nDg3yPSzsEg.txt

Speaker 1:          00:00          Back in 2013, I produced one of the strangest videos on youtube, a video about Arabic in Japanese with English subtitles and me teaching in Arabic lesson to Japanese viewers. At the end, lots of people were bewildered today. I'm going to try it again.

Speaker 2:          00:21          Okay.

Speaker 1:          00:22          Hello everyone. Welcome to the Lange Focus Channel and my name is Paul. Today's topic is the Arabic language or as it's called in Arabic. Arabic is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world with $293 million native speakers in 422 million speakers in total. It's an official language in 26 countries. That doesn't mean it's the majority language in all of those countries, but it's one of the official languages. It is also one of the six official languages of the United Nations and that's the language of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. It is also the liturgical language of one point 7 billion Muslims around the world. Most of those people don't speak Arabic, but many have some knowledge of Arabic for reading and for reciting prayers and religious study. Speaking about Arabic can be confusing because there are many different varieties of the language. One of the main varieties is the classical Arabic of the coo, Dan.

Speaker 1:          01:15          This is considered by many to be the most perfect form of Arabic and some say it's the only true Arabic because it was the language in which God revealed that to Mohammed. Then there's modern standard Arabic which is the form of Arabic used as an official language today. It's the modern form of literary Arabic which was based on the classical Arabic of the coo, Dan, but with some adaptations and a greatly expanded vocabulary to make it more suitable for modern times. It's not exactly the same as classical Arabic, but both of them are referred to by Arabs as hot meaning eloquent speech. Modern Standard Arabic is the language of books, media, education and formal situations but not as the language of everyday speech. For everyday speech, Arabic speakers use their local dialects or which can differ quite significantly from country to country and even from one place to another.

Speaker 1:          02:05          Within a single country. Arabic is a Semitic language, Arabic and other Semitic languages like Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician, all developed from the same protose Semitic language, Arabic forms, one branch of central submitting, while another branch of central Semitic includes Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician, old Arabic, numerous Semitic languages related to Arabic were spoken in Arabia between the 13th at Tenth Century Ce, but they don't have features that would classify them as Arabic. The earliest evidence of people referred to as Arab is in an Assyrian inscription from the eighth century bce, but it just mentions the Arabs. It doesn't give any examples of their language from the sixth century bce to the fourth century ce, we have inscriptions showing evidence of an early form of Arabic. Some of those inscriptions are written in that early form of Arabic and others are written in Aramaic, but show some influence from Arabic.

Speaker 1:          02:56          Those inscriptions consists mostly of proper names, so they don't give us an awful lot of information about what the language was like. The earliest inscription that is unmistakably Arabic is from the first century bce and was found at enough that it's an Aramaic inscription, but it contains three lines of Arabic. Another inscription was discovered at end the Mazda 120 kilometers southeast of Damascus dating back to three slash 29 slash ce. The language of this inscription is nearly identical to classical Arabic as we know it, even though these inscriptions are unmistakably written in Arabic, they are not written in the Arabic script, but rather the Nabataeans script which derived from the Aramaic script, but there are also inscriptions from the fourth and fifth century Ce that are written in a script that's more like Arabic. It's generally thought that the Arabic script developed from the Nabataeans script and these inscriptions might be written in a script that somewhere between those two classical Arabic, before the beginning of Islam, there were numerous dialects of Arabic spoken around the peninsula, but there was also a common literary language used among the different tribes for poetry, a coin it which was a compromise between the various dialects.

Speaker 1:          04:05          The pieces of poetry written in this literary coin a are the earliest examples of classical Arabic. The Koran was written in the seventh century when Muslims believe that the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel, and then it was written down over a 23 year period. At the time the Koran was written, there were seven dialects of classical Arabic. The Koran was written in all of them, but the ice version became the standard upon which the text of today's call is based. The differences are in pronunciation, not in vocabulary or grammar. The Arabic of the [inaudible] is similar to that of the pre-islamic classical Arabic poetry, but not exactly beginning during the life of Mohammed and continuing into the 18th century, the Islamic conquest spread the Arabic language into new faraway lands. After the Islamic conquest, there was an important need to standardize the language because of vast numbers of people were beginning to speak it.

Speaker 1:          04:57          The script was made, more practical. New Vocabulary was created and the grammar and style of pro is West standardized. Neo, Arabic and middle Arabic. Classical Arabic was being standardized as a written language. Local dialects of Arabic also emerged in the cities of the Arab empire. These dialects did not descend directly from classical Arabic, but rather from pre-islamic Arabic dialects or from a single Arabic coin, which was the common language of conquering Arab armies. These new dialects were also influenced by the original languages of areas that were conquered. The dialects of the lavant and Mesopotamia were influenced by Aramaic. The dialects of the Maghreb were influenced by Berber. The dialects of Egypt were influenced by Coptic and so on. The early centuries of these newly emerging dialects are referred to as neo Arabic, even though classical Arabic was standardized, not everybody could write it perfectly. Writing that contains features of both classical Arabic and neo Arabic or dialects is referred to as middle Arabic middle refer to a time period, but rather these texts were somewhere in the middle between classical and colloquial modern Arabic.

