Hi Kanewai,

I'm actually working on learning Egyptian Arabic myself for my upcoming trip to Egypt (so, ya know, if you want to "talk" online or anything....When are you going to Egypt?)

My understanding of the whole standard Arabic vs. the arabic dialects is that, well, basically in any major city if you speak standard Arabic, people should be able to understand you (afterall, Lebanese people understand Egyptian Arabic speakers and Gulf Arabic speakers....) but they will clearly know you are not a native Arabic speaker (which I'm guessing they will figure out anyway....) As I understand it, no one speaks standard Arabic at home, but it is used some times in pan-Arabian communications--when you need people of various dialects and groups to understand. I *think* (please correct me, someone, if this is wrong) that Al Jazeera broadcasts internationally in standard Arabic and some the international Arab newspapers generally publish in standard arabic. Local media, however, are often in the local form.

It is called occupied Palestine!

Kanewi,

Once upon a time I was an Arabic Linguist, so I hope I can clearly answer your questions.

Most references and teaching materials for Arabic are Modern Standard Arabic or "Fus-ha". MSA is the formal Arabic used in media, politics, and--to some extent--religion. It is similar to the Arabic from the Qur'an, but only as much as we can say our English is similar to the English in Shakespeare's plays.

Each country where Arabic is spoken has it's own dialect. Unlike English, where all the dialects are relatively intelligible, there are dialects of Arabic where one speaker (say, Moroccan) might not undestand another speaker (say, Iraqi). MSA is used to bridge these differences. Nearly everyone undestands MSA and the dialect used in Lebanon is not too different from it. Although they have many words you would not recognized, they will most likely understand you.

Egyptian dialect does pronounce some letters different (as does Iraqi), but you should be understood so long as you are aware of those minor differences--primarily "q" is a gutteral stop, "j" is a "g" sound, and they like to add "m" and "sh" to words. ;) The challenge will be getting them to slow down enough for you to process the words. You can also buy Egyptian phrasebooks for very cheap that will help you.

Of course, if you wanted to, you could just learn Egyptian phrases. The reason most Arabic countries understand Egyptian dialect is that the "Hollywood" of the Arabic world is in Egypt. So, most Arabic speakers have seen a lot of Egyptian dialect movies.

Wherever you visit, they will know you are not a native speaker and try to adapt to the Arabic you are using. Be prepared, though, that they may use words slightly differently between dialects. In fact, there are words that are neutral in one dialect that are derogatory in another!

With all this in mind and a little practice pronouncing words with a native speaker (of any Arabic country), you should do well in any of the Arabic countries.

Good luck and have fun!

:)
Feiruz