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Colloquial

Arabic of Egypt
Colloquial Arabic of Egypt provides a step-by-step course in spoken
Egyptian Arabic – the most widely understood dialect in the Arab
world. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment
of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to
communicate confidently and effectively in Egyptian Arabic in a broad
range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.
Key features include:
• Arabic in romanization form throughout, with optional Arabic
script supplement
• emphasis on modern conversational language with clear
pronunciation guidance
• progressive introduction to the Arabic alphabet to aid familiarity
with simple labels and signs
• grammar section and bilingual glossaries for easy reference
• stimulating exercises with lively illustrations
• new e-resources at www.routledge.com/9780415811316 offering
supplementary materials for teachers and learners, including extra
activities (and answers), vocabulary lists and cultural information,
ideas for group activities linked to each unit in the course, listing
of the complete Arabic alphabet, notes comparing Egyptian and
Standard Arabic and downloadable additional audio tracks.
Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, this new and revised
edition of Colloquial Arabic of Egypt offers an indispensable resource
both for independent learners and for students taking courses in
Egyptian Arabic.
Accompanying audio material is available to purchase separately on
two CDs or in MP3 format, or comes included in the great value
Colloquial Arabic of Egypt pack. Recorded by native speakers, the
audio complements the book and will help enhance learners’
listening and speaking skills.
By the end of this course, you will be at Level B1 of the Common
European Framework for Languages and at the Intermediate–Mid
level on the ACTFL proficiency scales.
THE COLLOQUIAL SERIES
Series Adviser: Gary King

The following languages are available in the Colloquial series:


Afrikaans German Romanian
Albanian Greek Russian
Amharic Gujarati Scottish Gaelic
Arabic (Levantine) Hebrew Serbian
Arabic of Egypt Hindi Slovak
Arabic of the Gulf Hungarian Slovene
Basque Icelandic Somali
Bengali Indonesian Spanish
Breton Irish Spanish of Latin America
Bulgarian Italian Swahili
Burmese Japanese Swedish
Cambodian Kazakh Tamil
Cantonese Korean Thai
Catalan Latvian Tibetan (forthcoming)
Chinese (Mandarin) Lithuanian Turkish
Croatian Malay Ukrainian
Czech Mongolian Urdu
Danish Norwegian Vietnamese
Dutch Panjabi Welsh
English Persian Yiddish
Estonian Polish Yoruba
Finnish Portuguese Zulu (forthcoming)
French Portuguese of Brazil

COLLOQUIAL 2s series: The Next Step in Language Learning

Chinese German Russian


Dutch Italian Spanish
French Portuguese of Brazil Spanish of Latin America

All these Colloquials are available in book & CD packs, or separately. You can
order them through your bookseller or via our website www.routledge.com.
Colloquial
Arabic of Egypt

The Complete Course


for Beginners

Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar


Third edition published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar
The right of Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade-
marks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition by Russell McGuirk published by Routledge 1986
Second edition by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar published by Routledge 2004
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wightwick, Jane.
Colloquial Arabic of Egypt : The Complete Course for Beginners / Jane Wightwick and
Mahmoud Gaafar. -- Third edition.
pages cm. -- (The Colloquial Series)
Text is in English and Arabic.
1. Arabic language--Textbooks for foreign speakers--English. 2. Arabic language--
Dialects--Egypt. I. Gaafar, Mahmoud. II. Title.
PJ6307.W52 2014
492.7'82421--dc23
2013036779
ISBN: 978-0-415-81131-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-81133-0 (audio CDs)
ISBN: 978-0-415-81132-3 (pack)
ISBN: 978-0-415-81134-7 (MP3s)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07047-5 (ebk)
Publisher’s Note
This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by the authors.
Contents

Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
The sounds of Arabic 4
The Arabic alphabet 8

1 áhlan wa sáhlan! 10
Hello and welcome!

