The Frenchwoman couldn't pronounce the throaty "ha" and her frustration spilled over and spread onto us. The class felt too long. The letters blurred together. We frowned and furrowed our eyebrows. We complained to Wafa that we needed more time to practice the sounds. In the worst moments, though, my secret companion would step forward. Turkish to the rescue. Wafa would unknowingly use an Arabic word that I knew from Turkish and it was like a friend's hand on the shoulder. I started a list.
Arabic Turkish
kelima (word) kelime (word)
dars (lesson) ders (lesson)
dar (house) daire (apartment)
resim (picture) resim (picture)
maktab (desk) mektup (letter)
balad (country) belediye (municipality)
daqiqa (minute) dakika (minute)
kalam (pen) kalem (pen)
jumla (sentence) cumle (sentence)
sabah (morning) sabah (morning)
kitab (book) kitap (book)
Visiting you teacher
ReplyDeleteomg, i love cognates tooooo
ReplyDeletealmost everyone i asked said arabic was hard arabic was hard etc
but i knew there must be some cognates, or a similar language
could you teach arabic based on the cognates?? it would be valuable :D