Learn how to understand the different calendar types used in different parts of the Arab world and how to say you only know certain things about a broad topic
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ArabicPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 10 - Getting Your Months Confused in the Arab World. I’m Becky. |
| Hany: مرحبا I'm Hany. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to understand the different calendar types used in different parts of the Arab world, and how to say you only know certain things about a broad topic. The conversation is on TV and then between two people. |
| Hany: It's between Eleanor and Mina. |
| Becky: They will use both formal and informal Arabic. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| : على الأخبار في التلفاز |
| مذيعة: مقتل ثلاثة شباب و خمسة أطفال في قذف جوي على حلب مساء أمس. |
| مذيعة: لقي ثلاثة شباب من قوات المقاومة و خمسة أطفال منهم رضيعين مصرعهم جراء غارة جوية شنتها قوات الجيش السوري على منطقة حلب القديمة بحلب مساء أمس الأربعاء. |
| مذيعة: وقد صرحت قوات المقاومة أنها لن تسكت على هذه الجرائم و سوف تجتمع لمناقشة أساليب الرد في خلال شهر آب. |
| مذيعة: و من جانبها أعلنت منظمة الامم المتحدة عقد اجتماع دولي طارئ في بداية شهر أيلول لمحاولة حل الأزمة السورية. |
| إلينور: آب؟ أيلول؟ ما هذه الشهور؟ لم أسمع عنها من قبل. |
| مينا: آه, أنها الشهور السريانية. هي مثل الشهور الميلادية تماماً في التوقيت, ولكن أصل أسمائها من اللغة الآرامية. |
| إلينور: أين تستخدم هذه الشهور؟ |
| مينا: في بلاد الشام و العراق. ألم تسمعي عنها من قبل؟ |
| إلينور: لا. أنا لا أعرف إلا الشهور الميلادية و القبطية و الهجرية. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| : (in the news) |
| Announcer: Three young men and five children were killed in an aerial bombing on Aleppo last night. |
| Announcer: Three young men from the resistance forces and five children, including two infants, were killed in the air strike by the Syrian army on the old city area of Aleppo Wednesday evening. |
| Announcer: Resistance forces stated that it will not tolerate these crimes and will meet to discuss ways to get back at the Syrian Army during the month of August. |
| Announcer: Furthermore, The United Nations announced an emergency international meeting at the beginning of September to try to resolve the Syrian crisis. |
| Eleanor: "Aab"? "Ayluul"? What are these months? I have not heard of them before. |
| Mina: Ah, those are the Syriac months. They're exactly like the Gregoric months time-wise, but the origin of their names is Ancient Aramaic. |
| Eleanor: Where are they used? |
| Mina: In the Levant and Iraq. You've never heard of them? |
| Eleanor: No. I only know the Gregorian, Coptic, and Islamic calendar. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Hany, sadly bad news like that in the dialogue is really common in the Middle East, right? |
| Hany: It is. The Middle East is going through a very critical time in its history and concerns about politics and the future of its nations cannot be escaped. |
| Becky: So can we say that news and politics are an inevitable topic in daily conversations in the Middle East? |
| Hany: Yes, so be prepared to engage in political discussions and to be asked your opinion about the situation in the Middle East a lot. Of course, you may choose to decline and not talk about it, but you will get to know a lot about Egyptians and how they think through talking politics. |
| Becky: How do you say “Politics” and “news” in Arabic? |
| Hany:“Politics” is السيْاسَة and “The news" is الأَخبار . |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Hany: مقتل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: killing |
| Hany: مقتل[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: مقتل [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: قذف [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bombing |
| Hany: قذف[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: قذف [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: جوي [natural native speed] |
| Becky: aerial |
| Hany: جوي[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: جوي [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: قوات [natural native speed] |
| Becky: forces |
| Hany: قوات[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: قوات [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: المقاومة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: the resistance |
| Hany: المقاومة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: المقاومة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: جراء [natural native speed] |
| Becky: as a result of |
| Hany: جراء[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: جراء [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: الجرائم [natural native speed] |
| Becky: crimes |
| Hany: الجرائم[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: الجرائم [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have.. |
| Hany: طارئ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: urgent, pressing |
| Hany: طارئ[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: طارئ [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And lastly.. |
| Hany: أزمة [natural native speed] |
| Becky: crisis |
| Hany: أزمة[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Hany: أزمة [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Hany: لقي مصرعه |
| Becky: meaning "died" |
| Hany: This expression is made up of two words - laqiya means "he met" and masra'ah meaning "his demise" or simply death. |
| Becky: Literally it means "He met with his demise" so it’s like a metaphor, but the actual meaning is "he died" or "was killed.” Can you give us an example using this expression? |
| Hany: Sure. For example, you can say.. لقي الفتى مصرعه جراء الحرب. |
| Becky: ..which means "The boy was killed during the war." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: الأمم المتحدة |
| Becky: meaning "The UN" |
