Hello,
I just recently started learning standard Arabic (with a book and audio recordings), and i would like to study the language at the same time here at lingq. I do, however, find it hard really to get started with the material available for "beginner 1" in the library. The trouble for me is, that it is hard to "guess" the vocals of each word, and that it can be inconvenient to go through the recordings to find the specific word each time.

Why not write with vocals marked? - if not for all, but then at least for the beginner lessons. I know that you rarely find this in written Arabic, because the words can be easily guessed when you have a bit of vocabulary, but for beginner lessons, i think it could be a great help!

Thanks to the people who have already provided lessons for Arabic! - it seems though, as if there isn't much activity for this particular betalanguage.. A shame.. But maybe the vocals could help a little!

- Thomas

This would be very useful!

I would agree, but it is not really the way the language is written. Better to trust your memory and get used to it right away.

With really new languages which have unfamiliar sound=symbol systems (for me, Arabic and Chinese) , I like short dialogs but always at normal speed. 10 to 20 seconds. I tend to loop the audio as I flashcard from the lesson and only move the flashcard up if I can recognize the word in the audio. That way I learn to associate the entire word with the sound.

Yes, very much agreed there dooo. I once studied Hebrew and got reliant on the vowels. After a while, I couldn't read non-voweled Hebrew and got so annoyed because I couldn't move on and ended up quitting the language.

Allow your memorising to pick it up. You need to develop the memory for this.

I've started Hebrew again today, with the confidence that I'll be able to do this with no problems.

p.s. I believe there is some Google program to add vowels to Arabic text. Perhaps somebody can drop a link.

How you manage it, to find the right meaning from a word without to know the vowels?

for the moment it is not possible to make Lingqs from text with vowels!
I have imported some text(private) but there is a technical problem.it is not working fine.I can not save the Lingqs!
When I open the page next time my Lingqs are still blue!!!


(Arabic is only a beta-language) :-(

Guessing from context... or in my case the meaning was often provided as a parallel English translation of the dialog.

guessing from context!!!

I see, thats the only way ! or to impruve my English to understand "your " English translation.;-)

j;-)

Jolanda, I think your English more than good enough for understanding translations of beginner dialogs

Thanks for the flower! i try my best!

j;-)

A native speaker of Hebrew, Arabic and other languages written without vowels, just become so good at guessing how words sound that they don't have to think twice about it.

@jolanda

In Arabic short vowels don't help to get the meaning of a word. Arabic words are generally based on three-letter roots (sometimes 4) with which one can build different words.

example with the root ktb:
kataba = to write
katib = writer
maktaba = library
etc...

There are rules and the context helps to find the right word. Arabic is very logical, so once you have understood a few things, texts become quite clear. I guess it's the same with Hebrew.

You can guess the pronunciation with the rules but there's nothing better than listening. ;)

I have a hard time reading on the internet though, it's so small...

I am an Arabic native speaker, right vocals are very important especially for beginners for many reasons, main ones are to memorize the word correctly, and to practice on grammar stuff where the vocals are very important part to understand the grammar!

Hello everyone and thanks for your repsonses / opinions !

I do understand the point.. It's not as much a question of guessing, as it is a question of knowing the grammar, and the general principle of arabic words, from which the vowels can be deducted (yeah, the word is "vowels".. i's probably just in danish they're called "vocals" ;))

I think, however, that the vowels could help to eliminate some of the confusion when first taking on the language, as malekdemachkieh also points out. In addition to that, i think that most schools that teach standard (written) arabic to kids, start out with the vowels too, just to avoid that the beginning stades of the language be too overwhelming. Surely there is a transition period from reading with vowels to reading the text without, but can it be a larger task, than having to grasp all the the particularities at once?

In any case, i think the system ought to work with vowels (as jolanda pointed out, there is a problem when importing lessons with vowels) Like that,i could choose myself if i want to use them or not ;)

Thanks for now, and happy lingq-ing
Thomas