Arabic and Hebrew: Why Semitic Languages Are Not Difficult
I read a lot of comments on forums and other blogs, and have received emails from people asking questions about the difficulty of Semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew (Arabic mainly).
Fear-mongering novice learners try to frighten other would-be learners by describing Arabic as extraordinarily difficult, and the Foreign Service Institute places it in its fifth and most difficult category, with Hebrew and Amharic in its fourth.
As far as I’m concerned, the FSI’s placement of Arabic and Hebrew in those categories is absurd.
I’d also like to know how the hell Amharic (the Semitic language of Ethiopia with the much more challenging Ge’ez script and more unfamiliar culture to English speakers) is easier than Arabic.
If you’re an Amharic speaker/learner I’d like to hear your response to that question in the comments section below.
I admit that Amharic’s a language I haven’t studied yet, but after years of Arabic and Hebrew (and some Aramaic in college) I can confidently say that of all the languages that I’ve learned or dabbled in over the years, Semitic languages really are some of the least intimidating to learn.
I’ll briefly mention some, but not all, of my reasons below (with particular attention paid to Arabic and Hebrew).
Nerd, businessman or vagabond?
Before you do anything, it’s really important that you work out what your goals are for a language like Arabic or Hebrew.
This is true for all languages but for these in particular it depends on whether you want to learn the classical variety of Hebrew or Arabic for academic or religious reasons (e.g. Judeo-Christian/Islamic theological studies), a standard dialect to engage in business or to monitor current affairs (Israel/Palestine, terrorism, etc.) or a colloquial language for travel to engage and form relationships with local people.
With Arabic in particular the most common question asked by people is:
Should I learn Modern Standard Arabic or a dialect?
The only person who can answer that question is the one who asks it.
If you want to be able to converse in the language then pick a dialect (preferably the dialect of the region you’re planning to travel to) or a widely understood one like Egyptian. I’ve already mentioned the best series ever made for the Egyptian dialect, but there are plenty of others for other dialects whether you choose one like Moroccan or Iraqi (unfortunately dialects like Sudanese and Tunisian have fewer resources but I’d recommend starting with Egyptian if you’re interested in them anyway).
If you’re studying language for religious or academic purposes, then you’d benefit from a coursebook in Classical Arabic (or Biblical Hebrew) which are much more detailed about grammar, old vocabulary and exegesis.
Otherwise, the majority of resources available for Arabic are for Modern Standard Arabic (one of my favourite being this one) and from what I understand all Modern Hebrew resources are for Standard Hebrew as there are no major dialect distinctions in Israel comparable to those in the Arabic-speaking world.
Triliteral roots
Okay, so what makes them easier than people make them out to be?
First and foremost: roots.
Roots exist in all languages but one of the defining characteristics of Semitic languages is that most of their vocabulary comes from three-letter stems of radical consonants (there are a handful of four and two-letter stems too but most have three).
For example, in both Arabic and Hebrew, from the root K-T-B (كتب and כתב) we can derive many words relating to writing by simply adding certain vowels (or adding an extra consonant).
So for example:
كتب – kataba – he wrote
مكتب – maktab – office
كتاب – kitaab – book
كاتب – kaatib – writer
Because of this, acquiring and recognizing vocabulary isn’t nearly as difficult as a language like English where the words office, book and writer have no clear connection whatsoever.
If you’re reading an Arabic or Hebrew article you can at least recognize dozens of stems and take a good shot at guessing the meaning of certain words. Even just a basic knowledge or awareness of various forms can enable you to take pretty accurate guesses at the meaning:
For example, let’s say you know that F-T-H (فتح) means “to open” and you know that putting a mim (letter M) at the beginning of a word with a long vowel on the last syllable turns it into an instrumental noun.
مفتاح
What’s an instrument used to open things?
A key.
It’s not always this easy but very often it is and it makes vocabulary so much easier to learn in comparison to other languages.
