Religion is definitely important in Middle East countries, with Islam overwhelmingly dominant. Though, in Egypt, there is a minority Coptic Christian population. The word for “church” in Arabic is كنيسة (kanisa).

This video clip comes from BBC Arabic, which talks about the Roman Catholic Church, which has built a church in Doha, Qatar:

I was recently at a conference in Boston, which was about geography (جغرافي). It’s because I have been traveling a lot and very busy, that I haven’t been able to post.

Anyway, while walking around the conference center, I noticed someone left a box on a table which had Arabic writing on the outside. This was completely unexpected, so I went to take a look. The box was full of books and journals, with a sign saying “free, please take these”. The books belonged to someone associated with the Kuwait Geographical Society, but they wanted to get rid of them. Of course, I didn’t think many people at the conference knew Arabic, yet alone would want the books. So, I took a bunch and came back a while later, and the rest of them were still there. So, I took all of them.

(If the person who left them reads this, THANK YOU! شكرا)

I’m working on one of the books, which is entitled العالم الثالث - مشكلات و فضايا, which translates as “Third World: Problems and Issues”. I’m getting so far as reading the preface which talks about the purpose of the book.

Some of the words that I am learning, as I read include:

مؤتمر (mu’tamar) - conference, convention

حضور (hudur) - attendance

لقاء (liqa’) - meeting

تنمية (tanmiya) - development

اقتصاد (iqtasad) - economy

زراعة (zira’a) - agriculture

حاجة (haja) - need

نشر (nashara) - to publish

مسلسل (musalsal) - series

As helpful as it is to learn the vocabulary, especially vocabulary related to a topic I’m involved in, it is also helpful to see the writing style used. The author writes in the past tense, using كان (kan) and كانت (kana), which means “was”. For example, كان جميع or “everyone was …”.

For a few days, I am on travel for my job. I am in New Orleans and arrived here yesterday. When I got a cab (taxi) at the airport, the driver (سائق - sa’iq) was from the Middle East. So, I was able to say “thank you” (شكرا - shukran) in Arabic, which certainly he wasn’t expecting. Then, I was able to say some other things, in a mix of colloquial Egyptian (when I knew what to say) or otherwise I used the standard Arabic. I don’t think he was from Egypt (I think he was from Bahrain, judging by the newspaper he was reading), but the Egyptian dialect is pretty well understood thanks to popularity of Egyptian films.
I explained that I was on a business trip (أسافر في شغل - isafar fi shughal), and that I was here for a few days (”ha’ud ka zayohm”), which is Egyptian colloquial. In standard Arabic, a few days is عدة أيام - “ada ayam”.
I also was able to explain why I knew or was learning Arabic:
أدرس العربية لأن سأسفار إلى مصر هذا صيف

This translates as saying “I am studying Arabic, because I will be traveling to Egypt this summer.” Then, I was able to say “shukran. da a’la shehnak” - this means in colloquial Egyptian Arabic, “thanks, this is for you” (my cab fare and tip)

I’m sure I wasn’t speaking perfect Arabic, but did pretty well I think. The driver wasn’t sure that I could speak English, which of course I can, but he understood what I said in Arabic and I could understand him. In all, this was great practice and helps in building my confidence. I am somewhat hesitant to speak up in Arabic, because I know my vocabulary, grammar, and grasp of colloquial Arabic is still limited.

I was at a local bookshop this week that carries Arabic-language books, movies, and other items. They have a selection of classic novels that are translated into Arabic, along with the English on the opposite page. I picked up a copy of “The Grapes of Wrath” (عناقيد الغضب) by John Steinbeck, and starting now on Chapter One, along with the preface which gives a brief biography of the author.

Some words to learn so far, with the first part of the chapter introducing the time and setting of the story:

Thus, we understand that the novel is starts out in 1930 in the central United States (Oklahoma). Things had been good and prosperous for farmers, with fertile soil and rich crops. But in that June (1930), the conditions suddenly turned with drought (little rain fell) and the sun as a “blazing ball of fire” that turned the soil dry and dusty.

At least the help pages of Google Earth are in Arabic, so I expect the program is also available with an Arabic language interface. When looking at the help pages in English, I noticed a drop-down box which allows you to view the help page in a different language. Arabic is one of the choices, so this is one more opportunity to build vocabulary and practice reading.

