Title: Alif Baa with DVDs Subtitle: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds, Second Edition Publication Year: 2004 Publisher: Georgetown University Press http://www.press.georgetown.edu Book URL: http://press.georgetown.edu/detail.html?id=1589011023 Author: Kristen Brustad, Emory University Author: Mahmoud Al-Batal, Emory University Author: Abbas Al-Tonsi, American University in Cairo Paperback: ISBN: 1589011023, Pages: 184, Price: U.S. $39.95 Comment: includes 2 DVDs bound in Abstract: Newly revised and packaged with DVDs containing both audio and video exercises, 'Alif Baa with DVDs: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds', is the first part of the 'Al-Kitaab' program. It teaches learners to recognize and produce both letters and sounds accurately through a variety of exercises designed to develop listening, reading, and writing skills. In addition, it introduces a range of Arabic from colloquial to standard in authentic contexts, video footage of an Arabic calligrapher, and a large collection of street signs from Morocco, Egypt, and Lebanon. In conjunction with learning how to read and write the alphabet, 'Alif Baa' introduces about 150 basic vocabulary words, including conventional forms of politeness and social greetings. Standard Arabic vocabulary is more evenly distributed throughout the book, introduced through color pictures on DVD and activated through book and classroom exercises. Social greetings are introduced through new versions of dialogue that take place in an Egyptian context. Finally, it includes capsules on Arab culture as well as an English-Arabic glossary. 'Alif Baa' provides the essential first twenty to twenty-five contact hours of instruction that lay the groundwork for the rest of the 'Al-Kitaab' language program. Lingfield(s): Applied Linguistics Subject Language(s): Arabic, Standard (Language code: ABV) Written In: English (Language Code: ENG) See this book announcement on our website: http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=11411. Abstract: The revised and updated edition of 'Modern Arabic' takes this authoritative, concise linguistic description of the structure and use of modern Arabic to an invaluable new level. Clive Holes traces the development of the Arabic language from Classical Arabic, the written language used in the 7th century for the 'Qur'an' and poetry, through the increasingly symbiotic use of Modern Standard Arabic or MSA (the language of writing and formal speech) and dialectal Arabic (the language of normal conversation). He shows how Arabic has been shaped over the centuries by migration, urbanization, and education--giving us "a balanced, dispassionate, and accurate picture of the structures, functions, and varieties of the contemporary Arabic language." Holes explains the structural characteristics--phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and lexical and stylistic developments--that the majority of the dialects share, as distinguished from Modern Standard Arabic. He also shows how native speakers use both types of Arabic for different purposes, with MSA being the language of power and control as used on television and in political speeches, and the dialects serving as the language of intimacy and domesticity. He further shows how MSA and spoken dialects are not as compartmentalized as one might be led to believe. 'Modern Arabic' illustrates the use of the Arabic language in real life, whether in conversation, news bulletins and newspaper articles, serious literature, or song. This new edition takes into account research published in several areas of Arabic linguistics since the first edition was published in 1995. It includes more extensive comment on the North African Arabic vocabulary of Modern Standard Arabic, more information about "mixed" varieties of written Arabic that are not in MSA (especially in Egypt), updated references, explanations, and many new examples. All Arabic is transcribed, except for an appendix presenting the Arabic alphabet and script. Students of the Arabic language will find 'Modern Arabic' without peer--as will those general linguists who are interested in discovering how Arabic compares structurally and sociolinguistically with European languages. Lingfield(s): Language Description Subject Language(s): Arabic, Standard (Language code: ABV) Written In: English (Language Code: ENG) See this book announcement on our website: http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=11413.