Dialects aren’t such a big deal
As I said above, people ask which dialect is the best to learn a lot and make a big deal about dialect variation as if this affects the difficulty level of the language.
The reality is, with the possible exception of Maghrebi Arabic (Moroccan/Algerian), people all over the Arab world will understand you regardless of the dialect you choose.
If you study Iraqi, Egyptians will understand you. If you study Levantine, Saudis will understand you. If you study Sudanese, Libyans will understand you.
Arabic speakers have grown up listening to all those varieties on TV and even if they haven’t, in much the same way as English speakers from New Zealand can understand the English of Scotsmen (with a bit of effort), these people can understand different types of Arabic too.
People say to me, but when they talk back to me I won’t understand them.
True.
But let’s say you can speak Levantine Arabic and you’re talking to a Kuwaiti with a rough Gulf dialect.
That Kuwaiti is able to imitate the dialect in the same way that I, as an Australian, can imitate an American to get foreigners to understand what I’m saying. Sometimes, especially when I’m teaching English, I have to put on an American accent because my Australian accent is difficult for some foreign students to understand.
Every Arab I’ve spoken to has been able to do the same.
Hebrew and Arabic scripts have the same origin as ours would you believe
Another major concern for people wanting to study Arabic or Hebrew are the scripts/alphabets.
Both of these languages have very exotic-looking writing, written from right to left, and this intimidates people. This is particular true with Arabic because the letters are connected and in both languages some of the letters change depending on their position in the word.
Despite what some scientists say, neither of them are overly difficult to read. I taught myself how to read both scripts in a day – it just takes a bit of adjustment switching over to a right-to-left language and getting your head around which letters change shape depending on position.
The Arabic and Hebrew scripts originate from the Phoenician alphabet, just like our Latin one does.
This means that some letters actually have slight resemblance to the ones we already know in Europe, and switching between Arabic and Hebrew is even easier because the letters are almost the same.
Really simple grammar compared to many other languages
Semitic grammar in my opinion is a heck of a lot easier than many other languages.
When I put down a German or Greek grammar and pick up my Hebrew grammar it’s like taking a breath of fresh air – seriously.
Without going into too much detail here are some examples:
- The verb ‘to be‘ is omitted in the present tense in both languages (e.g. “you are good” is simply “you good”)
- There’s no neuter
- The definite articles (ال) and (ה) are indeclinable, meaning they can be applied to masculine or feminine nouns and don’t change for different cases
- A lot of the more intricate details of grammar (e.g. vowel changes for different noun cases, nunation, Masoretic markings, etc.) aren’t really a concern for anyone wanting to study colloquial dialects. The only people who really want to pay attention to this stuff are religious students.
- Verb forms in both languages are best learned as words in context, rather than trying to learn and apply grammar rules. Over time you start to recognize the different forms (e.g. from the root 3-L-M - (اعلم) to teach (اتعلم) to learn) and see their connection, but there’s no need to overwhelm yourself in the early stages trying to learn them.
- Learning a few suffixes is all that’s really necessary to understand noun possession and direct objects in verbs (e.g. -ka = you (m.) so kitaabaka (your book) and a7ebuka (I love you). <– Modern Hebrew possession is a little bit different as it uses the same suffix on a separate word for your (שלך).
- In Egyptian Arabic in particular, to make a present or past tense verb negative is very similar to the way it’s done in French with a prefix and suffix (ne…pas – e.g. je ne viens pas) using ma… sh. So ‘he wrote’ - katab. ‘He didn’t write’ - makatabsh).
Those are just a handful of examples of why I consider Semitic grammar to be simpler than other languages. So much of the complexity that you find in other languages just isn’t a problem for Arabic and Hebrew learners.
Are those pharyngeals, velars and uvulars or are you mad at me?
Those harsh sounds you hear that sound like somebody’s pissed off about something.
There’s actually no secret or shortcut to pronunciation of the guttural sounds (and it certainly can’t be explained in writing). In the same way you’d learn Chinese tones or the French guttural R, you just need to listen and practice over and over.
