Lesson objectives

1. Lesson objectives • By the end of this session you will • learn about different variations of Arabic • learn the Arabic alphabet • differentiate between short and long vowels • Write your name in Arabic By Ghizlane Lafdi

2. ARABIC الْعَرَبِيَّة By Ghizlane Lafdi

3. History Modern Standard Arabic belongs to the Semitic language family. There are three distinct forms of Arabic. Classical or Qur’anical Arabic, Formal or Modern Standard Arabic and Spoken or Colloquial Arabic. By Ghizlane Lafdi

4. Classical Arabic • Classical Arabic is the form of Arabic literally found in the Qur’an. It is used neither in conversation nor in non-religious writing. As such, Classical Arabic is primarily learned for reading and reciting Islamic religious texts. By Ghizlane Lafdi

5. Modern Standard Arabic • Modern Standard Arabic provides a universal form of the language that can be understood by all and is commonly used in radio and TV news broadcasts, films, plays, poetry, and conversation between Arabic-speaking people of different dialects. By Ghizlane Lafdi

6. Spoken or Colloquial Arabic • Arabic colloquial dialects are generally only spoken languages. Arabs use the colloquial language in all their daily interactions. There are wide differences between the various colloquial dialects. In fact, some of the differences are so large that many dialects are mutually unintelligible. By Ghizlane Lafdi

7. Arabic Script • The Arabic alphabet (أبجدية عربية) is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. After the Latin alphabet, it is the second-most widely used alphabet around the world. By Ghizlane Lafdi

8. Arabic alphabet • The Arabic alphabet or Arabicabjadis the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. All of the 28 letters are consonants. By Ghizlane Lafdi

9. By Ghizlane Lafdi

10. Transliterated Arabic • Transliteration is a method used to convert a text from one script to another. Thus, transliterated Arabic is Arabic written by using English or, more generally, Latin alphabet. • For example the word أهلا is transliterated as follows: ahlan By Ghizlane Lafdi

11. Arabic Vowels • There are two types of vowels in Arabic: short vowels and long vowels. Short vowels are little symbols or diacritics placed above or under a consonant. Long vowels are written. By Ghizlane Lafdi

12. Short Vowels َ fatHa a ba بَ ُ bu u بُ Damma ِ i بِ bi kasra By Ghizlane Lafdi

13. Practice • Find a letter equivalent to the English letter ‘t’ from the Arabic alphabet. • Now write in the Arabic script: ta tu ti By Ghizlane Lafdi

14. Have you written something similar to this? تَ ta تُ tu تِ ti By Ghizlane Lafdi

15. Long Vowels baa بَ + ا = بَا buu بُ+و=بُو بِ+ي= بِي bii By Ghizlane Lafdi

16. Practice • Now take the same letter ‘t’ and add to it the long vowels: taa tuu tii By Ghizlane Lafdi

17. Have you got all of them right? taa تَا tuu تُو tii تِي By Ghizlane Lafdi

18. Joining Arabic Letters All letters are joined to the letters following them except for six letters: ا- د – ذ – ر – ز - و Click here to see how the Arabic letters are joined. By Ghizlane Lafdi

19. Practice • Try to join the following letters: Reminder: Arabic is written from right to left! س + ف + ر د + ر + ب ن + ج + م By Ghizlane Lafdi