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I don’t think speaking Arabic natively would make that much of a difference. Quranic Arabic is roughly as close to the various Arabic “dialects” as Latin is to
by barry-cotter 6y ago
I don’t think speaking Arabic natively would make that much of a difference. Quranic Arabic is roughly as close to the various Arabic “dialects” as Latin is to the Romance languages. I’d new very impressed with someone who spoke Italian memorizing the Aeneid and figuring out what was going on purely from that.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoAny native speaker of an Arabic dialect (except for perhaps some really peripheral countries like Mauritania or Chad) brought up on television is going to know some Modern Standard Arabic, because it is used in newsreading and other posh broadcasting. MSA is not identical with Quranic Arabic, but it is conservative and close enough that Arabic speakers will understand the older Quranic language based on their understanding of MSA. Of course, Arabic speakers will still misunderstand things here and there from the Quran (just like native English speakers sometimes misunderstand a word or expression used in the King James Bible), but they will understand most of it.
- cannabis_sam 6y agoWhat about a native maltese speakers?
- taejo 6y agoWikipedia says: > A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic, which is a Maghrebi Arabic related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic. Arabic-origin words make up a minority of Maltese vocabulary, and I assume Maltese speakers are much more likely to watch English or Italian television than MSA, and most don't have Quranic education.
- cannabis_sam 6y ago> Arabic-origin words make up a minority of Maltese vocabulary. What would the rest of the vocabulary be based on?
- taejo 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language#Vocabulary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltese_language#Vocabulary : "The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Siculo-Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French" AFAIK the most common words are more likely to be of Arabic origin, though.
- cannabis_sam 6y agoSorry for the late answer, but thanks!
- notsureaboutpg 6y agoThis doesn't take into account that the vast majority of Arabs are Muslim and learn the intricacies of Quran and Quranic Arabic as kids, so they will understand it quite well. Speaking Arabic natively makes a huge difference in that the resources for understanding Quran are all available to you easily, both linguistically and culturally.