A Dictionary of Syrian Arabic: English-Arabic (Georgetown Classics in Arabic Languages and Linguistics) Bilingual Edition

I absolutely love this dictionary and felt that I had to give it five stars. As someone who has studied Arabic on and off for the last twenty years, I am really only now beginning to focus on learning a spoken dialect. Anyone who has studied Arabic for a good length of time will eventually discover that the Arabic taught by most textbooks and in most dictionaries is not the actual Arabic spoken by Arabs in daily life. Many of the words in the dictionary that they have (such as Hans Wehr) are rarely ever used in normal conversation. Worst of all, there are many words in Arabic that have similar meanings and these dictionaries do not help the learner in knowing which words are more commonly used in daily conversation. Furthermore, if after having studied the formal spoken (fushaa) Arabic, you try to actually converse with Arabs, they will more than likely understand you (if they were educated in the Arab world), but they may not respond back to you in Arabic or they may laugh at you or even compliment you on how well you speak Arabic, but will not take you serious enough to carry on a conversation in Arabic with you, because they do not speak that form of Arabic. Or, they may respond back to you in their dialect, which you will not understand even if you've spent years like me studying Arabic. I have found that the spoken dialects are closer to each other than the fushaa is to most spoken dialects. So, a person who has learned the Syrian (Levantine) dialect will not only be able to converse with people from Syria, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon, but may also find it easier to understand other spoken dialects than with formal Arabic. With this dictionary, you will know the commonly used word by actual Arabs when they speak to each other.This book does more than simply give you an English word and the Arabic equivalent. It also provides sample sentences which demonstrate how the word is to be used. A problem that I have found in many dictionaries is that they will simply give you an Arabic equivalent to an English word or vice versa without examples of verb conjugation or the plural forms of nouns or how the meaning of the verb is determined by an added preposition. This book does all of those things and provides sample sentences so that you can be confident that you are using the words in conversation the way that Arabs would use them.How I Use This BookI am far enough along in my Arabic studies that all I need at this point is to build vocabulary and to practice speaking and listening. I use this book both as a reference to look up words that I don't know and I am also using it for vocab memorization. I am writing down the sample sentences in Arabic script and breaking down the vocabulary in a notebook. I then create flashcards on my phone with the Arabic sentences one side and the English translation on the other side and I quiz myself daily and review. This is a must in order to get the words to stick unless you are in an environment where you get to speak Arabic frequently on a daily basis. I also use the book '101 Most Used Verbs in Spoken Arabic, Jordan and Palestine' by Fredrick Tiedeman for the same purpose.Minor FlawsThere are some minor drawbacks to this book, but there were not enough to warrant less than five stars in my opinion. The font is very small. So, those with bad eyesight will have trouble with this book. Also, the book uses Romanized script rather than Arabic. I would have preferred that it had been in Arabic. I can see why they chose to do it this way. Because this is spoken Arabic and not Fushaa, the words are not pronounced the same way that they are usually written in texts. There is no one correct way to spell these words in Arabic, so it doesn't really have to be written in Arabic script. I just think that it would have been better to read it in Arabic script than in English script. The small font does allow for more words to be condensed into a much thinner book. Had the font been bigger, this book would become more cumbersome. My eyesight is still good. So, it doesn't bother me too much. I do wish that the print was a little clearer though.In summary, this book is a must have for building vocabulary in a spoken dialect of Arabic and I highly recomment it.

The only downside to this dictionary, is the small print. I normally don't worry about small print but, this is just a bit too small.However, it's a great dictionary in real Levantine dialect which applies to Biladi Shaam (Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria). Almost every entry has an example sentence or multiple sentences, which teaches a great deal through immersion, syntax, grammar, and a fluid way of speaking like a native.The transliteration system is fine, but takes getting use to. If you know the transliteration system you would have no problem transcribing the entire book in Arabic text, so it's not necessary that it's in Arabic script - in fact due to short vowels not existing in written Arabic, it makes it more suitable for it to be in English.Here is an example of an entry:Hot - sax'n.Do you have hot water? fii 3andkon mayy saxne? -- I haven't had a hot meal in three days. ṣar-li tlett iyyam maa ?akalt ?akleAs you can see, it's relevant, and helps with immersion, these are sentences you will hear a normal person speaking. If you have a decent command on syntax, grammar, of the Arabic language or in particular this dialect of Arabic, this is the perfect tool. There's 15,000 entries.

This is a one-way dictionary, but with no Arabic letters, so the translation into Syrian Arabic is performed with a transcription of syrian pronounciation using the Latin alphabet.

I wanted to love this book!!! When I opened the dictionary I was immediately disappointed. I agree with a previous reviewer...the print in TINY!! I don't have a problem with small print but this is too small...some letters, and especially the markings, are not clear at all. Its an effort just to read it. I was also sorely disappointed that there was no Arabic script in the book. I understand that its a dialect so the words are said differently than the original MSA but it would be much clearer if Arabic script was used. The alternative that they have adopted is hard to understand for non linguistic professionals and not intuitive. For serious learners its annoying to have to read Arabic in English script..I am going to have to make a notecard to keep in the book for easy reference with the symbol they are using next to the Arabic letter they are sounding out.I am not sure what context this book would be really good in. Certainly you can't use it to look up an Syrian Arabic word that you hear because the book is only English/Arabic. If you are a casual tourist there are far more simple books out there and if you are a serious learner, the lack of Arabic script makes it frustrating.