Should I learn MSA or a 'Dialect'

Christopher

We often get this question, so I thought it might be a good idea to post the answer that we typically give, and start a discussion around the topic to hear the thoughts of our eTutors as well as students of Arabic. 

One quick note: As a linguist, I don't love the term 'dialect' and usually use instead '(spoken) variety.' The word dialect has a lot of baggage: people usually think of a dialect as substandard, somehow not "correct," a devolved form of a language, not a real language, etc...  'Variety' has no baggage like this, and is more accurate a term. 

Most recently, the question came in from someone who wrote, in part:

"...My objective is to be able to communicate with people from UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar."

I'll post the answer we gave below this.

Christopher

Our response:

Thanks for your question. It's a great one, and a bit complicated to answer! You're right that the spoken varieties of Arabic (Levantine, Saudi, Egyptian, Gulf, Iraqi, Moroccan...) do differ from one another, and aren't necessarily mutually intelligible, especially the further apart geographically they are. Even in the list of countries you name, there is more than one spoken variety, but as can imagine, they kind of bleed into one another at the borders.

That said, most Arabs, especially educated ones, know Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is used in education, business, news broadcasts, government, newspapers, books, etc., etc... It's also used as a lingua franca among Arabs from different countries who wouldn't understand each other if they spoke the local spoken variety of Arabic. So, typically, people begin by learning Modern Standard Arabic, which is what we teach. This is the only written variety of Arabic. The others aren't typically written, except in some very specific instances - a character in a piece of fiction, etc.

Modern Standard also serves as a springboard to the local varieties. The grammatical concepts are the same; it's basically pronunciation and lexical (vocabulary) differences that you'll have to content with making the switch from MSA to a local variety. And while you're doing that, you'll still be able to communicate with ease with most people, who will speak MSA to you.

There are people who believe exactly the reverse, to be honest: learn a local variety (often called a "dialect") and then learn MSA. This might be valid if you were planning on traveling *just* to one country, and planning on really speaking with everyday people in casual settings only. Even for this situation we believe starting with MSA is better, but in your situation, where you're looking at several countries with different local varieties, we definitely recommend MSA.

If you want to do some more research on this, google phrases like "should I learn MSA or a dialect" and you'll see what people are saying.

Let us know if that helps. Obviously, we believe our approach is best, but it's definitely something you can and should look into on your own to make sure you agree with the thinking behind our approach.

Doodi132

Thank you Chris for this discussion; in my opinion, learning MSA is a must when learning the Arabic language. Once a student feels comfortable communicating in MSA, learning a dialect would be easier to grasp. The fact is, as you mentioned earlier, once you speak MSA, you would be able to go to any Arab country from Morocco to the United Arab Emirates and be understood. Usually, the rules of pronunciation, and some vocabulary differ, yet it can be worked on while studying MSA. I have had some students who asked me to speak Egyptian, Kuwaiti and Lebanese dialects because they think that it is beneficial to them in their approach to the Arabic Language.

We are always ready to help our students in anyway possible. 

 

aliadeeb

This is a frequent question for Arabic language students. I believe that it would be easier for a student to start learning the dialect when he/she has reached at least intermediate level in MSA. As Chris and Doodi said in their previous comments, learning MSA gives you the advantage to read newspapers, listen to news bulletins, read signs on shops and street corners..etc. You can later on build on that and learn a "dialect" of your choosing. At that point, you will notice that MSA makes it easier than learning a dialect from scratch.

12string

 MSA First. I am lucky to have befriended an Arabic Liban man.  He told me he will not teach me the Arabic spoken on he streets (or poor Arabic as calls it)  Arabic until I have learned MSA. I asked why and he said it was so I could Read, write and understand the news. Also he said that the majority of Arabs understand MSA.  I have found that to be true bvecause my friend has many Arab friends from Libia, Africa, Saudi Arabia to Egypt and they speak MSA when they are together.