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5 Greetings

Language & Culture Lessons

Ok, moving right along to the Language and Culture lessons. Yes they are "grammar" lessons, but they are so very much more than that. Along with the grammar you're also getting a great insight into Arabic culture. You'll be way ahead of the pack if or when you decide to visit any Arabic speaking countries. I've designed these lessons to ease you into the mechanics behind the Arabic language. You'll notice that many of the topics correspond to the ones in the Interactive Audio Course. The lessons give you a chance to take a closer look at many of the words and phrases you learned in those audio lessons. Like the Interactive Audio Lessons, all of the Language and Culture lessons have My Level testing. This is the absolute best way to power up your understanding of Arabic. I really recommend that you use My Level for each and every lesson! In todays lesson, youll learn some more greetings as well as a variety of different forms of address. In the culture lesson, youll learn the difference between classical and colloquial Arabic. Are you ready to get started? Here we go then

Language
Greetings
There are two things we should mention before you dive into the lesson. The first is that the Arabic spoken in different Arab countries varies slightly. Sometimes its just the accent, but in some cases its the use of different words. In this course, we are teaching Egyptian Arabic. This will be an advantage to you in two ways. The first is that Egypt is definitely the most popular tourist destination in the Middle East. The other is that Egypt is the capital of Arab television and movie making. For this reason, Egyptian Arabic is widely understood throughout the region.

Lastly, as was mentioned in the audio lesson, there are some letters in Arabic for which equivalent letters in English dont exist. So when Egyptians are writing Arabic in English letters (for whatever reason), they use numbers that look similar to the Arabic letters. These sounds are listed below. Practice the sound before you try to apply it in a word.

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3 3' 2 Greetings are an important part of relating in an Arab setting. Good etiquette dictates that adequate greetings are exchanged before the business of the conversation is addressed. There are many ways of saying more or less the same thing and you will find that Egyptians may welcome you and ask you how you are several times in a conversation. This is considered polite, especially for a host. Hospitality is an important Arab value and so the repeated use of various greetings is just an Egyptian way of making sure you feel welcome.

Ahlan wa Sahlan Welcome Ahlan wa Sahlan literally means welcome, but is commonly used as a general greeting just like hello in English. This greeting can be shortened to just ahlan (hi) in informal settings. When greeting a number of people, you should say ahlan wa Sahlan bekum or ahlan bekum. Both greetings can be responded to by saying ahlan beek (to a male) or ahlan beeke (to a female).

Ahlan wa Sahlan Ahlan Ahlan wa Sahlan bekum Ahlan bekum Ahlan beek Ahlan beeke

Hello Hi Welcome everyone! Hi everyone! Hi to you (male) Hi to you (female)

As all Arab countries are predominantly Muslim countries, you will very likely hear and be greeted with the universal Islamic greeting issalamu 3alekum! This literally means peace be upon you and the appropriate response would be wa 3alekum issalam which means and peace be upon you. Greetings can also be given according to the time of day, as you heard in the audio lesson. Saba7 il 7eer means good morning and can be used until midday. The appropriate response is Saba7 il noor, although you might also hear Saba7 il ful.

Ahlan - Hi

Misa il 7eer means good afternoon, which applies to the rest of the day. The appropriate response is Misa il noor. Tesba7 ala 7eer means good night, and is used when leaving someones house late at night or when going to bed. It is repeated in response.

Saba7 il 7eer Saba7 il noor Misa il 7eer Misa il noor Tesba7 3la 7eer

Good morning! Good morning (response. Lit. morning of light) Good afternoon! Good afternoon (response, lit. afternoon of light) Good night (lit. may you wake up well).

As was mentioned before, Egyptians have a number of different ways of asking essentially the same question. Other Arab countries also have different ways to ask how are you? How are you? Whats the news? Whats your news? How are you doing? Are you happy? How are you? (Jordanian/Palestinian greeting) Traditional Arab greeting.How is your situation? Saudi/Iraqi greeting

Izzayak? Ey il a7bar? A7barak ey? 3amal ey? Mabsoot? Keefak? Kief 7alak? Ashlonak?

All of these greetings can be generally answered with the reply taught in the audio lesson. Kuwayyis/a, il 7amdulillah Im good, thank God.

You may be wondering how one word in Arabic equals two or three words in English. Let me explain, as this will happen all the time! Sometimes one word in English requires two or more in Arabic, or vice versa, to have the same meaning. That's why it's important not to get caught up in making literal, or word-by-word, translations. Arabic uses a grammar system called conjugation which basically means that the subject of the word can be included in the word by means of a slight modification. An example of this would be the word izzayak? The word izzay means how and is modified according to whether the person being asked the question is a male or a female.

Izzayik? Izzayak?

How are you? (female) How are you? (male)

Forms of Address
You may remember from the audio lesson that Egyptians normally add the word ya before someones name when addressing them. This also applies to titles, which are commonly used in Egypt both formally and informally. Heres some formal examples. Ya Doktor/a Ya Ustaz/a Ya Hagg/a Can be broadly used to address any medical person (except nurses) or university lecturer. Is something like Mr and can be used to respectfully address anybody. Is used to address someone who has performed the pilgrimage to Mecca. It is generally used to address any elderly person.

Women without any other title are addressed according to whether they are married or not. Ya Madam Ya Anesa For a married woman (borrowed from the French) For a young, unmarried woman

Egyptians also like to use titles in a more light-hearted way. In particular, the old fashioned titles of Turkish officials are commonly used amongst friends when addressing each other. Examples you might hear. Ya Basha Ya Bey Ya Fandim

Culture

Classical and Colloquial Arabic

The Arabic language takes two different forms, aside from national variations. The first is known as fus7a (classical) and refers primarily to the written form of the language. The second, known as 3amayah (colloquial), refers to the modern spoken language. A native Arabic speaker may know 3amayah without knowing fus7a, depending on their level of schooling. Conversely, an Islamic student from a nonArab country like Malaysia may know how to read and write fus7a without being able to speak or understand 3amayah.

All Arabic literature is written in fus7a, most notably the Quran. Muslims believe that Arabic is the language of heaven, and that translated versions of the Quran fail to convey the most complete meaning. You will find that amongst Egyptians there is a varying ability to use fus7a. Those who were educated at Islamic schools or studied Arabic seriously at school and university will be quite capable with this form of the language, while many others struggle to understand classical Arabic literature. Its the equivalent of deciphering Shakespeare or the King James Bible.

Arabic literature is written in fus7a. 3amayah, while being based on fus7a, has mutated and evolved like any spoken language. It has been influenced by the languages of foreigners living in Egypt over the centuries, and has adopted and adapted words referring to modern conveniences. For example, the English word bus is pronounced utubis, while television is pronounced tilivizyon. Because this course is primarily aimed at helping you communicate in Arabic, we have been teaching you 3amayah rather than fus7a. Many American universities teach classical Arabic for those who may be interested in taking it further.

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