In this unit you will learn about:


•greetings and simple courtesies
•saying your name
•saying where you come from
•singular pronouns (‘I’, ‘you’, ‘he’, ‘she’)
•making simple sentences
•how the Arabic script works
•how to recognize these Arabic letters: çäÜG
2 9ílti 25
My family

In this unit you will learn about:


•members of the family
•plural pronouns
•describing possession
•masculine and feminine words
•asking simple questions
•how to recognize these letters: …¿
•reading some simple words in Arabic script
vi Contents

3 tíshrab shay? 43
Would you like some tea?

In this unit you will learn about:


•offering food and drink
•accepting and refusing politely
•some Egyptian dishes and drinks
•jobs and occupations
•making words plural
•how to make simple sentences negative
•recognizing these Arabic letters: ê ì ñ

4 fíihaa takíif? 61
Does it have air conditioning?

In this unit you will learn about:


•describing places and objects
•talking about where something is
•using adjectives for description
•rooms of the house and household items
•pronouncing ‘emphatic’ letters
•recognizing these Arabic letters: ∫ ¢T ¢S

5 eh kamáan? 77
Anything else?

In this unit you will learn about:


•saying what you want and need
•talking about quantity and price
•Egyptian souvenirs
•picnic food
•colours
•more about plurals
•numbers 1–100
•recognizing these Arabic letters:
® • ¢V ¢U
Contents vii

6 shákluh eh? 98
What does he look like?

In this unit you will learn about:


•describing appearance and age
•parts of the body
•items of clothing
•talking about what people are doing now or in
the near future
•recognizing these Arabic letters:PO

7 kída áHsan 113


That’s better

In this unit you will learn about:


•comparing things
•buying tickets
•means of transportation
•expressing likes and dislikes
•agreeing and disagreeing
•recognizing these Arabic letters: R Q

8 muráaga9a 134
Review

9 Hayáati 139
My life

In this unit you will learn about:


•days of the week
•time
•describing your routine
•present/future tense of verbs
•recognizing these Arabic letters: Ω ´Æ
viii Contents

10 baHíbb Sayd is-sámak 160


I like fishing

In this unit you will learn about:


•describing your pastimes
•making sentences negative
•giving advice
•electronic communication
•recognizing these Arabic letters: ¥ ±
11 9ála Tuul! 179
Straight on!

In this unit you will learn about:


•places around town
•understanding directions
•giving instructions
•different types of verbs
•recognizing this Arabic letter:h
•how long vowels are written in the Arabic script

12 inbasáTt fi faránsa? 194


Did you enjoy yourself in France?

In this unit you will learn about:


•how to talk about past events
•months of the year
•calendar dates
•recognizing these Arabic letters: ∑ √
Contents ix

13 min zamáan 211


A long time ago

In this unit you will learn about:


•comparing past and present
•higher Arabic numbers and dates
•the verb ‘to be’ in the past
•forms of the verb
•how to read Arabic numbers

14 máT9am in-niil 232


The Nile Restaurant

In this unit you will learn about:


•making restaurant reservations by phone
•making suggestions
•some typical Egyptian dishes

15 muráaga9a 247
Review

Structure summary 253


Arabic script supplement 276
Key to exercises 300
English–Arabic glossary 327
Arabic–English glossary 350
Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the various reviewers who via the


publisher gave us detailed and invaluable feedback on the first edition
of Colloquial Arabic of Egypt. Their input has helped enormously when
preparing this third edition. We appreciate also the support we
received from the Routledge team, particularly Samantha Vale Noya,
Andrea Hartill, Isabelle Cheng and Sarah May.
Thanks also go to our families in England and Egypt for helping us
with the photographs – and acting as models in some of them – and
to Charles and Maha for the pictures of their elegant villa in Ein
Sukhna.
For the new edition recordings, we would like to thank Najla Shawqi
for adding her voice to the existing models, and our good friend Eric
for the audio recording.

