A Lesson in Arabic: Part 1

Ahlan.

A lot of people ask me to explain how the Arabic language works.  If friends have these questions, I'm sure other people do too.

Today I'm going to begin teaching you the alphabet and some basics.  Later I will teach you useful words and phrases.

Alphabet - Click on for bigger picture.

Above is the Arabic alphabet with the pronunciation of each letter's name.

Some basics you need to realize are:

1. Arabic is read right to left. Numbers are written left to right.
2. There are many sounds in Arabic that we don't have in English and vice versa.  For example, there is no 'p' or 'v' sound in Arabic, so 'b' and 'f' are frequently used replacements when putting an English word/name into Arabic.  
3. There are quite a few Arabic letters that sound the same, but are very different.  These include س / ص, ط / ت, د / ض, ك / ق.
4. There are long vowels and short vowels.  The long vowels are ا, و, ي.  They make the sounds for a long 'e', 'o', and 'a' (respectively).  The letters ي & و double as consonants as well.  Short vowels are damma - ُ , kasra - ِ, and fatha - َ.  They make the sounds for a short 'o', 'e',  and 'a' (also respectively.)
5. There is also a letter called hamza (ء).  This letter signifies a glottal stop.  An example of this would be the sound the vowels make when you say the word 'water' without the 't' - wa'er.
6. A final basic to cover is taa marbuta (ة).  This comes at the ends of words. It is pronounced at 'aht', but many times the 't' sound is dropped.  The 't' is pronounced when it is in a possessive case.  Commonly the taa marbuta signifies feminine forms of words.

Arabic is written similar to how we would write cursive.  Many letters have what is called an initial, medial, and final position.  Some letters also do not have a medial position and cannot connect to letters that come after it.

Positions of each letter - Click on for bigger picture

It is a lot to take in at once.  If you have any questions feel free to ask.  If it helps, you can also check out this video.

Challenge: Watch this video and try to learn the alphabet that way.  When I started learning Arabic, my professor had us try to sing along with this Arabic equivalent to Sesame Street.  See if you can do the same.