Learning Algerian Arabic

[Amina-DZ]

Originally posted by Little_Mem
Apart from a few words, I'm starting from scratch.

Must be tough!!

Good luck What other languages can you speak?

[Little_Mem]

Originally posted by Amina-DZ

Originally posted by Little_Mem
Apart from a few words, I'm starting from scratch.

Must be tough!!

Good luck What other languages can you speak?

Arabic, Some Modern Standard and Egyptian (not brilliant though), French and some Spanish (learned mostly at school)
How about you ?

[Amina-DZ]

Originally posted by Little_Mem

Arabic, Some Modern Standard and Egyptian (not brilliant though), French and some Spanish (learned mostly at school)
How about you ?

How come you learnt Egyptian?

Look if you count Arabic and Egyptian as 2 then I probably speak 20 lol

Anyway, for me, it's Arabic, French and Spanish.

Can't wait to move on to the next one but I'm still learning Spanish. Although I like Italian, next on my list is German.

I tried Chinese but found it too hard!!

[Little_Mem]

Some sounds in Arabic have no European equivalent so a standard Romanised way is to use numbers.

2= the hamza, the 'glottal stop'as in the Cockney 'bo -ul' (bottle)

3 = the 'ayn sound, a guttural sound made by saying 'aah' whilst constricting the throat, almost a 'glottal stop'

7= A 'breathy' 'h sound similar to the sharp exhale when you breathe on glasses.

These are used in Standard Arabic, are there any others for Derja ?

[Little_Mem]

Originally posted by Amina-DZ

Originally posted by Little_Mem

Arabic, Some Modern Standard and Egyptian (not brilliant though), French and some Spanish (learned mostly at school)
How about you ?

How come you learnt Egyptian?

Look if you count Arabic and Egyptian as 2 then I probably speak 20 lol

Anyway, for me, it's Arabic, French and Spanish.

Can't wait to move on to the next one but I'm still learning Spanish. Although I like Italian, next on my list is German.

I tried Chinese but found it too hard!!

I've learned Egyptian as apparantly it's the easiest to start off with, and the most widely understood I know a few native speakers too, so that's a help

My dad can speak Urdu, he worked in Pakistan for 2 years, right up on the NW Frontier!

[Amina-DZ]

Originally posted by Little_Mem
Some sounds in Arabic have no European equivalent so a standard Romanised way is to use numbers.

2= the hamza, the 'glottal stop'as in the Cockney 'bo -ul' (bottle)

3 = the 'ayn sound, a guttural sound made by saying 'aah' whilst constricting the throat, almost a 'glottal stop'

7= A 'breathy' 'h sound similar to the sharp exhale when you breathe on glasses.

These are used in Standard Arabic, are there any others for Derja ?

Well there is the sound 'kh' which you find in German and Spanish (jota; j=kh) for example but not in English.

Oh and
9= which is a guttural sound as in 9al meaning to say.

Can you pronounce all these easily?

I guess that's about it.

[Little_Mem]

A few phrases for a beginner

1) Chkoune yehder fikoum langliziyya ?

Qui parmi vous parle l'Anglais ?

Anyone here speak English ?

2) Kifaah ngoulou b-ed-Dzayriyya ?

Comment dit-on cela en Algerien ?

How do you say this in Algerian ?

3) Sme7li ?

Pardon ?

Pardon ?

4) Ma-ni ch faahem

Je n'ai pas bien compris

I don't understand very well

5)3awed wachta goult/i, mene fedlek/ i3eych-k

Repetez ce que vous avez dit s'il vous plait m/f

Repeat what you have said, please

Choukrane/ Sahha- Merci, Thankyou



If these are incorrect, or could be improved please add your imput






[Edited by Little_Mem on 8th February 2005 at 00:21]