Shou fi ma fi? Intermediate Levantine Arabic by Rajaa Chouairi (review)

To compose a textbook for any Arabic vernacular is a seriously daunting task. Because there are no standard Arabic vernacular norms and because the spoken forms of Arabic are not usually used in written Arabic communication (social media excepted), every author has to make key decisions about how to present spoken Arabic grammar and vocabulary, and how to transcribe colloquialisms using Arabic script so that it accurately represents the spoken form or forms. Although these decisions may seem to be essentially editorial, they are also theoretical in that they represent the author’s decisions about matters such as word divisions, orthography, and inflectional paradigms.

Rajaa Chouairi has produced a lively, well-designed, and easily accessible textbook for Levantine Arabic, one that should be a key resource for teaching spoken eastern Arabic, and one that will fit into curricula based on Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Essentially, it is a conversion course from MSA to Levantine, and it assumes previous experience with written Arabic and al- fuṣḥá norms. (In his introduction, the author suggests previous exposure of 100–150 hours of MSA.) It is in this sense that the subtitle includes the phrase “intermediate.” All instructions to teacher and student are in MSA, and the initial chapters focus on contrasts between MSA and Levantine.

There is a great deal to like about this book. It is organized on a situational basis (e.g., restaurants, transportation, shopping) and contains well- developed exercises, helpful illustrations, and insightful cultural notes about language, behavior, and attitudes that apply to each situation. For spoken Arabic learning, the situational approach is both pragmatic and effective, allowing learners to experiment and practice speaking within authentic social contexts. The layout of the book is attractive, easy to read, and well illustrated.

There are also some drawbacks. The central text and vocabulary lists are located at the end of the lessons, although all the discussion and exercises are based on them. This is not a major problem, but it is unusual. A more challenging problem is finding the audio for the text and exercises. There are no accompanying audio files in CD or DVD format, and I could find no mention in the front matter or introduction of how to access the audio. I finally discovered it by going to the Yale University Press website and finding the book’s Web page. Perhaps this procedure is automatic for many readers, but I would have liked at least a line in the introduction or front matter that provided a link to the correct website.

The lack of a glossary (either Arabic–English or English–Arabic) is for me the most serious issue with this textbook. Most learners will need to look up vocabulary a number of times and may not remember in which chapters words or expressions occur. Addition of a glossary would considerably strengthen a second edition of this book.

There is also no subject index listing where particular grammatical features are discussed. The table of contents lists chapter titles, situations (“customs and airports,” “hotels and reservations”), and sometimes lexical or grammatical information (“names of some food items,” “pain and body parts,” “continuous tense,” “direct and indirect object”), but a comprehensive alphabetical index of grammatical features (such as “noun–adjective agreement”), paradigms, and explanations would be useful for both teachers and learners.

One orthographic detail I would take issue with is the author’s decision to consider the progressive particle ‘am as a prefix to a present- tense verb, creating visually complex words such as ‘ambitatakhaş şaşii (you [f.s.] are specializing). I believe that the particle ‘am is more generally considered a proclitic—a grammatical form that co- occurs with another form but which is (usually) orthographically separate from it. It is easier to learn that way, too.

Despite the drawbacks mentioned, this textbook has many strengths and will be both practical and effective for teaching Levantine Arabic. It is...