Teach Yourself Beginner's Arabic Script

by John Mace

Book Overview

Arabic is a world language and one of the official languages of nineteen countires spread across Saharan Africa and most of the Middle East. It is also one of the official languages of the United... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071419829
• ISBN13: 9780071419826
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Good book for learning Arabic script

Arabic script is not that easy, and is a fully cursive script which means there is no easy way. This is not my first study of the script, as I've studied the Persian script in the Nastaliq style (which is more complex), so this was relatively easy to use, given my prior knowledge and the simplicity of the sript used by Arabic. I recommend this book for learning the Arabic script.

i wish he would write one of these for chinese characters

i've studied a lot of chinese character books and recently picked this one up because i've decided to learn arabic script as well. this is the best beginner's arabic book i've ever seen. in the introduction mace gives you clear tips on memorization that you can apply to anything else you might ever want to learn. the book is only 168 pgs long- but the wealth of information inside is astounding. the book is easy to follow, teaches you pronounciation, and grammer in a very clear manner. i've looked through many of the beginner's arabic books- but this is the only one i decided to purchase.

Great beginner's book

Learning Arabic presents several diffculties for the non-native, the first of which is the alphabet, or more accurately, script. This is because, unlike English and other European languages, there is no true printed form for the language, being a true script. The main problem with it is that the letters change their form depending on the context.At 155 pages, this is almost a mini-course on Arabic, not just on the script, but the overall focus is on teaching you the script, and for that it serves very well. But for someone who doesn't want to have a lot of extra vocabulary or grammar piled on initially, I would recommend the Nicholas Awde and Putros Samano book, The Arabic Alphabet, instead. I have a slight personal preference for that book over this one, as it focuses more on the script and doesn't worry about the more advanced grammatical topics, which really require a separate volume. As a result, it's shorter and to the point and is only 100 pages long. But both books are excellent and do their job very well. I just think this one would better suited someone who enjoys learning languages and already has skills or training in that area.If that sounds like you, then this book will give you a little more basic Arabic vocabulary and grammar in the process of teaching you the script than the Awde book, and the author does a fine job of explaining all the concepts clearly and concisely. There are sections on verbs, nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and how they are formed, as well as other aspects of the grammar.The author also discusses basic phonetics and phonology, and how the vowels and consonants of Arabic differ from English. One odd aspect of the phonetic notation is the number "9" is used for the Arabic glottal stop. I've seen this in one other Arabic beginner's book. It's not standard notation but it's okay for a beginner's book, as long as you know what it means. The author defines it, but I missed that somehow and kept seeing these 9's all over the place, and I finally figured out what it was. As both books point out, the main problem in learning the Arabic script is the letters change their form depending on their position in the word, in other words, on whether they're at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. Then there is the infamous "Hamzah," or diacritical mark, which can appear over various letters in the word, and can float around a lot. The rules for this get very complicated, and most Arabic speakers don't even know all of them, but the basic principles aren't hard to learn. This makes it very similar in English to the apostrophe, which causes problems for English speakers also. Just these two things can make the alphabet a trying experience to learn initially for the foreign-language speaker. Both the Awde and Samanos or this book are excellent and will help you clear that initial hurdle of learning the alphabet that must be overcome before you can really embark on a serious study of Arabic grammar and language. If you're flus

Fast-paced introduction

Packed with examples, this book doesn't just present the Arabic alphabet, but it treats basic declarative sentences as well. Mace shows you how to write the script and provides examples of handwritten Arabic, presumably his own, with every word. One problem is he doesn't vowelize the words, which can make them somewhat hard to learn. True, unvowelized Arabic is the norm in newspapers and street signs, if not in the Koran, but beginners might want a more phonics-based approach to writing. Furthermore, Mace tends to use a kind of shorthand script when writing: the teeth of "s" and "sh" are smoothed out, the three dots over printed "sh" are represented as a circumflex, and the two dots over "t" and under "y" are represented as a short horizontal bar. Apparently, this way of writing is done by many, but such an overly cursive style would indicate that it's the way to write if you're already bored with Arabic, not if you're just starting out! Unless you're very confident, I would recommend Awde's "The Arabic Alphabet" instead. As for the Mace book, I got jammed at about page 30 and never went back.

The best beginner's book - ever!

This is one of the excellent "Teach Yourself" series. I have tried to learn Arabic on my own using various sources and this is by far the best I have come across. Divided into 15 units, John Mace introduces the student to the alphabet in easy stages rather than the whole alphabet at once (which can be a little daunting)and adds a little grammar in each unit. This is very encouraging to the complete beginner and there are lots of exercises and tests at the end of each unit to re-inforce what you have learnt. Each unit stretches the student a little more but if you concentrate and do all the exercises it is more than manageable. However, the best thing about this book is that Mr Mace teaches you how to hand write Arabic. I spent a whole year once writing beatiful Arabic script as I saw it printed, not realising that it wasn't hand written that way. All the vocabulary used in the book is included in a useful Arabic-English and English-Arabic dictionary. I cannot recommend this book too highly.