IDE TO EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIAL by Daniel Pipes copyright. @_ 1983 by Daniel Pipes ALL Fights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions therenf in any form Library of Congress Catalcque Card No. 83-£1663 To Margaret Sears AN ARABIST'S GUIDE TO EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIALL bectace Arriving in Cairo for the first time in June 1971, 1 had Lwo years of arabic study to my credit, yet I vas unable to say any- Uhing or understand more than a word here and there. Like so many other students of modern written Arabic, 2 was wiprepared to deal with the language that Arabs actually speak. ‘Te master the ©. rene dialect, I acquired 4 battery ct grammars and attended classes at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad. Despite excellent teachers, I found the task 2 frustrating one, for all the manuals assumed no knowledge at all of Arabic and started at the begin- hing. But I already knew Written Arabic and needed only to learn what adjustments to make to speak the Eayptian colloquial How sensible it would bs, I often reflected, if someone Prepared a handbook of Egyptian colloquial for those of us already trained in Written Arabic. So often did f bemoan the absence of such a book that my friends eventually insisted that I undertake che project myself. I wrote the book during my final months in Cairo, in the spring of 1973, ‘The grammar then languished for eight years in a back drawer, as I curned my attention to other natters chen Dr. Janes A. Snow of the Foreign service Institute at the bs study; he also aqreed to provide some editorial advice and assis epartuent of State expressed an interest in publishing this lance. Then, when no one else was available Lo prepare the manu= script for publication, he did this too. For his many efforts, 1 am very grateful and am much in his debt. any extors that may yet renain are, of course, my responsibility alone. AN ARABIS7'§ GUIDE TO EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIAL For purposes of brevity, I assume a thorough knowledge of written Arabic and only point out the ways in vhich the dialect differs; to do otherwise would defeat the purpose of this manual “egyptian” is shorthand for Egyptian colloquial Arabic as spoken in Cairo by persons with some education chicago June 1982 AN ARABIST'S GUIDE 70 EGYPTIAN COLLOQUIAL Table of Contents Preface vec... : i Pronunciation 1 T. Consonants st 2. Vowels a 3. Vowel patterns and Syllabis “saitts 4 4: stress. € 51 Other changes” 7 Nouns ..... 25159 ‘cender 4 7. number :*? a) 8. Possession i 9. special Egyptian Noun Forms 12 3 ctives ... Ss nadgrtaoeecying Adjectives 12! Cardinal wumbers ... 12. the Definite article 4. Pronouns ... Pesala uate Caer rt Td. Isolated Peisonal pronouns | 20 14. Pronomial Suffixes "20 15! Demonstrative Pronoung 26 16. Relative Particles 20 17, Interrogative Pronoun 26 Verbs . saree © 18. Preliminary Renarka | Cenjugating Form I... ¢ Gonjugating Forms 1i'~ ! Quadriiiteral Roots Condi tional Additional Egyptian Features 1146 errs 25. Special Egyptian Conjunctione Boca 26. Possession aes 49 7. Adverbs... Raverbs of Time 28. Adverbs of Place 29. Adverbs of Wanner |! SL AN ARABIST'S GUIDE 10 EGYPTIAN COLLOQUTAL 8. Negations .............. SONG. Negations of verbs 31. Negations of Participies 32. Negations of Pronouns 33. Negations of Prepositions 34! Negations of Adjectives 9. Vocabulary AN ARABIST'S GUIDE 0 EGYPTIAN COLLODUIAL CHAPTER ONE PRONUNCIA’ ‘onsenants ° Arabic English Comments (2) when beginning 2 vord it is not pronounced (2) in the middle of a word it is pronounced as a glottal stop only befere a long vowel, cv or viv (but not WV, sce below) Git at-yurtaan ‘Koran! rufus "heads" In the cases V'C or V'V the glottal stop drops out and lengthens the preceeding vowel a vis rats ot ‘head’ i bir ~ ‘welt u oe mimin oe "heliever! Following a long vowel (W!V or W!VV) the glottal stop changes te « ya or cecasionally to 5 wew. 13 ggraate 1+ gfraaya ‘reading’ wt gaaliz = pt Saayiz, ‘wants! Le Geant (3) at the end of a ward the glottal stop drops out "yo dawaa! as dawa Tnedieine AN ARABIST'S GUIDE TO EGYPTIAN coLzogutaL. ry i t,3. the pronunciation is not predictably ¢ or = % gas in good", although in upper Egypt it is like iin ‘jan' # ad 42 the pronunciation is not predictably d or z s zz the pronunciation is not predictable £ 22d the pronunciation is act predictable 2 x { generally pronounced as a glottal stop, though some words retain the literary gaf souud; when a word must be pronounced with the gaf sound, it will be transliterated with a dot above the gaf, as in the following: ist! al-qurtaan ‘the Koran! sata aletaahira — teairo! wets aims ‘dictionary’ gise ‘sectiont wt gute "piece! ust Yanuun Naw! k L AN ARABIST'S GUIDE TO FGYPTTAN COULOQUIAL, * hb ey rd Occasionally a letter is pronounced differently with different meanings a taani "second" (as in ‘Ciel, second’) saniya ‘second’ (time unit} we daw "strong! et gawi ‘much, a lott 2. Vowels A. Short Vowels gore when the sound is like the a in 'wonaa! it may be written e. el + attmed "Raed! B. yong Yowels Note: Long vowels are sometimes prouounced as short vowels. see section 3.C for details