Unit One * orders and requests, e.g. ‘Come here!’, ‘Go!’ Language point 1.1 Expressions of quantity * how to say ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’ and ‘Be so kind’ In this unit you will learn about: Qy + expressions of quantity, e.g. ‘a bottle of milk’, ‘a dozen eggs’ Q Look at the way the Arabic words for ‘cup’, ‘glass’, ‘tea’ and ‘coffee’ are combined to form phrases: glaas OS ‘glass’ chaay finjéal Jv ‘cup’ (Arabrstyle) — ghwa glaas chaay ‘a glass of tea’ finjéal ghwa ‘a cup of coffee’ i448 Jad Now memorise the following words: sandawiich ‘sandwich’ USs%4 — burtuqdal darzan ‘dozen’ 03 l4Ham nuSS darzan ‘half-dozen'0J2* U=_ simich/samak kaylo ‘kilo’ hs Haliib nuSS kaylo ‘hal-kilo’ stS cei bayD ghirsha ‘bottle’ Ae jibin ‘tea’ gla ‘coffee’ 544 ‘orange’ Jai» ‘meat’ pal ‘fish’ lau ‘milk’ le ‘eggs’ an ‘cheese’ OseUnit 1 Exercise 1.1 Translate the following phrases: 1 ahalf-kilo of meat 4 akilo of fish 2 a bottle of milk 5 half-a-dozen oranges 3 adozen eggs 6 acheese sandwich In phrases of quantity of this type, no Arabic words for ‘a’ and ‘of' are needed, Note that, when the first word of the phrase ends in -a, for example giiT9a ‘piece, chunk’, a final -t is added to it before the second word. This -t is in fact a so-called ‘feminine’ ending, and most Arabic nouns ending in -a have this ‘hidden’ t, which shows up in ‘quantity’ phrases (and other types that we shall meet later). Such words are marked * in the Vocabularies. Here are some examples of phrases involving +t: guT9a ‘apiece’4Li gUT9atl4Ham _—_‘a piece of meat’ > bi nitfa nitfat xdbuz ‘abit of bread’ 5. ain Habba ‘a grain’ Habbat Yaysh ‘a grain of rice’ Ube 4 Words like bayD ‘eggs’, and simich ‘fish’ are called ‘collective’ nouns: that is, they denote ‘eggs’ or ‘fish’ in general. If we wish to talk about ‘one egg’ or ‘a fish’, we add the -a feminine ending to form the so-called ‘unit noun’: bayDu ‘eggs’ bayDa ‘anegg’ ta» simich@~- ‘fish’ imicha ‘afish’ xubuz* ‘bread’ xdbza ‘a loaf 55 Language points 1.2 Orders and requests In Arabic, as in English, we can ask people to do things by giving them one-word orders. For example, when addressing male speakers, the following forms are used 9aT jib ‘Bring! saww ‘Make!’ =Unit 1 3 ruuH ‘Go!’ oy ta9aal ‘Come here!’ Jai If the person addressed is female, an -i is added: ‘Give (f.)!" be ‘Bring (1)! "Make (f.)!" 4 ‘Go (f)! we taaali ‘Come (f.) here!” li If there are several people addressed, a -u is added: 9aTu ‘Give (pl)! s5= jfibu ‘Bring (pl.)! sawwu "Make (pl.)!" 3 rduHu Go (pl)! 52 taQdalu ‘Come (pl.) here!’ To say ‘give me!’, we add the suffix -ni (‘me’) directly to these command words, which become 94Tni, 9aTiini, SaTduni respectively. Note that the feminine ending -i and the plural ending -is lengthened (and hence stressed) when -ni is suffixed to it To say ‘bring me!” or ‘make (for) me!’ we need to add not -ni but lil (or liyyi) (‘to, for me’) to the command words, Compare: 94TnV/9aTiin/9aTGuni Ab — ‘Give me!” and saww/sd4wwi/sawwiu (or liyyi) ‘Make (for) me!’ 3 = The word yallah! is often added to give an extra note of urgency, e.g. yallah, ruuH! ‘Just go, will you!’, yallah, saww! ‘Go on, do (it). 1.3 ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’, ‘Be so kind’ Orders of the kind shown above are made more polite by adding the Arabic equivalent of ‘please’: min faDlik (or min faDlak) to men, min faDlich (or min f4Dlach) to women, and min faDlakum to several people. Thus saww lii finjal gahwa min faDlak (to. a man) sll’ (8548 Dead Gh ye sawwi lii finjéal gahwa min faDlich (to a womanyebst G+ 868 lad gl pe4 Unit 1 The normal way of politely addressing a person by name, or calling his or her attention is to use the word yaa (‘oh’) followed by his or her name: yaa 9Ali, jiib lii nuSS kaylo simich min faDlak. ‘Ali, bring me half-a-kilo of fish please.’ thai 4 dla ghS Gai gl cus gle b yaa zéhra, YaTiini nitfat xdbuz min faDlich. ‘Zahra, give me a bit of bread please.’ chat 4« 5.5 4s ube ube tas If you don't know the names of people you are addressing, call them naas ‘people’ yaa naas, ta94alu min faDlakum! ‘Come over here please, people!” Shai ys sai Gl The commonest way of saying ‘thank you’ in Arabic is shukran. But there are other ways that are typical of Gulf Arabic. You can say aHsént to a man (literally ‘you have done well’), aHsénti to a woman, and aHséntu to several people. This is usually said when someone has done you a favour or a good turn When you wish to invite someone politely to do something, or offer or pass something to them (a cigarette, a newspaper, a seat, etc.), it is polite to use a word that means ‘be so kind!’. This is taféDDall to a man, with the usual -i added when addressing a woman and -u for the plural; for example, when offering a group of people some tea: taféDDalu chaay! gt sais ‘Please (pl.) have some tea!’ Specie 1.2 (Audio 1; 7) Read aloud and translate the following requests: CQ) 1 yaa aHmad, saww liyyi glaas chaay min faDlak. wlan yo lt LOS GI ye seal WA 2 yaa layla, Saini nitfat simich min fDlach, hai oe dee tts he ld 3 yaa mHammad, ruuH jib li gaUTi zibid min faDlik. 5 5 phos cy ames 4. yaa Yabdallah, 94Tni finjaal gahwa min f4Dlik, hak oy Ja the dae 5 yaa sélwa, riuHi jib liyyi darzan burtugaal min faDlich. aha on Ji 5 gl gam gars sale’Unit 1 5 Exercise 1.3 i? ‘Ask a man to do the following: 1. to bring you half-a-kilo of meat 2 to give you a bit of cheese 3 to go and make you a cheese sandwich Ask a woman to do the following: 1 to make you a cup of coffee 2 to go and get you a glass of milk 3 to go and bring you a dozen eggs Exercise 1.4 ay Imagine you are shopping and ask politely for the following items. Use the Vocabulary for this unit to help you. Male shopkeeper Female shopkeeper 1 a box of matches 8 a bag of potatoes 2 a packet of salt 9 a kilo of onions 3 a bottle of cooking oil 10 a packet of soap 4 abit of lettuce 11 a quarter-kilo of sugar 5 ahalt-kilo of rice 12 a kilo of dates 6 a packet of butter 13 a piece of meat 7 a quarter-kilo of tomatoes 14 a glass of water A aHsant//u — cheese shdkran thank you |S jigdara* cigarette shwayya* alittle; a bit Uy jiibyia > bring! tafaDDali/u be so kind! Uaait kaylo tS Kilo témar dates laHam aot meat TaméaT tomato(es) bas maay te water tagéaliu come here! lai milH gle salt uu or wi and 5 nitfat tis abit xas lettuce Gas nuss halt xibuz bread js putdyta La, —_potato(es) hey; oh & tubo e+) quarter butter 2:5 ruuHi/u ¢3, go! give! he Saabiungse soap rice Uke sandawiich sandwich sil | Sinab grape(s) ie In the Cultural points of each of the 20 units of this book, aspects of the history, culture and everyday life of the Gulf that are not dealt with in the grammatical sections will be explored, as far as possible through examples of how these practices are expressed in Gulf Arabic, such as dress, marriage, cooking, religious festivals and sport. The Gulf States and the GCC With the exception of Oman, whose independence dates from the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1650, the Gulf States, or duwal al-xaliij as they are known in Arabic, all gained their political independence relatively recently: Kuwait in1961, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the 1970s when the various treaty relationships each of them had with the United Kingdom came to an end. Their names, as pronounced in spoken Gulf Arabic, are il-kwayt (or |-ikwayt) ‘Kuwait’ (‘A’ on the map, see page 7), i-baHrayn ‘Bahrain’ (‘C’), gaTar ‘Qatar’ (‘D)), il-imaardat ‘the Emirates’ (‘E’) and Suman ‘Oman’ (‘F’), which is also known to Omanis as is-sélTana ‘the Sultanate’. The Kingdom