Arabi Liblib ─ Egyptian Colloquial Arabic for the Advanced Learner: 1: Adjectives and Descriptions

While most courses in Egyptian Arabic teach the essentials of syntax, morphology, and vocabulary, this first in a series of three books takes the student a step beyond and focuses on colorful expressions used by native speakers. The learner will advance from knowing how to form a good sentence to being able to express his or her thoughts about the ups and downs of daily life using culturally appropriate phrases.

This first volume, Adjectives and Descriptions, focuses on the many expressions used to describe people, their characteristics, their behaviors, and their attitudes. Each entry is given fully voweled followed by its feminine form and plural, and definitions (including connotation) and explanations are given in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. Organized as a reference work, the book can also be used as a textbook, as it contains a large number of exercises.
Volume 2, forthcoming, will focus on proverbs and Volume 3, forthcoming, on idiomatic expressions.

Kamal Al Ekhnawy is an Arabic instructor at the Arabic Language Institute at the American University in Cairo. He has been teaching both Egyptian Colloquial and Modern Standard Arabic since 1989.

Jamal Ali is a distinguished lecturer in Arabic at Hunter College in New York City. He is the author of Language and Heresy in Ismaili Thought and has taught both Egyptian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic at a number of American universities.