| |
Arabic language
is
one of the largest members of the
Semitic language family. It is
considered
the sixth in the world's league table
of languages with an estimation of more than 200 million native
speakers. It is also the language of the holy Quran, the book of all
Muslims through the world. It is believed that Arabic language was
originated in Saudi Arabia in pre-Islamic times, and then spread out
across the Middle East. Standard
Arabic is the official communicating language among educated Arabs
from different countries. It also used officially in the prayers,
books, and media. Local
dialects, however, is hard to be understood in every
Arab country. For instant, the local dialect of Algeria is difficult
to be understood in Iraq or Lebanon and vice versa. Thus, the
standard Arabic is the alternative. Arab world contains twenty-two
countries from Lebanon and Iraq north to Somalia in south, and from
Morocco far west to Gulf Countries east. Arabic language has some
influences on some other languages in which are very common that
other languages have some words derived from Arabic. For examples,
Admiral, adobe, alchemy, alcohol, alcove, algebra, camel,
sugar, sultan, and syrup are some of the English words that derived
from Arabic language (www.al-bab.com).
This handbook is designed for those
who are interested to learn Arabic, the language and the culture,
and for those who want to expand their knowable in Arab world.
Students who are taking some Arabic courses at CSU will find this
handbook very helpful as an additional resource to support their
learning through information, exercises, and practices. We put
together different curricula from different institution in Saudi
Arabia to help understand the subject. Also, we have modified some
information from the main book of the Arabic courses at CSU,
Alkitaab, to ease the understanding and simplify the topics.
We haven’t done yet, and
this copy is just a sample of what the final version of this
handbook will have. We are going to expand the subjects and
chapters, and add more elements to give more details in each to meet
the needs of Arabic learners. We hope this project achieves your
satisfaction and expectation, and we certainly are glad to receive
your opinion, thoughts, recommendations, suggestions, and
corrections. Your feedback will absolutely help us to improve the
handbook and make the final version better.
|
|
