Making Out in Arabic. Fethi Mansouri, Ph.D.

      Introduction

      Making Out in Arabic is your passport to the living, breathing, colorful language spoken on the streets of the Arab world and the Middle East. It is the first book to give you access to the casual, unbuttoned Arabic that will allow you to express yourself in restaurants, cafes, and nightclubs, in crowded market places, and at train stations. Here you will find the warm-hearted language that you can use with friends, and also the rough-and-tumble language you can fall back on when you are ready for a fight.

      Making Out in Arabic will be a useful companion throughout the Arab world – even when traveling in the furthest outbacks. So you want to meet people, make friends, eat out, go dancing, or just take part in friendly chitchat? A quick glance at Making Out in Arabic and you’ll have the language at your fingertips.

      PRONUNCIATION

      Consonants

      The imitated pronunciation should be read as if it were English. The emphatic consonants d and t, s and z represent more a question of volume than a separate sound.

      th is pronounced like th in three;

      dh is pronounced like th in there.

      kh is pronounced like ch in Scottish loch;

      gh is the voiced equivalent.

      A few sounds do not exist in English, such as the uvular stop

       (q), which is pronounced like a “k” in the back of one’s throat; a glottal stop ( ‘ ), an abrupt, momentary cutting off of air followed by an explosive release and the pharyngeal fricatives both voiced ( ’ ) and voiceless (h). A voiced pharyngeal fricative is produced by forcing air through a narrow channel in the back of the throat with vibrations at one’s vocal chords while a voiceless one is produced in the same manner without vibrations at the vocal chords. To check if a sound is voiced, place your fingers on your throat and feel the vibrations.

      Vowels

      There are three basic short vowels in Arabic and three long ones. These are:

      a as in cat

      aa as in far

      i as in pin

      ii as in clean

      u as in put

      uu as in noon

      Stress

      Arabic words do not have a stress accent in the way that English ones do. However, individual consonants can exhibit stress by means of doubling. For example, in the word kassara “to break,” the double s indicates consonantal stress as in the English name “Cassandra.”

      PRONOUNS

      The following are the main Arabic personal pronouns: