Course Introduction

We want your distance learning experience at Coastline to be a good one. Follow the steps below to get started in your course:

• Read the How to Begin section
• Read the Syllabus
• Complete the Letter of Agreement
• Go to Course Lessons and begin with the first lesson.

The Arabic language

The Arabic language (Arabic: ????? ??????? transliterated: ^al-luGah ^al-jarabeyyah), or simply Arabic (Arabic: ???? transliterated: jarabee), is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic.

It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century and is the liturgical language of Islam. Because of its liturgical role, Arabic has lent many words to other Islamic languages, akin to the role Latin has in Western European languages.

During the Middle Ages Arabic was also a major vehicle of culture, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy, with the result that many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it.

Literary Arabic may be more precisely divided into two main categories:

• Classical Arabic (especially from the pre-Islamic to the Abbasid period, including Qur'anic Arabic) and
• Modern Standard Arabic as used today.

Modern Standard Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic, Standard Arabic or MSA is the variety of Arabic used in most written media, news reporting, and some television talk shows in the Arabic-speaking world, primarily learnt at school rather than through spoken interaction in the home. It is a modernized form of Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, with which it shares most of its vocabulary, syntax and morphology, though there are noticeable differences. The Arabic word F??ha is used to refer to both Standard and Classical Arabic. It is to be distinguished from the varieties of Arabic learned in the family, which are radically different in grammar and vocabulary.

Most Western academic studies find that even many university-educated Arabic speakers experience difficulty conversing in MSA for a long time without switching to another dialect. There are few situations where one is expected to speak MSA without preparing first. Some do not feel confident speaking the language or feel that they would sound artificially pedantic. Television personalities, however, such as news reporters and talk shows hosts, always can speak MSA fluently.

When two Arabs cannot understand each other at all due to dialectical differences, they may use some forms derived from MSA. MSA's resolution of dialectical clashes in Arabic is important, as unlike variants of Spanish, Russian, and other pan-regional languages, some dialects of Arabic are mutually unintelligble. Without MSA, it would be difficult for a Moroccan to converse with a Saudi Arabian

Frequently Asked Questions about This Course

1. Why should I learn Arabic?

There are many reasons to learn the Arabic Language

1. It is the language of many nations that count more than 600 million people.
2. It is the language of the Quran, which is the most sacred and influential text in the lives and behaviors of about one billion people, not necessarily Arabic speakers.
3. It is a language that has left its mark on the vocabulary of the English language by words adopted during the Middle Ages, when the Arabs made significant advances and Arabic became the language of science, math, and philosophy.
4. As the world becomes smaller, more people find it an asset to learn languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Vietnames, Russian, Arabic, and others.
5. Learning Arabic means seeing and thinking from a new perspective and understanding a new culture.
6. Learning Arabic means new business and job opportunties. It means new horizons.

2. Will I learn the Arabic language that all Arabs speak?

There are two kinds of Arabic. The spoken language that has as many dialects and varieties as there are Arabic regions and people, and the Standard language that is the language of written texts, news, and formal speeches. It is the language used by college professors in the classroom. When Arabs from different regions meet, they communicate in Standard Arabic. As much as possbile the language you will learn is close to the formal language. But it will also ignore some extreme structures that sound quite awkward outside the world of education.

3. What will I learn in this course?

By the end of this course you will be able to

• Pronounce, read, and write, the Arabic Alphabet.
• Use pronouns with present tense and imperative verbs
• Apply the rules of dual, plural, and gender agreement to nouns and adjectives
• Count and Tell Time
• Use basic patterns of questions
• Use basic Arabic vocabulary that relates to everyday situations
• Use basic cultural expressions
• Describe people: physical features, colors, clothes
• Carry out a basic conversation in Arabic
• Define important Islamic holidays.
• Define codes of behaviour and conduct in Arab Culture.

4. How do students learning Arabic for the first time feel?

Students find learning Arabic a bit puzzling at first as they find out that so much of what they had taken for granted can be done differently. For example, they are surprised to learn that Arabic is written from right to left and that the Arabic letters look very different from those of the Latin language.

Welcome!

Welcome to the course.

Get Started

To get started in this class, make sure you do the following:

• Read the How to Begin section.
• Read the Course Syllabus.
• Read everything on this Course Introduction page.
• Submit the Letter of Agreement.
• Go to Course Lessons and begin with the first lesson.