The Spoken Arabic of Mesopotamia
John van Ess
The object of this book is to assist the reader in acquiring a knowledge of the spoken Arabic of Mesopotamia. Only so much of the literary language has been inserted as is required by those who prefer thus to approach the colloquial.
It is important to remember that in this manual the colloquial must not be regarded as a transliteration of that in the character. For while the written language retains the forms and grammar of an earlier age, the Arabic spoken in Mesopotamia today, though its direct descendant, is much simplified in structure and has acquired many dialectical peculiarities. It may be urged that transliteration is a concession to weakness; but its justification lies in the fact that this book has been written to meet the special needs of those to whom the element of time is of prime importance, and who desire chiefly a working knowledge of the colloquial. The words used are universally understood in Mesopotamia. (Re-edition. Originally published 1918 in Oxford).
Contents: Note on Transliteration. The Alphabet. Vowels and Diphthongs. Other Signs in Arabic Script. Part I: The Plural. Elision and Assimilation. Salutations. Arab Etiquette. ‘To have’. The Regular Verb. Active Voice. The Imperative. The Participle. Nouns of Place or Time. Nouns of Instrument. Nouns of Action. The Irregular Verb. Possession. Genders. Numerals. Pronominal Suffixes of the Verb. The Relative Pronoun. The Measures of the Verb. Adjectives for colours and bodily defects. Fractions and Arithmetic. Time of Day. Conditional Sentences. Comparison of Adjectives. Idiomatic Expressions. Days and Months. The Diminutive. The Literary Passive. Bibliography. Part II: Vocabulary.
ISBN 9783862889044. LINCOM Orientalia 87. 272pp. 2018.