| Hany: This expression consists of two words - al'umam meaning "the nations", and al muttahidah meaning "the united". |
| Becky: This expression is a loan expression that is literally translated from English. |
| Hany: Just note that in Arabic, if an object is definite, it will gain an al- in both of its elements if the second word is an adjective describing the first one, hence al-umam al-muttahidah. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example of a sentence with this phrase? |
| Hany: For example, you can say.. بان كي مون هو الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة. |
| Becky: which means "Ban Ki-moon is the secretary-general of the UN." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Hany: و من جهتها |
| Becky: meaning "furthermore," |
| Hany: This expression consists of three words wa meaning "and", min means "from", and jihatiha means "its side". This expression is mostly used in news to move from one side of a conflict to the other, or from one country to the other, and so on. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Hany: You can say.. و من جهتها أعلنت الحكومة زيادة الأجور. |
| Becky: .. which means "Furthermore, the government announced an increase in wages." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn how to understand the different calendar types used in different parts of the Arab world and how to say you only know certain things about a broad topic. |
| Hany: We’ll start by describing the different calendar systems used in the Middle East. |
| Becky: The Middle East isn’t just one country; it is more than ten countries with different cultures and histories. Hany, doesn’t the Middle East use the Gregorian Calendar? |
| Hany: the Middle East has many different calendar systems, but, on the other hand, since almost all people in the Middle East start learning English or French at the age of 5, almost everyone is used to the Gregorian Calendar. |
| Becky: Are the other calendars official as well? |
| Hany: there are many other official calendar systems used in the Middle East, and they differ from one country to the other. |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the most commonly used ones. |
| Hany: They are the Gregorian Calendar, the Islamic Calendar, the Syriac Calendar, and the Coptic Calendar. |
| Becky: The Gregorian Calendar is probably the one that our listeners know the best. Let’s go through the names of some months. For example, what are January, February, and March in Arabic? |
| Hany: “January” is يَنايِر “February” is فِبرايِر and “March” is مارِس |
| Becky: Somehow, the Arabic nouns remind me of the English ones. What about the Islamic Calendar? How does it work? |
| Hany: It’s lunar, so it doesn’t go in sync with the Gregorian Calendar. It is also known as التَقوِيم الهِجري |
| Becky: which means “the hijri Calendar”. This calendar begins in the year 622, which is the year the Prophet emigrated from Mekah to Madina |
| Hany: That’s right. It is mainly used in Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf countries. |
| Becky: Please give us the names of some of the months we can find in this calendar. |
| Hany: مُحَرَّم, سَفَر, رَبيع أوَّل and so on. |
| Becky: Listeners, you’ll find the complete list in the lesson notes. Which was the calendar they were referring to in the dialogue? |
| Hany: It was the Syriac Calendar, which is the system used in the Levant countries... |
| Becky: ...which are Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Israel. |
| Hany: It is also used in Iraq and it is synchronized with the Gregorian Calendar. |
| Becky: So the Gregorian months correspond to the Syriac ones. |
| Hany: Exactly, for example “January” is كانون الثاني, “February” شُباط and “March” آذار |
| Becky: Again, you’ll find the complete list in the lesson notes, listeners. Finally let’s see the Coptic Calendar |
| Hany: The Coptic Calendar isn’t exactly synchronized with the Gregorian Calendar, but it is a solar calendar, meaning that it is unchanging in relation to the Gregorian Calendar. And it has 13 months! |
| Becky: Can you give us some examples? |
| Hany: For example, the period between January 9th and February 7th is called طوبَه, the period between February 8th and March 9th is called أَمشير, and so on. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s now switch to a different topic - how to say you only know certain things about a broad topic. For example, in the dialogue, Eleanor mentions that she only knows the Gregorian, Coptic, and Islamic calendars. |
| Hany: In Arabic, she says لا. أنا لا أعرف إلا الشهور الميلادية و القبطية و الهجرية. |
| Becky: “No. I only know Gregorian, Coptic, and Islamic Calendars.” Which is the formation that implies that she only knows three of the calendar systems? |
| Hany: You just have to add la/لا before the verb, then add illa/إلّا before the subject or object that you want to except and it’s done. This formation needs a verb and a subject or object to work. |
| Becky:Can we try to turn a normal sentence to an exception sentence, using this formation? |
| Hany: تيم يتحدث الإنجليزية و الأسبانية. |
| Becky: which means “Tim speaks English and Spanish.” This sentence implies that Tim speaks English and Spanish, but doesn’t necessarily mean that those are the only languages he speaks. Now let’s see the same sentence with the “exception formation” |
| Hany: تيم لا يتحدث إلّا الإنجليزية و الأسبانية. |
| Becky: “Tim only speaks English and Spanish.” |
| Hany: In this case by adding la and illa, we implied that Tim ONLY speaks those two languages. |
| Becky: ok, let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Hany: لا آكُلُ إلّا الخُضرَوْات و الفَوْاكِه. |
| Becky: "I only eat vegetables and fruits." |
| Hany: الجَوْ جميل في أَيْلول في لُبنان. |
| Becky: "The weather is beautiful in Lebanon in September." |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Hany: شكرا |
Comments
Hide