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Interested in learning the Sanaa dialect? You can, of course, go to Sanaa and enroll in a course or find awilling teacher. If you have access to an excellent Middle Eastcollection, you might try brushing up on your Italian to sift throughEttore Rossi's L'Arabo Parlato a San'a. Or, you can buy thisrecent book by Watson from Harrassowitz and learn at your own pace,either where you are now or in Yemen.
Janet Watson has established herself as oneof the major contemporary linguists of Yemeni dialects. This is acompanion volume to her justly acclaimed A Syntax of San'aniArabic, published in 1993 by Harrassowitz. [See YemenUpdate #37, p. 34 for a review.] One of the really pleasantfeatures of this primer is that it provides real conversations Watsontaped in the field. One will not find material here to bolster TimMacIntosh Smith's (Yemen. Travels in Dictionary Land, Murray,1997, p. 1) lamented experience in learning Arabic from Cowan'sModern Literary Arabic on the dual: "'The two beautiful queens,' itsaid, 'are ignorant.' The odds against uttering the sentence werehigh: grammars, like theatre, call for a suspension of belief."Believe it, the phrases in Watson's text will get you around Sanaa.
The arrangement is systematic. Each chapterincludes dialogue, thematic vocabulary, grammatical points andexercises. For example, lesson 4 (pp. 28-40) is entitled "Ant min'ayn? Where are you m.s. from?" The dialogue begins with acommon refrain in a dialogue between Samira and Ahmad:
Samira: sbahtu!Ahmad: sabbahkum allah bi-l-xayr!
Samira: ant min ayn ya 'ahmad?
Ahmad: ana min al-yaman.
Samira: s'am ant yamani.
Ahmad: aywih ana yamani, w-antő min ayn ya samirih.
Samira: ana min masr, ana masriyuh.
OK, so Samira shouldn't be flirting withthis Yemeni guy by using San'ani Arabic. There are actually fourdialogues provided here. The last features Muhammad and a Frenchmannamed Jean (perhaps Jean Lambert, whose San'ani Arabic is certainlyup to it). The key words used in the dialogues are given in thevocabulary section. The grammar in this lesson consists of eightparts: adjective formation, plural formation, adjective predicates,prepositional predicates, topical sentences, negation: 'no' and'not', definiteness and verbs: the imperfect aspect. The thematicvocabulary covers a number of Arab countries, major towns in Yemenand terms for administrative areas. The exercises involvesubstitution, question and answer, singular > plural, negation,gender change and finding the plural.
This book is best used by someone whoalready knows some Arabic. There is no hand-holding here, no answersto exercises at the back of the book. While the information neededto do the exercises is straightforward for someone who already knowssome Arabic, it might be difficult to learn on your own from scratchwithout a teacher to point out errors. Certainly, this would be afine text to use in a classroom situation, especially one taught inYemen itself.
For ordering information on this book,contact Harrassowitz Verlag, Postfach 2929, Taunusstrasse 14, D-65019Wiesbaden, Germany (fax in Germany 611/53 05 70).
This book is intended primarily for studentsof Yemeni Arabic. It will also be of interest to Arabicdialectologists and to linguists with a general interest in Arabic. For readers who wish to consider aspects of San'ani syntax in moredetail frequent reference is made to my Syntax of San'aniArabic published in 1993 by Otto Harrassowitz (SemiticaViva).
The book is a complete course in San'aniArabic and can reasonably be used either for self study or in theclassroom. It comprises an introduction, twenty lessons with gradedexercises, a glossary and an index. The introduction provides theinventory of consonants and vowels in San'ani Arabic. The lessonsconsist of three major sections: dialogue(s) and vocabulary, grammar(and thematic vocabulary), and exercises. The dialogues in lessons1-7 and 12 are constructed from real text; at least one of thedialogues in each of lessons 8-11 is taken directly fromtranscriptions of real text; and all the dialogues in lessons 13-20come directly from real text (though personal names have been changedin some cases). As a result of this the dialogues exhibit typicalfeatures of everyday speech: principally repetition, emphasis andelaboration; though, on the whole, hesitations and speech errors havebeen removed or corrected. The dialogues are largely organisedaccording to cultural themes: for example, in the market; food inYemen; learning in Yemen; Yemeni houses; San'ani games; marriage inYemen; birth and wedding parties; gat cultivation andgat chewing; the old city; and death and mourning in Yemen. The grammar section takes a semantically orientated view of thesyntax, and discusses aspects of pronunciation, set phrases (such asgreetings), word structure and word order which are thrown up by thedialogues in any one particular lesson. The thematic vocabularysection provides lists of practical and culutrally relevantvocabulary; for example, major towns in Yemen; areas of the market;food and drink; parts of the body; traditional dress in Sanaa;weddings and births; travel; buildings and places; communications;the house; Yemeni games. The exercises are designated to practicethe grammar and the vocabulary of the lesson at hand, and to reviseaspects of the grammar and the vocabulary of the lesson at hand, andto revise aspects of the grammar and vocabulary from previouslessons. The glossary at the end of the book draws together the 1400vocabulary items from the dialogues and the thematic vocabularysections; additional vocabulary used to illustrate grammatical pointsin the grammar section are only included in the glossary if they arerequired for the exercises. By the end of the course the readershould have a good grasp of both San'ani Arabic and crucial aspectsof the culture and cultural norms and expectations (p.vii).
1. Greetings: at a gatchew
Specific greetings are used on specificoccasions. At a gat chew people entering will often not greeteveryone, but will give a general greeting. The people sitting willthen all reply. The following greetings and replies are common atmen's gat chews. In the reply to the first and second greetings huis used in place of ant 'you m.s.' or antu 'you m. pl.' to mean'you'. In the second greeting hum is used in place ofkum:
greeting reply
1. rihkum wa-huwa-l-kull
'may you be contented!' 'and youtoo!'
2.rihhum wa-hu
'may you be contented!' 'and youtoo!'
3. salamthiyyih ablaght
'greeting of welcome!' 'you m.s. haveconveyed [it]!'
On leaving a gat chew a man willagain give a general greeting to which the people sitting willreply:
greeting reply
annas allahbil-hayatkum w-antu al-uns
'may God give you pleasure in your lives' 'you m.pl. are the pleasure [i.e. you are the one who has givenpleasure.]'
At a wedding, the person entering will useone of the greetings given above, but will add the phrase ma 'adal-hariw 'except for the groom' and will greet the groomseparately. The reply will remain the same (p. 248).