The publishers would like to thank the following for the permission to
reproduce photographs: p77: Henk Vrieselaar/Shutterstock; p178:
Zurijeta/Shutterstock; p179: Patryk Kosmider/Fotolia; p206: photka/
Shutterstock; p222: TanArt/Fotolia
Introduction

The Arabic language


Arabic is often thought of as having separate ‘spoken’ and ‘written’
forms. The ‘spoken’ being the various dialects of the 20 or so Arabic-
speaking countries, and the ‘written’ being the Standard Arabic taught
in all schools and understood by educated Arabs. It is true that most
conversations take place in the colloquial language and most written
material is in Standard Arabic. But the factor determining which is
used has more to do with the formality of the situation rather than
how the communication is delivered. A high-level televised political
debate would probably be conducted in Standard Arabic but a soap
opera would be in colloquial. Communication between different Arab
nationalities tends to include at least elements of Standard Arabic
where dialects might contain unfamiliar words.
Egyptian colloquial is perhaps the most vibrant and universally
understood of the many spoken dialects of Arabic. Egypt is the centre
of popular Arab culture, exporting its films, soap operas, popular
programmes, songs and advertisements to fill the mushrooming
airtime of the Arabic TV channels.
The differences between the colloquial and the Standard are less
apparent the more elevated the subject matter becomes. Even at the
basic level, it tends to be vocabulary that is most affected. The
structure of the language remains largely recognizable. So, whichever
way you approach the language – from an initial study of the colloquial
or of Standard Arabic, you will be able to expand your knowledge to
other areas.
2 Introduction

How to use the course


Colloquial Arabic of Egypt will introduce you to the spoken Arabic of
Egypt, using the capital city Cairo as its model. Egypt is a big country
and accents vary from region to region, but the Cairene dialect is the
most widely understood and therefore the most useful.
We strongly recommend that you study Colloquial Arabic of Egypt
with the accompanying audio. It is very difficult to master the sounds
of Arabic without hearing them spoken by native speakers. The audio
not only includes all the dialogues recorded by authentic Egyptian
actors, but also additional listening and speaking exercises which will
help improve your fluency.
Sections of the course that appear on the audio are marked with
the headphones symbol.
Above all, it is important to enjoy your learning and to have a go at
communicating right from the start. Nobody will mind if you make a
mistake and foreigners speaking Arabic are still rare enough for you to
make a real impression.

Structure of the course


Colloquial Arabic of Egypt is comprised of 15 units, two of which are
review units (Unit 8 and Unit 15). The other teaching units are based
around two or three natural dialogues.
Here are the main features of each unit:
Summary of aims
An initial summary of the main teaching points of the unit to prepare
you for what you will learn, or for later reference.
Dialogues
The dialogues have all been carefully scripted not only to present the
language, but also to convey the Egyptian patterns of speech and
sense of humour.
Vocabulary
Each dialogue is followed by a vocabulary panel showing new and
significant items of vocabulary.
Introduction 3

Language points
These sections expand on the language of the dialogue, explaining
important language structures and expressions.
Cultural points
Some concepts require more explanation, for example an indication of
their cultural significance, or in which situation they are used.
Information of this kind is given in these sections.
Exercises
The numerous exercises and activities encourage your active
participation and consolidate what you have learnt. All four skills of
listening, speaking, reading and writing are included.
Downloadable eResources
A new feature of this edition is the free downloadable eResources
(www.routledge.com/9780415811316). You will find a host of useful
material that will help you with your study: additional practice
activities, extra topic vocabulary, cultural information, reference
material and downloadable audio. All of this material is linked to
particular sections of the course and marked with the eResources
symbol.
The Arabic script
Each teaching unit ends with a section introducing you to the Arabic
alphabet, giving you the opportunity to read some of the vocabulary
of the unit in Arabic script. When you feel more confident, you can
use the script supplement and the glossaries to enhance your
reading skills.

Abbreviations used in the course


sing. singular
pl. plural
fem. feminine
masc. masculine
lit. literally
adj. adjective

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