As I said in a previous post, take your time with pronunciation and don’t race ahead until you get the sounds right. Like all languages, it just takes time and practice to start producing it properly.
Maha, a very popular YouTube polyglot originally from Palestine and now living in Italy (fluent in Arabic, Hebrew, Italian and English) has put together some very good videos aimed at beginners that have attracted a huge following. Here’s one of her videos on pronunciation:
Surprising amount of loanwords from English and French
Finally, there are quite a lot of loanwords in the English language and if you know other languages that have had a lot of contact with the Arab world then chances are there are plenty of loanwords there as well.
Turkish for example is full of Arabic words. Even Georgian has some Arabic borrowings.
Rather than reproduce the list, there’s a really good list here of Arabic loanwords in the English language.
Hebrew has a lot of European influence and so do the North African and Levantine varieties of Arabic, where you’ll find words like asansir for elevator, bisseen for swimming pool, and cwafir for hairdresser to name a few.
Going from Arabic -> Hebrew, Hebrew -> Arabic or Dialect -> Standard is also very easy as most of the work is already done with shared vocabulary as well as the common grammar.
Semitic languages aren’t that bad
Take classifications by the FSI and others with a grain of salt and don’t be intimidated by Semitic languages.
If you’ve learned, are learning or want to learn a Semitic language (including those I haven’t mentioned here), make sure to share your thoughts below!
Also make sure to read this post I wrote on 5 books that you absolutely should own if you’re learning Arabic.
This was written by Donovan Nagel.
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This is extremely well-done Donovan. Congrats.
The detailed breakdown of Arabic is eye-opening for me. As you mentioned, most of what I know of the Arabic language is that it is difficult to learn, complex and would be a major undertaking. The dialect issue is another thing that normally scares people (like me) off of the language.
Your clear breakdown and explanation convinced me otherwise, and I also learned a ton. Thanks a lot and keep them coming!
I wonder if someone with dyslexia should shy away from Hebrew or languages using Arabic script because he/she could have trouble reading from right to left. Have you ever met someone from a right-to-left writing structure with dyslexia learning to read and write well in Arabic, Farsi, Urdu or Hebrew?
I meant to ask if you know of a dyslexic whose language is read from left to right doing well with writing in languages using Arabic script or the Hebrew language?
Im dyslexic and know Hebrew and English. I had no issues with the right to left. Sight reading (which I think is what dialectics do best) is easier in Hebrew without the vowels. The worlds are shorter than in English. Hebrew reading with vowels is much harder for me. All that info just gets so confusing.
I believe that the focus on grammar in a lot of Standard/Classical Arabic instruction is largely responsible for the idea that Arabic is so hard. Just like any language, it has some really complex structures. The difference is that in "high" literary languages like Arabic, people actually teach them and expect students to be able to master them. As a linguist, I study a lot of complex things in English (or spoken Arabic dialects) that exist, but simply aren't taught in any class. Accepting that proficiency in Arabic does not necessarily require mastery of all of the intricacies of the classical grammar can go a long way in making it less arduous to learn. After all, most educated native Arabic speakers make mistakes with the jussive, and they get along just fine. If you want to be a writer, journalist, or grammar professor then you should learn the right forms. If not, you'll be in good company with most Arabs.
I do have to mention one factor which does make Arabic more difficult to learn than many European languages, at least for native speakers of English. Although there are lots of loan words from English (or other European languages) in the spoken dialects, there just aren't a lot of cognates. This is true when learning any non-Indo-European language. As I was learning Arabic, I found it very hard to acquire new vocabulary because most of the words just didn't have anything in common with what I knew already. Plus, if you hear a new word you can't cheat and use your English knowledge to guess. This problem gets better at advanced levels when you have enough words to productively use the root/pattern system. People often ask me what's hard about Arabic. They think it's reading right to left, the strange script, or the funny consonants. For me, all of that paled in comparison to just learning vocabulary.
