This course offers students an introduction to the spoken Arabic of the Levant (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories). One of the difficulties facing nonnative speakers trying to master Arabic is that very few Arabs can carry on a conversation in modern standard Arabic, so students must be familiar with a colloquial dialect as well as the standard literary language to communicate effectively in Arabic. Although Levantine Arabic is not as widely spoken as is the Egyptian dialect, it provides a useful entry for English-speakers into colloquial Arabic, as it is about halfway between the Egyptian dialect and that spoken in Iraq and offers a useful bridge to mastering either dialect. The text for this course uses a phonetic Latin transcription; the Arabic alphabet will be used, however, in secondary materials. Students need to have a thorough knowledge of the Arabic alphabet and writing conventions to take this course. |