nae He FF EF = Tuttle FLASH CARDS ARABIC in a FL*XSH Volume 2 The Arabic flash card kit that helps you learn Arabic characters in a flash! > *” Contains 448 flash cards plus a 48-page index booklet. Learn 448 main words plus 1,792 related words and phrases—2,240 basic vocabulary items. Arabic script, romanized forms and English meanings given for all items. A sample sentence in Arabic with its English translation shows how the main word is used. By Fethi Mansouri and Yousef AlreemawiContents Introduction. . . Pronunciation Guide . What's on the Flash Cards Using the Flash Cards... Key to Abbreviations . English-Arabic Index Romanized Index . . Arabie-English Index . DAuUn Rw Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (Hong Kong) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 and 130 Joo Seng Road, #06-01 Singapore 638657. Copyright © 2007 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. All rights reserved. 978-0-8048-3728-6 ): 0-8048-3728-7 First edition 2007 Printed in Hong Kong Distributed by: North America, Latin America & Europe Tuttle Publishing 364 Innovation Drive North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436 Tel: (802) 773 8930 Fax: (802) 773 6993 Email: info@tuttlepublishing.com www.tuttlepublishing.com Asia Paciffic Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd. 130 Joo Seng Road 406-01, Singapore 368357 Tel: (65) 6280 1330 Pax: (65) 6280 6290 Email: inquiries@periplus.com.sg www periplus.com TUTTLE PUBLISHING ® isa registered trademark of Tuttle Publishing, a division of Periplus Editions (HK) Led.Introduction Arabic script in its current form dates back to at least 200AD, but its related Aramaic goes back to 900 BC. The language acquired a divine status when the Koran was revealed to Prophet Mohammed in 610AD. Since then it became an important language not only to Arabs but also to millions of Muslims in Africa, Asia and Europe. Arabic is today the native language of over 250 million people, thus ranking as one of the most widespread world languages after Chinese, English, Spanish and Hindi. There are many nation- al and regional varieties of spoken Arabic, such as Egyptian, Iraqi, Tunisian, Moroccan and Lebanese, but the language presented in these Flash Cards is Modern Standard Arabic, under- stood by all Arabic speakers and used throughout the Arab world in most written and broadcast material. Arabic script is written from right to left. It is based on eighteen different letter forms derived from the script originally used to represent the Aramaic language of ancient West Asia. In the developed Arabic script these letters vary in appearance according to their connection with the letters before and after them. Eight of the letters may be modified by marks above or below them in order to represent sounds not occurring in Aramaic, resulting in the complete Arabic alphabet of 28 letters (the list excludes short vowels and the glottal stop—hamza—as these don't repre- sent strong consonantal letters). This is the second volume of the Arabic Flash Cards series. The first volume of the Flash Cards (448 cards) included basic communicative as well as some of the most common verbs and their related derivatives. This second volume is divided thematically into the following sections deal- ing with: ® Cards 449 to 496 — basic vocabulary 0 Cards 497 to $55 — economic and employment 8 Cards 556 to 618 — health feelings and emotions ® Cards 619 to 697 — social, political and legal ° Cards 698 to 725 — travel and leisure ° Cards 726 to 760 — various daily activities ®° Cards 761 to 896 — general communicative vocabulary Arabic script and pronunciation Arabic script is written from right to left and has many artistic variations that produce beautiful calligraphy in the same way the Chinese language does. Arabic calligraphy has served as a form of decoration particularly in mosques where images of humans and animals are prohibited. Arabic letters can be divided into two types: those known as connectors (i.e. other letters can be attached to it), and non-connectors (cannot be attached to other letters), Also, Arabic letters may change according to where they occur in the word (initial, medial or final). For non-native speakers, some Arabic letters such as glottal fricatives and uvular stops are a lit- tle strange and can be challenging to pronounce. Therefore, in these Flash Cards every Arabic word or phrase is spelt out in the Roman alphabet using a conventional transliterating system based largely on the International Phonetic Association symbols. A guide to the pronunciation of these Romanized forms is given on the page 4.Pronunciation Guide The imitated pronunciation should be read as if it were English, bearing in mind that the emphat- ic consonants (represented by capitals) indicate more a vowel volume than a separate sound. Transcription Phonetic Description ‘Approximate in English b voiced labial stop b a voiced alveolar stop d a emphatic voiced alveolar stop does not exist (similar Don) f voiceless labio-dental fricative f h voiceless glottal fricative h h voiceless pharyngeal fricative does not exist j voiced palato-alveolar fricative J (as in jelly) k voiceless velar stop k 1 alveolar lateral m bilabial nasal m n alveolar nasal n q uvular stop does not exist r alveolar trill r s voiceless alveolar fricative s 8 emphatic voiceless alveolar does not exist fricative (similar to Sahara) voiceless dental fricative t emphatic voiceless alveolar stop does not exist (similar to Tokyo) Zz voiced alveolar fricative 2 z emphatic voiced alveolar fricative dh or z (depends on region) . glottal stop vocalic stop . voiced pharyngeal fricative does not exist sh voiceless palato-alveolar fricative sh (as in ‘shoes’) th voiceless dental fricative th (as in “three’) dh voiced dental fricative th (as in ‘there’) kh voiceless velar fricative kh (does not exist) gh voiced velar fricative gh (does not exist) y palatal glide y (as in *yellow’) w bilabial approximant w (as in ‘wall’) Vowels: there are three basic short vowels in Arabic and three long ones. These are Vowel Phonetic description short low back vowel long low back vowel short high front vowel long high front vowel short high back vowel long high back vowel English equivalent as in ‘Amsterdam’ as in ‘far’ as in “inside” as in ‘clean’ as in ‘to go" as in ‘noon’What’s on the Flash Cards The front of each card contains the Arabic word and four words are listed in Arabic script with no Romanization or On the back of the card we list the main word and its four derived items but with lated phonetic Romanization. The numbering of the words is consistent with the card. In addition, a sample sentence is given to provide context and to illustrate how the main word (and in some case some of its derivatives) can be used in meaningful communication. Using the Flash Cards ‘These flash cards contain the basic list of Arabic words that will be indispensable in introducing you (users/learners) to the language and its rich derivational system. The cards are designed and ordered in such a way that you can use them either in a sequential order or as the functional and interest need arises. From a pedagogic perspective, it would helpful if you are able to set yourself learning objectives on a weekly basis by aiming for a minimum number of words as a concrete target. Individual leamers have their unique learning styles, but as far as the flash cards are concerned it would be essential to practice the acquired words and to test this in writing or by way of a tape recorder. Leaming a foreign language is an incremental process, and as such the pace of learning should increase as time goes on. To this end, and once the key words are acquired, you should proceed to acquire the related items listed under each of the main words. In many cases, these will be easily recognizable as they are linguistically derived from the main word. Mastery of these derived items will help facilitate the learning even further. ‘As a learner, make sure that as you acquire new words you are still revising and practicing the ones already covered. A good test for actual learning is medium- to long-term memory. As you eam new words, you want to make sure that you do not forget the ones already practiced, and the best way to avoid this is by ongoing practice. Key to Abbreviations The following abbreviations are used to provide key grammatical information within the trans- lations cells: v= verb n. = noun adj. = adjective sing. = sin} pl. = plural ‘masc. = masculine “fem. = feminine Alphabetical Indexes The words listed in the following indexes are all verbal forms, unless otherwise indicated by means of asterisks (in which case it is a noun, an expression, a question word or a pronoun).