Oh, and I would also like to put some blame on the way that Arabic is taught. Because it is considered a "hard" language, many even *graduate* level courses are not conduced entirely in Arabic, or don't expect the students to be able to really communicate with it. Arabic is a language like any other, and if students were encouraged to really use it for communication (either through immersion or other pedagogical tools), I think we could learn it faster. French majors have classes in French, so why not have our (at least upper-level) classes in Arabic? If you are never required to productively use it even in the classroom, of course you will feel that you don't know it and aren't making any progress.
Thank you for this interesting post. Some time ago I was thinking about learning Arabic, since it is an important world language. But I was quite intimidated by comments ("Arabic is sooo difficult to learn"…) that I dropped the idea. Today, after reading this article, I put Arabic back on my language wish list! Hopefully the new timetable next semester will allow me to visit the Arabic course at my university.
Thanks Jared.
By the way, Spanish is full of Arabic influence too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_infl…
I admit dyslexia's something I've never considered for right-to-left languages, Susanna.
That article from the BBC that I cited above makes me wonder if Arabic would be a problem for those people though.
Ploni here would be a good person to ask about dyslexic people and Hebrew.
Hi Sara.
There certainly is an expectation on students to master the intricacies of Arabic which I think is because of the 'sacredness' of the language to most Arabs, especially with Classical Arabic courses.
I did one course on fus7a when I was a beginner and I just gave it up because as you say, it was taught incorrectly and even Arab students hated the class. The way the grammar's taught just overwhelms people.
As for vocabulary I haven't really ever thought of Arabic vocab as tremendously difficult, but in saying that it's the first foreign language that I ever learned (apart from Mandarin in school) so I didn't get to start with an easy Romance language full of similar-looking, similar-sounding cognates.
Great. Good to hear!
Thanks Mae.
I didn't read all the way through, but wil come back to it. I found it interesting that you said people find your Australian accent difficult to understand. As another Australian I've found the opposite. Admittedly, I haven't travelled a great deal and am still learning my first language but when I was in Europe we'd playy the game 'do you know where we are from?' with people. Very few guessed Australia but most said they found our Australian accents easier to understand than a harsh american accent or an english accent.
What a great post! I like that you broke down the problems of learning Arabic into reasonable chunks.
I have to admit that my problems with Arabic is syntax. When I try to say things link, "I want you to come with me," I get tongue-tied.
Do you have any suggestions for Arabic syntax?
Thanks!
Which specific problems are you having with syntax?
For Egyptian you'd say "ana 3aizak tigi ma3aya" (I want you, you come, with me). It's fairly straightforward. I think MSA is a little more confusing particularly when you have sentences where the verb is first but with a bit of practice it comes naturally.
Thanks for the response! The commas are the points at which I get tongue-tied. It gets worse for me when I try to say, "Do you want me to come?" I don't know why the structure won't stick in my head.
Fusha does this differently. I don't remember exactly how Moroccan does it, but I vaguely remember something akin to your Egyptian translation.
Very cool, and thank you, because I’ve wanted to learn Arabic for a long time and had thought (well, maybe, but I’m going to wait until I’ve learned a few others because I’ve heard how hard it is so it’ll take forever to learn). Good to know it’s really not that bad–kinda reminds me of Chinese and Japanese actually, they’re both really easy to learn if you don’t count the writing system, Chinese in particular is known for having ridiculously simple grammar and Japanese grammar is also quite simple.
“Maha…attracted a huge following”
Gee, I wonder why, haha. Gorgeous girl
I’m especially interested in learning Lebanese Arabic, I checked and it turns out there are a ton of resources available for it and levantine/Eastern Arabic (which is the type of Arabic that Lebanese Arabic is), so that’s good to know.
Cheers,
Andrew
As a Hebrew speaker I can tell you it is not more easy to me learn Arabic for example, it's hard too, yes their are similar words it helps but both languages are very difficult with a difficult grammar to learn.
