5.2 Introducing Yourself — Epoché
What you will be able to do Give your name, your country and your occupation in three short sentences. Build a nationality from the name of a country with one ending. Ask where somebody is from, of one person and of several. Say what you do and what you are studying. Use the feminine of a nationality, and say why it is also the name of the language. Prerequisites : 5.1 and the greetings Once the greetings of 5.1 are complete, the conversation proper begins, and in a first meeting it goes the same way in Arabic as in English: a name, a country, an occupation. What is different is that all three are said with the two-part sentence of 3.1, which has no verb, so the whole exchange can be conducted without a single verb until you reach what you do. One ending does most of the work of this lesson. Add it to the name of a country and you have the adjective, the person and, in the feminine, the language. Three words for the price of one, and it applies to every country in the world including invented ones. The dialogue Two people who have just exchanged greetings ما أسمك [1] What's your name? اسمي سالي. [2] My name is Sally. من أين أنت؟ [3] Where do you come from? أنا يابانية. [4] I am Japanese. أنا طالب. [5] I'm a student. أنا أتعلم اليابانية. [6] I am learning Japanese. أحب المطبخ الياباني. [7] I like Japanese food. Two more people, on a job من أين أنتم؟ [8] Where are you from? أنا ياباني. [9] I am Japanese. أنا أعمل كمرشد. [10] I work as a guide. أعمل في مدرسة للغات. [11] I work in a language school. أعمل في مستشفى. [12] I work in a hospital. من أين صديقك؟ [13] Where is your friend from? The same lines with the vowels supplied With the vowels supplied English What it does مَا أَسْمُك What's your name? asks a name, with the word for what before a noun اسْمِي سَالِي. My name is Sally. answers it, with a possessive ending of 3.6 مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتَ؟ Where do you come from? asks a country, of one man مِنْ أَيْنَ أَنْتُمْ؟ Where are you from? the same, of several people أَنَا يَابَانِيّ. I am Japanese. answers it, said by a man أَنَا يَابَانِيَّة. I am Japanese. the same, said by a woman أَنَا طَالِب. I'm a student. an occupation, with no verb أَنَا أَعْمَل كَمُرْشِد. I work as a guide. an occupation with a verb and the preposition meaning as أَعْمَل فِي مُسْتَشْفَى. I work in a hospital. where you work أَعْمَل فِي مَدْرَسَة لُغَات. I work in a language school. the same, with a chain of 3.5 naming the place أَنَا أَتَعَلَّم الْيَابَانِيَّة. I am learning Japanese. what you are studying أُحِبّ الْمَطْبَخ الْيَابَانِيّ. I like Japanese food. small talk, with the place noun of 2.5 مِنْ أَيْنَ صَدِيقُك؟ Where is your friend from? asking about a third person The pattern One ending makes a nationality Take the name of a country and add an ending consisting of a long i and a doubled y. The result is the adjective, and it is also the noun for a person of that country. Add the feminine ending of 3.2 on top of it and you have the woman, and also the language. That last point is worth stating clearly, because it explains a great many titles. The name of the Arabic language is the feminine of the adjective meaning Arab; the name of the Japanese language is the feminine of the adjective meaning Japanese; and the same is true of every language in the world as Arabic names it. There is a word for language, which you had in 3.1, but it is not normally used with the name. The plural of a nationality is the sound plural of people, made with an ending, which you met in 2.7 as the other kind of plural. A few very old nationalities have broken plurals instead, and the word for the Arabs is one of them. Three ways to say what you do The first is the two-part sentence with no verb at all, which is the fifth line of the dialogue: I am a student. This is the commonest and the shortest. The second uses the verb meaning to work with the preposition meaning as, which is the single letter of 3.7. I work as a guide. English does exactly the same thing with as, so this transfers. The third uses the same verb with the preposition meaning in and a place. I work in a hospital, in a factory, in a language school. The last of those has a possessive chain of 3.5 after the preposition, and it is the most complex sentence in this lesson. Asking one person and several The question about where somebody is from is the preposition meaning from with the question word for where and then a pronoun. The pronoun changes for the person addressed, and the dialogue gives two of them: one man, and a group. English uses the same you for both and adds nothing. Arabic commits, and a learner who uses the singular to a group of four is making a small but audible mistake. Saying it politely Three points of manners, and one of them is about what not to ask. Ask the name after the greeting, not before it. The order of 5.1 is not optional: greet, be greeted, ask after the person, and only then ask a name. Going straight to the name is brusque in a way that is hard to convey in English. Give the same amount as you are given. If somebody answers your question about his country with a sentence, answer his with a sentence. Arabic conversation of this kind is symmetrical, and a one-word answer where a sentence was given reads as reluctance. Do not ask about work first. An English speaker meeting somebody at a party asks what they do within a minute. In much of the Arab world that is a question for later, and the earlier questions are about where you are from and whether you have family there. The dialogue above is a foreigner's conversation, where the occupation question is expected because you are visibly a visitor. The feminine of your own nationality. A woman saying she is Japanese uses the feminine, and there is no way to avoid the choice. Learn your own nationality in the form you will need. New words Fourteen words: four nationalities, the words for a country and a nationality, and the occupations and places the dialogue needed. Word (with harakat) Meaning