Additional information
by Walid Shammas (Author)
The Lebanese language, in its current form, is only a spoken language. Despite the common misconception that Lebanese is a form of the Arabic language, the Lebanese language has evolved from its original Aramaic form to a language highly differentiated from the Arabic language. Lebanese people have adopted Arabic as their written language. However, if you are interested in learning a language that allows you to communicate with people in Lebanon, you should know that speaking Arabic in Beirut is like speaking Spanish in Rome. Some people might understand you but nobody will reply back in Arabic. Many language self-help books provide a range of translated phrases and simulated dialogue. 'SPEAK LEBANESE' is not a book of phrases. The aim of this book is to provide an understanding of the language from a grammatical perspective. You will learn through this book how to pronounce the letters, the rules for conjugating most Lebanese verbs (with a supplemental library of 426 verbs each conjugated in 6 tenses, ) you will find a brief English-Lebanese dictionary of commonly used words and tips for using Lebanese words properly in a sentence. It is important to know that countless dialect variations exist in Lebanon. However, the differences are not significant and all Lebanese people understand each other easily. This book offers one of the forms of these dialects and tries to choose the simplest form of communication when many options exist.
