As such learning Arabic is in great demand and it's probably in greater demand today than it was between the 7th and the 20th century; during which time Arabic was the dominant language of scholarship throughout the Islamic empire. Islamic knowledge recorded in book form in Arabic by Arabic scholars was the impetus that dragged Europe out of the dark ages, hence many of the most advanced people in their fields of study today, learn Arabic for scientific and anthropological reasons, though most of them are not necessarily Muslim.
Having said that, Arabic as a language is not exclusive to Muslims, there are millions of Jordanian Maronites, Lebanese Melkites, Syriac Christians, Egyptian Coptic Christian, Melkites , Israeli Arameans and Palestinian Christians, etc, all of whom speak Arabic. Beside Arabic bibles have been in print for hundreds of years. The oldest Arabic bible known is the Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151, dated to 867 CE. It's kinda peculiar that most people never even heard of Christian Arabs but the reality of the situation is that pagan Arabs have lived in the Middle East prior to the birth of Christianity and have embraced it since.
 |
| Bishr Ibn Al-Sirri's translation of the Arabic codex |
Be that as it may, whatever your reason is for learning Arabic, it is very commendable because Arabic is your gateway to he greatest books of Medicine, Science, Geology, Law, Logic, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Poetry and basically any subject imaginable, all of which were written by the likes of 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi, Ibn Sina, Al-Khwarazmi, Al-Razi, Al-Biruni, Sibawayh, Al-Ghazali, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, Ibn Khaldun to mention but a few.
Many of these Arabic masterpieces have never been translated into English nor any other language, hence it can only be appreciated once Arabic is fully mastered. Likewise the nuances and the miraculous nature of the Qur'an leaps out at you once you understand Arabic, regardless of your religious beliefs because the Qur’an is undeniably, undoubtedly and unequivocally, the greatest form of Arabic literature ever. If truth be told, it is unquestionably the greatest form of literature, period. It is not wonder that hundreds of millions of people from all walks of life learn the Arabic language in order to bear firsthand witness to this very fact.
But like all things great, you have have to start at the beginning. The image below is the a copy of the Arabic Alphabet (abjad) aka لأَبْجَدِيَّة العَرَبِيَّة al-abjadiyah al-ʻarabiyah or الحُرُوف العَرَبِيَّة al-huruf al-ʻarabīyah. As you can see there are 29 letters, Normally, hamza isn't considered as a letters but I've include it. The main feature in each block is a large red Arabic consonant along with its Arabic name above in the right hand corner (You are not expected to be able to read them yet unless you are already Arabic literate) and its transliterated name beneath is in green. The yellow box containing their numerical order emphasize that Arabic characters are read from right to left.
The Roman uppercase character in the sky blue in the lower left hand corner represents the sound or at least the approximate sound of the Arabic character in English. The faint dotted lines shows the base line position of each character when written and it can be seen that several of them straddle this line. For now just notice their basic shapes and look at the differences between those characters that look alike. Make special observance of the dots below and above each character. To hear the pronunciation of each of these characters, download the videos lessons No. 1 to 9 here.
In the bottom right hand corner of the above image, notice that there is either a symbol of a sun or a symbol of a moon. For now, recognize them as Sun letters حُرُوفٌ شَمْسِيَّةٌ hurufun shamsiyyatun (assimilating) and Moon letters, حُرُوفٌ قَمَرِيَّةٌ hurufun qamariyyatun (non-assimilating). (Don't worry, it will all be explained in due course). The above graphic is 150 mm x 150 mm in size and be downloaded as the first in a series of downloadable flashcards for quick and easy study of the Arabic language.
Many of these Arabic masterpieces have never been translated into English nor any other language, hence it can only be appreciated once Arabic is fully mastered. Likewise the nuances and the miraculous nature of the Qur'an leaps out at you once you understand Arabic, regardless of your religious beliefs because the Qur’an is undeniably, undoubtedly and unequivocally, the greatest form of Arabic literature ever. If truth be told, it is unquestionably the greatest form of literature, period. It is not wonder that hundreds of millions of people from all walks of life learn the Arabic language in order to bear firsthand witness to this very fact.
But like all things great, you have have to start at the beginning. The image below is the a copy of the Arabic Alphabet (abjad) aka لأَبْجَدِيَّة العَرَبِيَّة al-abjadiyah al-ʻarabiyah or الحُرُوف العَرَبِيَّة al-huruf al-ʻarabīyah. As you can see there are 29 letters, Normally, hamza isn't considered as a letters but I've include it. The main feature in each block is a large red Arabic consonant along with its Arabic name above in the right hand corner (You are not expected to be able to read them yet unless you are already Arabic literate) and its transliterated name beneath is in green. The yellow box containing their numerical order emphasize that Arabic characters are read from right to left.
The Roman uppercase character in the sky blue in the lower left hand corner represents the sound or at least the approximate sound of the Arabic character in English. The faint dotted lines shows the base line position of each character when written and it can be seen that several of them straddle this line. For now just notice their basic shapes and look at the differences between those characters that look alike. Make special observance of the dots below and above each character. To hear the pronunciation of each of these characters, download the videos lessons No. 1 to 9 here.
 |
| Arabic consonants in their initially / stand-alone form |
In the bottom right hand corner of the above image, notice that there is either a symbol of a sun or a symbol of a moon. For now, recognize them as Sun letters حُرُوفٌ شَمْسِيَّةٌ hurufun shamsiyyatun (assimilating) and Moon letters, حُرُوفٌ قَمَرِيَّةٌ hurufun qamariyyatun (non-assimilating). (Don't worry, it will all be explained in due course). The above graphic is 150 mm x 150 mm in size and be downloaded as the first in a series of downloadable flashcards for quick and easy study of the Arabic language.
No comments:
Post a Comment