Saudi Arabic (New! - CD-ROM Version) This course teaches the Urban Hijazi Dialect, the most widely spoken and understood dialect on the Arabian Peninsula, and the one used for government and commercial purposes. This course was designed for use by diplomats, business people and serious language students. Upon completion of this course the student should have attained a working proficiency in the language. Students will be able to satisfy routine social and business requirements, be able to carry on conversations regarding a wide range of topics, and comprehend speech at a normal rate of speed. The book also provides students with the basic grammatical structures of the dialect enabling them to proceed to a greater mastery of the language. With 15 CDs and a book.
About The Course | Design Of The Book
This course teaches the Urban Hijazi Dialect, the most widely spoken and understood dialect on the Arabian Peninsula, and the one used for government and commercial purposes. This course was designed for use by diplomats, business people and serious language students. Upon completion of this course the student should have attained a working proficiency in the language. Students will be able to satisfy routine social and business requirements, be able to carry on conversations regarding a wide range of topics, and comprehend speech at a normal rate of speed. The book also provides students with the basic grammatical structures of the dialect enabling them to proceed to a greater mastery of the language.
There are three major groups of dialects in Saudi Arabia - Hijazi, spoken on the western coast, in Jidda, Taif, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; Najdi, spoken in and around Riyadh, in the north central part of the country; and Shargi, spoken in the oil-rich eastern reqion. While the Najdi dialect enjoys prestige by virtue of its conservatism and relative closeness to Classical Arabic and the fact that it is the dialect of the royal family, the Hijazi dialect is used throughout the country for government and commercial purposes, and has become the most widely-understood dialect in the Arabian Peninsula. The Hijazi dialect is not "pure" Saudi Arabic, and reflects recent borrowings from other dialects, especially Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian; for this reason, sometimes one word or expression was selected from several which may be heard, and sometimes alternative expressions are introduced, since two or even three forms may be in frequent use.
Since there is no "standard" Hijazi dialect, this book reflects the dialect as spoken in Jidda. Whenever forced to choose between language usage in the other Hijazi cities and that of Jidda, the Jidda usage was given preference. A few of the most common words from Najdi and from other cities are introduced for recognition and identified as such. There has also been a preference for modern words and structures, despite the fact that this sometimes means rejecting an older, more Saudi usage. This dialect has been designated "urban" Hijazi to distinguish it from Bedouin dialects also native to the Hijaz region.
The pronunciation of some sounds in Hijazi is variable. There are three interdental consonants (variations of 'th') which may be pronounced as they are in Classical Arabic and in Najdi, as for example in /thalaatha/, or as they are in Egyptian and Palestinian, which would be /talaata/. Since the latter type of pronunciation is more common in Jidda, it will be presented. This is discussed further in the Pronunciation section.
After completion of this book, the student should have attained a working proficiency in the language (approximately S-2 level by the FSI rating system). In other words, the student will be able to satisfy routine social demands and limited business requirements, carry on conversations regarding a wide range of general subjects (asking directions, ordering a meal, giving personal information, making purchases, etc.), and comprehend speech about such subjects at a normal rate of speed. This book will provide a student with all the basic grammatical structures of the dialect, so that he will be ready to proceed on his own to acquire the speed and new vocabulary which lead to real fluency.
The book is divided into 50 lessons, with every tenth lesson a review lesson. In addition to the 50 lessons, the book contains a series of appendices dealing with specialized vocabulary, social expressions, gestures, and Saudi names. There is also a glossary and an index of grammatical structures.
Each lesson (beginning with Lesson 4) has the following parts:
