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The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It | 
| Authors: Nicholas Awde, Putros Samano
Publisher: Lyle Stuart
Category: Book
List Price: $10.95
Buy New: $8.76
You Save: $2.19 (20%)
Rating:  88 reviews
Sales Rank: 6859
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 95
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0818404302
Dewey Decimal Number: 492.711
EAN: 9780818404306
Publication Date: October 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Ever greater numbers of people are learning Arabic and/or coming into some kind of contact with the Arab world. Anyone who wishes to learn the language faces a hitherto formidable initial challenge: the alphabet.
This book proceeds, step by step, through all the letters of the Arabic alphabet, showing the sounds they stand for and how they are combined into words. Nothing essential is left out, and no unnecessary complications added. Readers will make rapid progress and will be surprised at the relative ease with which they master the first steps towards command of this increasingly important world language.
The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read and Write It belongs on the desk of every student of the language; in the luggage of every visitor to the Middle East; in the briefcase of business people with Arab clients; and in the back pocket of every employee of British or American companies working in Arab countries.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 83 more reviews...
Simple explanations, step by step December 11, 2008
I really like this book; simple instruction, step by step like if learning calligraphy. Yes, there are the letters and their variants, and at the first look they may seem intimidating, but just starting and following, and what? Things don't seem so complicated anymore. The instruction how to write, the movements as in calligraphy, division in space by the lines, this really simplifies the task. I know, everyone is different, some people are more auditory learners,(I am very visual),some get a lot from gestures, (you can draw the letters int eh air), so, if you are an auditory learner, you may need to spend more time learning alphabet than the visual types, so, my enthusiasm may not be shared by all. But in any case, I found the instructions very clear, and nicely divided into bits of information. Right amount of words to practice, enough to learn, but not so much that you feel drawn in drills.
I am, really, really happy with this book, it is very well constructed for self-study. I recommend this book highly.Don't get me wrong: I don't claim it is "oh, so easy," the alphabet is complex, and the rules need to be followed, but I was pleasantly surprised how intuitive the book is constructed, the learning felt more like brain tease than a chore. But maybe it felt like this because it is not a second alphabet I learned? (Learning cyrilic script was a kind of hell in the past). I had challenges at the beginig, as Arabic writing was unfamiliar to me, but hey, this type of unfamiliarity happens with learning languages in general. After some time, I really started to feel the smooth gestural qualities of this alphabet. In simple explantion, Arabic started to feel kind of ergonomical, if I can say so. Don't let the fact than is written in different direction, or has different letter forms intimidate you; after some time I found it very natural, as you can write words with relative gestural ease, seems like the letters feel easy for the natural movements of the fingers holding a writing tool.Now I find Arabic is a very hand-friendly alphabet. IO think this book made me come to this conclusion faster.
Great! December 2, 2008
I received the book in just a few days. It was just like new! Hopefully this will make my connection of the arabic letters clearer.
a great place to start October 26, 2008
I love this tiny book. The summer before taking an introductory Arabic language course in college I decided to make things easier for myself by getting acquainted with the alphabet in advance. So I bought this book. I went through it twice and when I finally had to absorb the Arabic alphabet in the fall, it was really easy.
It has four parts: chapter one discusses the Arabic language and such things as word roots; chapter two discusses the alphabet and the sounds in general terms; chapter three is the most important one as it goes through all the letters and their different shapes (initial, medial, final, isolated) and instructions how to write them; chapter four includes reference material (hamza, handwriting, a map of Arab countries, a passage from the Qur'an).
Chapter three is tons of fun since after each letter it gives examples of Arabic words that contain it. I used to cover the transliteration and try to read it - that is a great tool for becoming more comfortable with the alphabet.
If you are going to start Arabic, grab this book first. It is short, clear, and very helpful.
an intelligent and humane approach October 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
By humane, I mean that the authors' humanity and humility make this more than an intelligent book. They convey their understanding of Arabic and their appreciation of its beauty.
I am currently working my way through this book, filling up about a third of a page of college-lined notebook paper each night with Arabic. I have been doing this for two weeks and expect to make it through the entire book in about eight more weeks of this hour an evening, five day a week approach. It is a testament to the authors' approach that I can already take the romanized Arabic and turn it into 90% correct Arabic script for those letters I have already learned.
I agree with Mr. Awde that we should learn to read and write Arabic as a PRECURSOR to studying its grammar. So I am studying this book concurrently with Pimsleur's Conversational Arabic. And when I finish these two, I will progress into an actual Arabic textbook.
I enjoy and appreciate this book and so I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to learn Arabic.
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[later] I just finished my first pass through this book and it took me --at a pretty leisurely pace-- only six weeks. I think the result is that I know 75% to 80% of what I need to read Arabic and so I intend to continue my writing and reading practice using the Arabic writing in my copy Teach Yourself Arabic Complete Course Package (Book + 2CDs). I'll just read and copy and write for about another month and then I will actually start the Teach Yourself lessons.
This book is a MUST have!!! October 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a must into the introduction to Arabic writing. It is clearly and intelligently written and easy to understand. As an American born Arab, I learned to speak the language along with all its nuances in tongue placement and glottal stops. I would never have believed that anyone could explain how these sounds could be recreated without the use of CDs or an actual Arab. However, these guys nailed it! If you really read this book and practice like they explain, you will definitely have a great basis for advanced study.
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