Ben
http://www.lingolearn.com
I think for the most part Amharic is categorized as an easier language to learn becasuse of its less harsh or less alien sounding pronunciations, as appose to the harsh sounding, over emphasized "Kh's" and "3aa's" sounds that are found in other Semitic languages like Arabic, Hebrew and Tigrinya. Amharic is more gracile/soft sounding in nature.
Learning Amharic from an English speaking perspective is somewhat hard, but in contrast to learning other Semitic langauges like Arabic and Hebrew it is much easier, easier in regards to certain pronunciations (given the certain similarities), not in regards to sentence/word formations.
Thanks Yohannes.
How long have you been learning Amharic for?
Would it be a good course of action to first learn standard Arabic and then learn various dialects later on after the mastery of standard? Or is standard Arabic much like Shakespearean English compared to modern English?
Classical Arabic is more comparable to Shakespearean English.
It all depends on what your goals are. If you just want to learn conversational Arabic, then start out with a dialect and forget MSA for a while.
If you're learning Arabic for a job or to read newspapers and so on, then start with MSA.
Don't learn MSA first up if your goal is to become a fluent speaker.
Just to clarify, Modern Standard Arabic is the same as Classical Arabic??
No.
Classical Arabic is the language of the Quran and other religious literature. It's similar to Modern Standard but not the same.
You've almost convinced me to start learning Arabic soon. I had been freaked out by the script and grammar before I read this post but not anymore. I just have to decide whether I want to learn Egyptian or Levantine Arabic.
I think people need to learn classical Arabic first,all Arabs know it,and on forums we chat with it,we listen to it in news and it's the language you read in it ! it's the base,it will be easy from that,to imitate whatever dialect you want,the most understood ones are the Egyptian and Syrian,because simply they are the leaders in making series,so people get to understand them with time.
Thank you for mentioning that Mahgrebi Arabic really is quite different. If you speak Mahgrebi Arabic in the Middle East, you won't be understood. However, most people in North African countries understand Modern Standard Arabic and most other dialects (especially Egyptian and Levantine, thanks to the entertainment industries). Generally, people can speak MSA, too although some Mahgrebi expressions tend to creep in.
True.
Are you learning Maghrebi Arabic, Liza?
An article I read at some point last year suggested that scientifically Arabic should be easier for a dyslexic person. Israeli research had concluded that (and I'm paraphrasing here because I cannot fully remember the article or find it), unlike English and Hebrew, Arabic is read with the right side of the brain which is the side more dominant in those with dyslexia. Therefore, although Arabic may be more confusing for a dyslexic person who already struggles with English, a dyslexic child may find it easier to learn to write in Arabic than to learn to write in English. Hope that makes sense!
Speaking both Arabic (MSA) and Hebrew, I actually tend to say that the latter is harder since its grammar is more conservatively afroasiatic and Semitic (more antique in a sense).
Arabic is the easiest (not phonology-wise though, but that's a detail since many arabic speakers can't pronounce all arabic sounds in the first place… Take Hassan Nasrallah, he can't pronounce 'raa').
I'm starting to learn Arabic and I have a Lebanese neighbor, but our communication is sometimes poor: although we chat in my native language (Portuguese), he doesn't understand the conception of what is Modern Standard Arabic, what is Classical Arabic and what is just his dialect (being he Libanese, I think it's Levantine), I don't really know why, maybe because he came to Brazil a lot of time ago and I don't know since when these three "types" of Arabic are well separated and known by the people, since when they keep it in mind.
What should I do? Should I try to "discover" what type of Arabic he's speaking about? He's not a teacher, I will learn Arabic most by myself, but it would be cool to have clues, tips, from him.
P.S.: Sorry for my bad English.