Speaker 1:          06:03          Over the centuries, the neo Arabic dialects continued to evolve into the modern colloquial dialects of today, but literary Arabic remains relatively constant because the Arabic of the Koran was always seen as the ideal Arabic to imitate and this probably had a conservative effect on the dialects limiting them from changing too much. After Napoleon entered Egypt in 1798, the Arab world entered a period of greater contact with the West. The influx of new western concepts required the Arabic language to be updated in the early 20th century, regional academies of the Arabic language began a process of language reform focused mainly on expanding and updating the languages vocabulary. These updates culminated in what is now known as modern standard Arabic die glossier. Arabic is well known for its state of glossier. Arabic speakers used two distinctly different forms of the language in parallel for different purposes. Modern standard Arabic is not learned by anyone as a native language, but it's used in reading and writing and media on children's TV shows ended formal speeches, while the colloquial dialects are used almost universally for daily conversation.

Speaker 1:          07:10          As I mentioned before, there's quite a lot of variation amongst Arabic dialects. How well two speakers understand each other, depends on the geographic distance of their dialects as well as exposure. Many Arabic speakers have told me that speakers up the Middle Eastern dialects really have no trouble understanding each other and that the main trouble comes in understanding the my grubby dialects, especially Moroccan, but these days with the spread of cable TV and the Internet, people are being exposed to a wider range of dialects on a more regular basis, which helps people understand different dialects more and of course there's also our facade modern standard Arabic. When speakers have significantly different dialects communicate with each other, they can switch the modern standard Arabic or they can adjust their speech to make it more formal and literary and similar to modern standard Arabic, but not exactly another common way for native speakers to bridge the dialect gap is to use something called the white dialect, which is a more formal version of dialectal speech that uses features that are common to most of the different dialects, but it leaves out features that are limited to specific dialects.

Speaker 1:          08:12          This is essentially a modern Arabic coin a, so what's Arabic like? Let's take a look at some features of Arabic focusing on modern standard Arabic. The script, the Arabic script is written from right to left and consists of letters that imitate handwriting. Most letters joined to the letter that comes after them. However, a few letters remain disjoined. The letters that joined have two forms, one short form at the beginning or in the middle of words and another long form at the end of words, or when the letter is by itself. The Arabic script is an abject, meaning that each letter represents a consonant and that short vowels are not really written in that long. Vowels and diphthongs can be ambiguous. How can we read Arabic without vowels? Well, can you read this here at the short, vowels are not written and the other seems somewhat incomplete, but we have a hint about what the vowels are.

Speaker 1:          09:03          This is kind of like reading Arabic, but Arabic has more predictable vowel patterns than English, so it's easier to guess. Also Arabic can be written with how cat, which are extra diacritic markings that indicate the short vowel sounds. These are generally only used in texts that are really important to pronounce perfectly like the [inaudible] or poetry or children's materials. Phonology. Arabic has a number of consonant sounds which are surprising or challenging for speakers of many other languages. For example, as in the word meaning Gulf. Then there's off as in the word pin. This is like the k but pronounced further back in your throat. Then there's the letter ha, like in the word meaning hot in some say that this is similar to the French are sound. For example, the word meaning room Arabic also has a number of infected consonants. For example, there's a scene which is like the regular s sound in English, but there is also sod, which is an emphatic s as in the word, meaning small.

Speaker 1:          10:08          Also notice design in the middle. To make this sound, do you have to keep your tongue close to the roof of your mouth. If you want to try it, position your mouth as though you are going to say a pe and hold that position. Then make an s sound. Instead, go ahead and try it. Saw saw there are three other emphatic consonants to an emphatic, tall dog and zoll morphology. Arabic words are mostly constructed from three letter routes or sometimes four, and these letters are then inserted into templates consisting of a fixed vowel pattern and some structural consonance. If you know the route letters, you can identify the core meaning of the word and if you know the template, you know what type of word it is. Let's take the root ca at a gym, which means to go out or to exit, and let's put it into this template.

Speaker 1:          10:57          We get the word mythology, which is the noun, meaning exit, like adore you, exit through. This template indicates a place where the action of the root is done. If we use the root data, Ha Lem, which means to come in, we get mad. The honey, which means entrance. If we use the root cath to bet we get the meaning office. These kinds of recurring templates help you to know how to pronounce words even when the short vowels are not written. If you see the letter meme followed by three route letters altogether with no long vowels, you can guess that the word is in this template and pronounce it with too short a vowels. Verbs in Arabic are part of this same system of roots and templates. The templates tell us the tense person, gender and number of the verb, and the root provides us the core meaning. Again, let's take the route at a gym and pump it into this template here and we get, and we know what this means. It's the past tense. Third Person, masculine, singular conjugation. He exited.

