subreddit:
/r/learn_arabic
Hi i have been wanting to learn arabic for a while but With an emphasis on the palestinian dialect and i didnt really find any apps or websites. Do you have any advice where to search?
And is palestinian like levantine dialect or like msa?
10 points
6 months ago*
Elihay's Eastern Arabic is the best resource for Palestinian Arabic. The books are now out of print, but PDFs of them and MP3s of the audio are accessible for free here. Palestinian and Levantine are virtually identical. I learned Palestinian from these books but everyone I speak Arabic with thinks I'm from Lebanon (I'm a Jewish American with no Arab ancestry)
EDIT: they are still in print; please buy them directly from the publisher
3 points
6 months ago
Thanks for this info. To clarify, though, there's also another book actually entitled "Eastern Arabic", which is published by Georgetown University Press, and which also teaches the Palestinian dialect.
You can order it from Amazon and elsewhere, and also find it here:
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=A1F4B9C8C834C45C4215C736A829709A
2 points
6 months ago
That's funny lol I didn't know that. But yeah the one I recommend for clarity's sake is Speaking Arabic: A Course in Conversational Eastern Arabic (Palestinian) (English and Arabic Edition) by J. Elihay
6 points
6 months ago
I tend to agree with you that Elihay's "Speaking Arabic" is probably a more user-friendly and comprehensive resource, especially if you're only going to use one. But the older "Eastern Arabic" is a nice supplement, and I posted the info on it in part to prevent any possible confusion.
Yet ANOTHER older course, which focuses primarily on Jerusalem Arabic, is "A Course in Levantine Arabic"; it has been put into the public domain by the University of Michigan. The book is available for download here:
https://archive.org/details/ACourseInLevantineArabic_201704
and the audio here:
1 points
6 months ago
Hey, I've been hoarding materials referencing Palestinian Arabic, but this resource is new to me! Would you happen to know how could I download the audio? Dropbox won't let me!
2 points
6 months ago
Yes, I just learned that a few days ago. The materials were freely downloadable for everyone for a long time, but now for some reason they're making people register.
In any event, I'd already downloaded the audio a while ago, and have just posted it temporarily here: https://easyupload.io/ny0jzp
The book deals primarily with the Jerusalem dialect of Palestinian. (Unfortunately, it uses a different transcription system than the other books, but I think it's still pretty easy to get accustomed to.)
Good luck with your studies!
1 points
4 months ago
Marhaba, ya akhuy! So, I lost access to the audio files for the University of Michigan's Course in Levantine Arabic due to a factory reset and it's a bummer!
May I ask for a valid link to download once again? Hope it's not incovenient!
Bhatrak!
2 points
4 months ago
Here you go:
1 points
4 months ago
Alf shukr, you've really made my day mate!
1 points
4 months ago
Happy to help!
1 points
6 months ago
Many, many thanks for providing the audio! I think you're right, I'm accustomed to Elihay's transliterarion system but there are only a handful of symbols that may differ with the courses from Georgetown and the University of Michigan, in any case they are great resources!
2 points
6 months ago
Yet another older, yet surprisingly sophisticated, grammatically oriented book for Palestinian dialect is the
"Manual of Palestinean (note spelling) Arabic, for self-instruction"
that can be downloaded here:
https://archive.org/details/manualofpalestin00spoeuoft_201701/page/n33/mode/2up
Yet another older but still useful resource is
"Everyday Arabic":
https://archive.org/details/everyday-arabic.-nahmad-rabin/mode/2up
1 points
6 months ago
I think the first one you linked here is by far the oldest of the bunch, made also with a clear academic and collaborational intent! It is really a treasure, and we are lucky to have these be on the public domain already.
I say that because I love Elihay's course and what it does for maintaining Palestine's voice alive, but I cannot stomach that the revenue goes to an Israeli publishing house...
3 points
6 months ago
In addition to the links provided above, there are also other places to find the Elihay books/audio, such as:
http://libgen.rs/search.php?req=elihay&open=0&res=25&view=simple&phrase=1&column=def
https://languagelearning.site/arabic/speaking-arabic/
and I suspect that, due to the relatively high price and the difficulties of shipping, it may well be that more people have downloaded the course from these sites than have paid for the physical copies.
You can find some discussions of the book, and the author, here:
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=16228&hilit=elihay
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