How to Learn Arabic© Saqib Hussain4 - Arabic VocabularyI had
two
major problems when trying
to learn Arabic vocabulary. Firstly, how to organise it; when I started
studying Arabic, I used make list after list of new words, without any
thought or creativity - not a recipe for a success!
Secondly, how to memorize and retain the vocabulary. Repeatedly looking over long lists of words with no logical structure is a great cure for insomnia, but pretty useless for anything else. The stages below discuss an efficient way to deal with vocabulary at each stage of your Arabic education. As you will see, there is some variation depending on whether you want to focus on classical or modern Arabic. A - When learning Arabic grammarDetails
of
how to organise, memorize and revise your vocabulary at this
stage are given in the free course Introduction
to Learning Arabic
in the section Arabic
Courses.
This free course explains how a vocabulary sheet should be laid out,
and the Ticket Methodology for revision. You should familiarise
yourself with these two concepts now by going through that course
material before reading on, as it will
be referred to in the next stages.
The vocabulary learnt from your grammar book, whichever one you work through, is referred to below as your 'Core Vocabulary'. B - Reading Stage IOnce
you have gained enough confidence from your grammar studies to
start reading books, make separate vocabulary sheets and
tickets,
in the
manner shown in the course Introduction
to Learning Arabic,
for each book you read. This will be referred to as you 'Book
Vocabulary'.
It is important, if you want to learn Arabic to a high level and focus in particular on classical Arabic, to keep your Book Vocabulary separate from your Core Vocabulary. The reason for this is that your Core Vocabulary represents those words which you will learn and revise over and over again. So before you can add words to your Core Vocabulary, you have to make sure that they are genuinely classical. That, however, requires an ability to use advanced classical Arabic dictionaries such as Lane's Lexicon or Lisān al-'Arab, which in turn requires, as mentioned in the previous section of this article, a degree of fluency in both classical and modern Arabic. Until you get to that stage, keep your Book Vocabulary separate, organised by books you have read. Later, when you are ready, you will be able to check the classical authenticity of your Book Vocabulary, and then incorporate it into your Core Vocabulary (see Stage C below). This stage is therefore a transitional stage only - the aim is to prepare yourself for differentiating between classical and modern words. C - Reading Stage IIModern ArabicIf
you primarily want learn Arabic to understand modern media, writing
etc. (i.e. modern Arabic), you can skip Stage B
straight to this stage. When you come across a new word, find the
closest word in your Core Vocabulary lists, and
insert the new word beneath it. You should also then make a new
vocabulary
ticket for that word, and include it with the tickets for that
chapter.
For example, the first time you come across the word for 'intoxicants', mukhaddirāt, you would find the closest word in your Core Vocabulary (which for both Basic Arabic Grammar and Haywood and Nahmad would be 'wine', which is khamr), and write in the new word below it. You would then make a vocabulary ticket for 'drugs', and include it with the tickets for the appropriate chapter. This method is predicated on your having memorized the Core Vocabulary extremely rigorously, by going through the vocabulary tickets and repeating the translation exercises until they are second nature. If you have done this, the additional vocabulary will just be an extension of words you already know and have been using regularly through the translation exercises, making the new words easier to memorize. Classical ArabicIf, on
the
other hand, you want to learn Arabic for access to classical
Arabic texts, i.e. you intend to focus on Classical Arabic, then you
should only
start expanding your Core Vocabulary, in the manner described above,
once you are relatively
comfortable reading texts and using advanced classical dictionaries.
This is a necessary precondition, as only then will you have the
ability to differentiate between classical, post-classical and modern
words and usages.
For example, modern authors use the verb tasā`ala to mean 'to wonder'. If you come across this word in Stage B, you would note it as such in in your Book Vocabulary. Later, when you are ready, you can incorporate it into your Core Vocabulary, by first checking its meaning in the advanced classical Arabic dictionaries (and finding that it means 'to ask one another'), and then noting both the modern and the classical meaning (indicating which is which) in your Core Vocabulary. I know this all seems convoluted (after I promised you that this was an 'efficient' way to learn Arabic vocab!), but the pay-offs, if you persevere, are immense. By the end, you'll have an easily memorizable vocabulary list, in which you can confidently distinguish between classical and modern words. D - Topical / Mass Vocabulary MemorizationMany
students actually begin to learn Arabic by memorizing a large amount of
vocabulary topically - e.g the names
of fruits, vegetables etc. This is, I suggest, in fact best left to the
end. In the earlier stages, you should focus on memorizing words which
are used regularly, and learn to use them correctly. This final stage
is
therefore a completion stage.
Unfortunately, there aren't many good books with topically arranged vocabulary. In English, you may find Build Your Arabic Vocabulary by Haroon Shirwani useful. In Arabic, there is al-Qāmūs al-Muṣawwar and al-Ifṣāḥ. For the really adventurous, you might consider working through a dictionary like Hans Wehr or Hava, and memorizing all the doubled verbs, then all the hollow verbs, then all the defective verbs, and finally all the sound verbs. Remember, if you are interested in classical Arabic, you will have to check the meaning of each verb in the advanced classical Arabic dictionaries such as Lane's Lexicon - happy memorizing! Continue to Part 5 - English Grammar Return from How to Learn Arabic to About the Arabic Language or Ready to learn Arabic? Go to ARABIC COURSES and get started free!
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