My name is Mohammad. I am from Ramallah city in Palestine. Certainly Arabic is my native language. Hebrew and English were my academic languages at "Hebrew College- Boston USA" where I studied for a master degree in Jewish Studies. I just want to say that all languages are beautiful and easy to learn especially when you have an interest to learn. Certainly Semitic languages are more difficult for European people for several factors like different shapes of letters and for the guttural letters. But this is not a big problem. I recommend the Jerusalemite Arabic dialect for people intend to learn spoken Arabic. It’s because this dialect is a “standard” and can be understood in all Arab countries. This relates to the geographic location of Palestine which is in the middle of the Arab world. I encourage everyone to learn Arabic and/or Hebrew.
Arabic is unequivocally one of the hardest languages for Westerners. The working vocabulary is scarily enormous in spite of the root system, and the verb conjugations are patterned but complex, with many more sophisticated rules to learn than say, French. I believe the UN rightfully estimated that learning Arabic takes a good four times as long as learning a romance language (for English speakers). I believe it was about 2100 hours estimated time in a classroom only to get to a 3 on a 5 point scale of Moderb Standard Arabic only. It’s quite misleading to give people the impression that studying Arabic without previous exposure to or semitic languages is anything but a highly-challenging lifetime commitment, and that few who set out reach fluency in reality.
I would argue that those people fail for other reasons (motivation, time, methodology, etc.).
If I hadn't achieved this myself, I wouldn't be so confident in what I'm saying.
From maghreb.
Beginnig a new language needs to go to it source country.
If i want to learn the sweet English of Shakespeare we needs to go in Britain not in Wales o Scotland or Canada…(furthmore in german or sweden whore saxons)………
After learnig english we can attempt to understand those english dialectes ….
The same rules applies for Latin (thiugh it is a "dead" language not spoken today ….we need to go in Italia ….
good day………
From maghreb(suite)….
The arabic countries of Africa (Maghreb including Egypt) are not the origin source of arabic…but their dialects have most similiraties because their poeples are african not semitic like iraqian or syrian(somilar dialectes) ….like dialectes (of English) american and canadian….. .
Things that demonstrate the simplicity of arabic compared to others language is that I can understand easyly a poem writed in Ve century BC by the great arabic poet I.Quais…..(also for the holy quaran )…
The difference between the arabic and other languages:his simplicity…….
I speak easely the french…….but compared to english it is a nightmare….
I think the same comparing english to others language :his siimpliciy
But english suffers like arabic from their pronunciaton…….
good day…..
I'd had the impression that there was much greater linguistic diversity in the Arab world, such that Classical Arabic would be comparable to Classical Latin, MSA to Medieval Latin and the dialects to the Romance languages.
Oh, and another thing that I'd imagine to be difficult about Semitic languages: how do you read unfamiliar words aloud when the script (unless you're reading the Qur'an) includes no vowel information?
One of the things which attracted me to Arabic and Hebrew were those granular, explosive consonants – and in the case of Hebrew- the pure vowels, like Italian or Spanish. Plus- one gets to read the various scriptures in the original.
I absolutely agree, Sara. It is much harder to remember the vocabulary in Arabic, for the reasons you state, than in the other (European languages) that I have learned. The grammatic structure does not present too much of a problem. I had begun to think that I had developed memory problems with Arabic, until I discussed my fear with other Arabic students. They all said the same.
I have found that the Lebanese tend to run all of the consonants much more closely together and leave out most of the vowel sounds. If your neighbour originates from a Christian neighbourhood in the North of Lebanon, he may also add different words taken from Amaraic, which was widely spoken there. Those people tend not to have an Arab identity at all and see themselves as Phoenicians, which does influence their mindset on language and culture.
I love the way Palestinians speak Arabic!
Being an arabic native, I would recommend learning Modern Arabic or Classical Arabic two names for the same thing. Dialects are only recommended for someone who will be living in a given Arab country for a long time and wants to speak like the locals but if you do this than you won’t be able to read books or watch the news as it’s all done in the mother language not the dialects.
All Arabs default to Classical Arabic in a conversation if their dialects are two far from each other, anybody who has been to school understands it and it is really not like Shakespearean English…It is part of everyday life.