Speaker 1:          12:03          This means he exited the school. Now put the route into this template. What this means, I exited. This suffix here indicates past tense, first person singular out, assuming that this means I exited the office. If we put it into this template, yes, it means he exits. This is the present tense template. This means he exits the office. I mean they exit. This means they will exit the office. The sentences in the future tense to change the present tense, the future tense. You simply add the suffix psa to the beginning of the present tense template. Sap is used for near future and a separate particle so far is used for the more distant future. Arabic has no other verb tenses, only past and present and future which uses the present tense conjugation. This submittal system of roots and templates is really quite intuitive once you get used to it, and it's quite ingenious if you ask me word order.

Speaker 1:          13:06          Modern standard Arabic is a vsl language by default as opposed to Arabic dialects, which are mainly Svo. You had this means the man is studying Arabic. Here's the verb, the subject and the object. These are the definite article, but before certain letters, the lamb or the l sound assimilates to the following letter, so I'll Rajul becomes our agile. This is the basic word order, but Svo is also possible in a sentence with a pronoun. VSL is not possible, for example, and a sofa. A lot of. Yeah, this means I will study Arabic in the future. You can't say Sofa and a lot of Va. You can either say it with the pronoun first or with no pronouns, just sofa because the verb conjugation tells us that this is the first person singular, so we don't need the pronoun cases. One aspect of standard arabic is cases. There are three cases in arabic. Nominative genitive and accusative announced takes special endings to show their function in the sentence. Let's take the word keY tab, which means book in nominative. It's taboo in genitive. It's keith rabie in accusative. It's tabba.

Speaker 1:          14:22          This means the excellent book. The noun key tab is in the nominative and the adjective is also inflicted to agree with the noun and then upload will keep. This means I am reading a book here. Github is in the accusative and it's indefinite. The end sound at the end here indicates that it's indefinite will. This means so the author of the book here, key tab is in the genitive case. These cases and things are not used at the end of a sentence, but only when the word is followed by something. the form at the end of a sentence without a case ending is called the Puzzle form. These case endings are often not used in modern standard arabic. They're generally only used in prepared texts are prepared. Speeches, two more sentences.

Speaker 1:          15:09          This means I usually don't work on saturday word for word. it's usually no, I work day. The saturday. That is the negation particle used for the present tense. Amen is the verb for work and its root is. I'm meme lem and this is the first person singular present tense, conjugation, yelm and accept around [inaudible]. So together they mean the day of saturday you'd offer is a construction of two nouns side by side to show possession. Fun fact. The word sabbath comes from the hebrew word shabbat, which is related to this arabic word sept. Who would say, this means I'll drive my car to the office word for word. It's will I drive my car to the office. Remember, saw is added to the present tense verb to form the future of food contains the verb cough while dad, and this is the first person singular present tense, conjugation, sayada.

Speaker 1:          16:08          It is the word sayada with a possessive suffix, meaning my at the end and when a suffix is added, the letter had becomes a tad. Isla is a preposition showing direction. The elbow here or the lamb is the definite article al, but the a sound or the eleaf assimilates to the proceeding. Long a. As you can see, arabic is a fascinating language with lots of interesting features from its script to it's phonology to its root and template system. It's a language that often seems intimidating to learners, but that's partly because modern standard arabic materials are aimed at reading and writing and grammar rather than on communication materials for learning arabic dialects tend to be more fun and communicative. The question that's asked over and over and over is what form of arabic should I learn a dialect or a modern standard arabic, in my opinion, it's important to learn some modern standard arabic either before you start to learn a dialect or at the same time, but if you know some modern standard arabic, it will help you to make sense of different dialects that you encounter and it will help you to understand different registers of speech even when people are speaking in their dialects, but if your main goal is communication than I don't think it's necessary to learn to speak modern standard arabic at a high level, and that brings me to the question of the day to native speakers of arabic and to learners of arabic alike.

Speaker 1:          17:28          What do you think? Which form of arabic is the best to learn? Modern standard arabic or a dialect? Leave your answers in the comments down below. Be sure to follow lang, focus on facebook, twitter, or instagram. It's especially important these days because weird things are happening with youtube and nobody's really sure what the future will bring, so it's good to have a way to be in touch with you outside of so I can let you know what's happening with my videos and in a worst case scenario where my videos will be if not on youtube, so be sure to follow me on at least one of those and I want to say thanks again as usual to all of my patrion supporters, especially these people right here on the screen for their very helpful monthly pledges. Thank you for watching and have a nice day.