The particular help page I looked at asks the question:
كم عمر صور القمر الصناعي التي لديكم؟

كم (kam) - this is the question word, asking “how many”, “how much”, or in this case, “how old”

عمر (’umr) - age; this word can also be used as: كم عمرك؟ (kam umrak?) or “how old are you?”

صور (sur) - picture, image

قمر (qumar) - normally, this word means “moon”, but it can also refer to an artificial satellite, such as one that collects imagery

صناعي (sinaa’i) - artificial

التي (leti) - that, which

لديكم (ladikum) - you have

Thus, the question is asking “How old is the satellite imagery that you have?”

This Al Jazeera news clip, from a month ago, has the headline:
الجيش التركي يعلن إنه بدأ عملية عسكرية برية في شمالي العراق

There are some key words here to help understand the news clip, including:

With these words, the headline translates as “Turkey announces the army is beginning military ground operations in northern Iraq”

This is a song by Tamer Hosny, Yara, Ramy Ayash, Ganat, and Haytham Shaker, called أمي ثم أمي (My mother, and then, my mother). Like many songs, this one is sung in Egyptian colloquial dialect, which helps to highlight differences in Egyptian colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic.

Here are the lyrics for the first line:

بعد الحب ده ايه الى تعمل كل ده تستاهل ايه بعد الحب ده ايه الى تدى حنان كده من غير حساب نبوس التراب الى مشيه عليه

With these words, the first line of the song roughly translates as:

“After this love
What does she does all of this deserve
After this love, what
She who gives affection like this without asking for anything in return;
We kiss the ground she walks upon”

Nisba nouns are “relative adjectives” that are modified from nouns, for example from a place name to describe a person from the place. These adjectives often indicate affiliation, origin, or other relation to the noun (e.g., a place).

فرنسا (faranca) or France -> فرنسي (francee) or French.

لبنان (lubnan) - Lebanon -> لتناني (lubnani) - Lebanese

كندا (kanada) - Canada -> كندي (kanadi) - Canadian

Nisba can also be used to form nouns, such as professions, and other words such as مدني (medani) - civilian, which is modified from مدينة - medina or “city”.

A nisba is usually formed by adding a ي to the end of a noun. If a noun ends in a ta’ marbuta (ة) or alif (ا), it is usually dropped and the ي added. As with other adjectives, nisba adjectives need to agree with nouns they modified. For nisbas that go with feminine nouns, the nisba needs to be in the feminine form, by adding the ta’ marbuta.

For example, وزارة الخارجية (wizara al-kharijia) - foreign ministry

وزارة الداخلية (wizara al-dakhalia) - interior ministry

Other nisba examples include:

Another site that I have found very useful is http://www.arabicmusictranslation.com/, which has lyrics to songs in Arabic, with translations to English.

Songs include different types of phrases, some that are used in day-to-day speech. Many of the songs are also sung in a dialect (often Egyptian colloquial). For example, the phrase ايه يعني (aaya ya’ni) which translates as “so what?” in English.

The person behind the Arabic lyrics site recently started a second web site, http://egyptianarabiccourse.blogspot.com/ where he focuses on the Egyptian colloquial dialect with examples from song and more detailed explanations of the lyrics. This looks very useful, since colloquial is the day-to-day spoken language and is essential to learn these types of phrases.

Vocabulary

Here are some vocabulary words for family members and various places (of work):

Sentences

Here are some example sentences using these words. The verb عمل is in the “present” tense here, which means a prefix is attached (ي) for male, singular third person (”he”) and for female, singular third person (”she”), a ت is attached. And to make father, mother, brother, or sister possessive (e.g. “my brother”), a suffix is attached to the noun. In this case, the suffix is for first person singular (”my”), which is a ي.

والدي يعمل في مستشفى - My father works in a hospital.

والدتي تعمل في مدرسة - My mother works in a school.

أخي يعمل في المطار - My brother works at the airport.

أخي يعمل في مصنة - My brother works in a factory.

أختي تعمل في مطعم - My sister works in a restaurant.

أختي تعمل في متحف - My sister works in a museum.