( 8 reviews )
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( 2 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 14 2006
Dover publishes books that are classics and charges far less money. This is a reference book to grammar, not the kind of book to read from beginning to end if you want to learn the topic as a beginner, but very good if you want a particular issue clarified. The plentiful use of actual examples to illustrate the use of a grammatical function can be very handy. There are other very good grammar books, such as Haywood's A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language (one of my favorite because I could also learn from it as an intermediate beginner and it contains exercises), but Wright's book is considered to be one of the most comprehensive Arabic grammar books. Most other grammar reference books, though quite good and comprehensive in some cases, focus either on Quranic/classical or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I prefer to know mostly the classical style, that is based on Quranic but doesn't require reading of the Quran, for there is much classical Arabic literature, but I would also like to converse in a modern style.
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( 2 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 14 2006
Dover publishes books that are classics and charges far less money, so save yourself the money, it's the very same book. This is a reference book to grammar, not the kind of book to read from beginning to end if you want to learn the topic as a beginner, but very good if you want a particular issue clarified. The plentiful use of actual examples to illustrate the use of a grammatical function can be very handy. There are other very good grammar books, such as Haywood's A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language (one of my favorite because I could also learn from it as an intermediate beginner and it contains exercises), but Wright's book is considered to be one of the most comprehensive Arabic grammar books. Most other grammar reference books, though quite good and comprehensive in some cases, focus either on Quranic/classical or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I prefer to know mostly the classical style, that is based on Quranic but doesn't require reading of the Quran, for there is much classical Arabic literature, though I prefer to converse in a modern style.
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( 2 of 4 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 14 2006
Dover publishes books that are classics and charges far less money, so save yourself the money, it's the very same book. This is a reference book for grammar, not to be read from beginning to end if you want to learn the topic as a beginner, but very good if you want a particular issue clarified. Plenty of examples to illustrate the use of a grammatical functions can be very handy. There are other very good grammar books, such as Haywood's A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language (one of my favorite because I could also learn from it as an intermediate beginner and it contains exercises), but Wright's book is considered to be one of the most comprehensive Arabic grammar books. Most other grammar reference books, though quite good and comprehensive in some cases, focus either on Quranic/classical or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
