Handbook of Arabic Writing and Pronunciation

The Arabic alphabet contains several letters and sounds which do not exist in other languages. Learners differentiate between them with difficulty and often confuse them. Among the languages which use the Arabic alphabet, there are several letters which are written and pronounced differently, as in Persian, Urdu or Pashto. This is why, whatever the language of origin of the learner, I insist on good handwriting and good pronunciation from the very beginning.

In these languages, there are also words of Arabic origin, but they have different meanings. This is also true for other languages which do not use the Arabic alphabet but which are influenced by Islam, such as Malay and Wolof, or by Arab-Islamic civilisation, such as Maltese and Spanish.

To know a language is to know the mentality, the way of thinking and of expressing himself, the customs, and the life style of the person who speaks that language. It is never possible to know and understand a people without knowing its language; through studying the language, you can identify with the people and even come to love them.

This book is not a treatise on comparative linguistics. However, instead of dealing only with the languages which use the Arabic alphabet, I refer to other languages, since I find that there are common features which every student of Arabic must know, whatever his language of origin, whether or not it uses the Arabic alphabet.