Arabic Language 2 and literature

According to the Dublin descriptors, students, at the end of the course, will be able:

to read and vocalise texts in Standard Arabic;

to recognise and apply the basic grammatical rules of Standard Arabic;

to recognise and use the main syntactic structures of Standard Arabic;

to produce, in oral and written form, short and coherent texts on familiar and interesting topics;

to translate sentences and texts from Arabic into Italian and vice versa;

to use the keyboard with Arabic characters;

to know the main figures in Arabic literature.

Non-mandatory attending. 

Non-attenders are kindly requested to contact the teacher.

Module I (6 ects)

Grammar:

• Insight into the five nouns;

• the degrees of the adjective;
• the relative sentence;
• the hal phrase;
• Inna and her sisters;
• the sisters of kana;
• the hamzati verbs;
• the verb al-muda'af (1st form and main derived forms);
• conjugation and uses of the 9th form;
• declension of nouns in -an and nouns in -in;
• collectives nouns;
• place and time complements;
• the quadriliteral verb (1st form);
• the passive of the triliteral verb;
• the verb al-mithal (1st form and main derived forms);
• the verb al-ajwaf (I form and main derived forms);
• the verb al-naqis;
• the numerals 11 to 99.

Literature:

• Arabic literature from its origins to the end of the contemporary period.
• Analysis and commentary of passages of modern and contemporary Arabic literature.

Elements of Arabic language spoken in Egypt.

Module II (3 ects)

Grammar:

• Use of dictionary and translation exercises.

Literature:

Analysis and commentary of further pieces of modern and contemporary Arabic literature.

Programme of 6 ects

Manuals and grammars:

• Luc-Willy Deheuvels (ed. italiana a cura di A. Ghersetti), Grammatica araba. Manuale di arabo moderno, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2010, vol. 1, lezioni 11-15 (pp. 141-220).
• Luc-Willy Deheuvels (ed. italiana a cura di A. Ghersetti), Grammatica araba. Manuale di arabo moderno, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2010, vol. 2, lezioni 16-20 (pp. 15-94).

Recommended grammar text:

• L. Veccia Vaglieri, Grammatica teorico-pratica della lingua araba - vol. 1, Istituto per l'Oriente C. A. Nallino, Roma 2011 (II edizione).

Dictionaries:

§  Traini R. (a cura di), Vocabolario Arabo-Italiano, Roma, Istituto per l’Oriente;

§  E. Baldissera, Dizionario compatto Italiano-Arabo, Arabo-Italiano, Zanichelli.

Texts chosen by the native linguistic expert collaborator:

§  Sabir al-Mashrafi, Su‘ad al-Khawli, Abu Uways Mahmud, at-Takallum. A Comprehensive Modern Arabic Course, Maktabat al-Buruj, al-Qahirah 2014, vol. Qabla l-mutawassit/Pre-intermediate B.1, unità 1-8 (pp. 10-192).

§  S. Louis, Kallimni ‘Arabi Bishweesh, The American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2009 (fino a p. 111).

Literature texts :

§  H. Toelle, K. Zakharia, Alla scoperta della letteratura araba, Argo, 2010, pp. 22-50, 57-99, 111-126, 170-181, 217-394.

§  M. Avino. I. Camera D’Afflitto, A. Salem, Antologia della letteratura araba contemporanea. Dalla nahda a oggi. Carocci editore, Roma 2015: in Italian: pp. 37-40, 57-58, 78-81, 89-94, 99-108, 115-121, 124-129, 134-147, 200-203, 209-212; in Arabic: pp. 53-54, 104-105.

Written and oral exams.

The course includes:

- 1st written test in itinere: grammar test related to the verbs and syntactic structures carried out in the first part of the course.

- 2nd written test in itinere: literature test, consisting of a series of open and closed-ended questions relating to the reference manual.

- Final written test, comprising: a vocalisation test and translation of a short text from Arabic into Italian, text comprehension questions, conjugation exercises, sentences to be translated from Italian into Arabic, grammar exercises.

- Oral test, comprising: reading, analysis and translation of passages from the textbook and exposition of the grammatical rules to be accompanied by examples of their application; conversation in Modern Standard Arabic and conversation in Arabic spoken in Egypt; analysis of some texts of Arabic literature in Arabic and in Italian, their contextualisation, questions on other literary genres.

The in itinere tests will assess the comprehension and acquisition of the morphosyntactic notions in the syllabus (the hamzati and weak verbs and the syntactic structures, for the first test) and the acquisition of the contents of the literature module (for the second test). The grade for both tests will be averaged with the grade for the final written test and the oral test.

The final written test will assess the mastery of the acquired morphosyntactic notions, comprehension and (active and passive) translation skills.

The assessment of the examination will take into account the candidate's mastery of the content and skills acquired, linguistic accuracy and lexical propriety, as well as his or her ability to argue.

Frequent exercises: reading, vocalising and translating a short passage from Arabic into Italian; translating short sentences from Italian into Arabic; giving the rules of conjugation and paradigm of geminate, hamzati and weak verbs (in first form or derived forms). Frequently asked questions: explaining one of the linguistic rules in the syllabus, arguing and supporting one's speech with examples in Arabic; reading and commenting on a literary text in the original language in the syllabus and contextualising it in the relevant literary and cultural movement.