Arabic Grammar: A First Workbook

by G.M. Wickens

Standard Arabic - the language of educated discourse throughout the Arab world - presents difficulties beyond those encountered in most foreign languages. Though today it is increasingly being popularised, it remains essentially an elitist, 'learned' language. It has been used without substantial change for over thirteen centuries, in regions as distant as Spain and China, in fields as diverse as poetry and medicine, mathematics and theology. Its morphology and syntax are largely constant, but vocabulary, sense, idiom and style often vary widely. Arabic script requires a good deal of intelligent long vowels and diphthongs are easily confused with certain consonants or with each other; short vowels are not normally indicated at all; most consonants are distinguished only by the placing of dots, and can easily be mistaken or misprinted. This is a textbook designed to guide the first-year student through the difficult early stages of learning Arabic. It avoids the dry, 'scholarly' approach; it uses modern linguistic concepts sparingly, and takes simple short-cuts where they serve an immediate, practical purpose. Professor Wickens presents the basic facts of the language in a pragmatic order; he introduces the beginner to the recurring problems, shows various ways of recognising and tackling them, and helps accustom him from the outset to deal with the unvocalised (unvowelled) texts which he will nearly always encounter.

188 pages, Hardcover

First published April 24, 1980

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came across this while searching for a workbook that could supplement my textbook (Thackston’s) for Classical Arabic. It has a few helpful readings here and there, but all in all the organization is too peculiar to make it a good workbook. The first half of the book is in fact a textbook that teaches the Arabic script and then all the major noun and verb morphology. Only the second half is an actual workbook, numbered to correspond to sections in the first half.

The book, only about 150 pages all told, wastes a lot of time going over the Arabic script. I think a lot of learners wanting a workbook for all those tricky FʕL paradigms, have already learned the script from some dedicated resource. The explanation of material is poor, and then using the workbook exercises in combination with it is awkward. This material may have worked well for Prof. Wickens’ own classroom, but it didn’t merit being sold by Cambridge University Press as something for a more general audience.