menu Podcast

excellent once time thanks, a question : you want = بدّ ك، standard arabic or levantine? can be widely used anywere? I use to travel quite often in north Africa, unfortunatelly the arabic is so far from the standard, why don't arrange some lesson ? ciao

I wonder if anyone has noticed the similarity between the Arabic words for “Brazil” and “Britain”. The word for Britain (ﺒﺮﻴﻂﺎﻨﻴﺎ has been borrowed from Latin (Britannia), while the word for Brazil (ﺍﻠﺒﺮﺍﺯﻴﻞ has been borrowed from Portuguese (Brasil). In both cases the consonant cluster /br/ has been broken up by the insertion of a vowel (a). Just as “Britannia” has become “baritanya”, so “Brasil” has become “al-barazil”.

Native speakers of Arabic seem to have difficulty in pronouncing the consonant cluster /br/, just as native speakers of Japanese find it hard to pronounce the consonant cluster /st/. In both cases we can therefore observe a marked tendency to break up these troublesome clusters by vowel insertion.

The restrictions imposed by awkward combinations of sound units are known as phonosyntactic constraints, and the remedial vowel insertion exemplified by words like ﺍﻠﺒﺮﺍﺯﻴﻞ is called anaptyxis. The sound law we have observed can therefore be described in more technical terms as follows: Owing to phonotactic constraints, foreign words beginning with the consonant cluster /br/ are modified by anaptyxis when they are integrated into the phonetic system of Modern Standard Arabic.

Jazaka-Allah Khair for another good lesson with useful phrases.
I figured at the end one of the brothers asked: who do you think will win the world cup?
The other akhi answered: I wish England wins the world cup.
The other brother jokingly replied: It will remain just a wish (implying for England to win)

Am I right?

ANDEK HAQ BARSHA , ya rbandini, a little bit of HALOUF AND SH would help a lot...northern africa is such fun, i really enjoy it there.

Have to say, I was thinking it might not be so bad if Algeria had prevailed in the game against the U.S. Nice job they did overall to keep all of their games close. Donovan's last second goal must have been as heartbreaking for Algeria as it was thrilling for the U.S.

Great insight as always Desmond.

Thanks for the compliment, Charles. By the way, there's a typo in my comment (third line from the bottom). I meant to write "phonosyntactic constraints".

Yep, enjoying immensely so far, so thanks for your wonderful timing with this great lesson once again, ya Mohamed and Ehab

اكيد انا اتمنى ان يفوز المانيا بكأس العالم هذه سنةو

So tomorrow it will be: Go Germany!!!

@rbandini, (بدك) is colloquial in the Shaam area (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan) but it should be understood almost in all Arab countries.
Desmond, many thanks for these notes, indeed they are useful observations.
Quest, well done!! Your translation is right, it is just the last sentence, I actually said: I wish, but I don't think they will (referring to they will win).
@ Na7la, countries are addressed as feminine, so the verb should be (تفوز). And since England (and Jordan) left the word cup, then (أنا كذلك أتمنى أن تفوز ألمانيا).. Go Germany

Wow, shokran Ehab, your cheers seemed to have helped our German lads to this great victory today!!! And what fantastic goals we saw...

Thanks for correcting my mistake, akeed I should have known better...

hey lads being dutch born I am convinced the dutch will pull it off this time - hope the final will be FRG against Holland - rehearsal of the 1972 game where the germans did win rightly

Jazaka-Allah Khair Ustaad Ehab. May Allah bless your efforts and keep the website going.

Hey Plop, I am totally sorry your wish for the combination in the final was not granted.... But you know, here many people think that with all the Dutch players in Bayern München, Germany has some kind of participation in the Dutch team and will cheer for them on Sunday

Apart from being sorry my own team did not make it, I think it is quite refreshing to finally have two teams in the final trying for the first time to win the cup! So let's wish for an interesting and powerful last match in this world cup

C'mon Plop, we need some better gloating and breast-beating. You seem to be almost apologetic - maybe the Dutch don't deserve to win?

Anyway, my son plays football (soccer here) and being trained at a Dutch facility here in NJ, he will be rooting for Holland.

Germany plays a beautiful game - didn't see their loss to Spain, but I wonder how the absence of Muller might have affected them.

Spanish gloaters welcome!

This was a great lesson to work through after last night's third-place play-off. Thanks!

Please have another look at the audio transcript. The column that is supposed to contain the supplementary Arabic vocabulary seems to be empty (fortunately, the regular pdf transcript is complete).

I think I've finally managed to work out the three sentences Ehab and Mohammed say towards the end of the podcast (well done, Quest, by the way!), but I'm not entirely sure I fully understand the last one, Ehab. Did you say
"ولا أتمنى بس ما أعتقد صار"? It's the last word of the sentence that I find most intriguing, mostly because it's combined with أعتقد.

Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately, I have a very limited linguistic vocabulary but, regarding your comments on consonant clusters, Desmond, I have noticed that native speakers habitually 'rattle' letters in many Arabic consonant clusters subtly/slightly (semi? demi?) voicing absent vowels.