Recientemente, celebridades como la actriz Angelina Jolie, el jugador de fútbol Zlatan Ibrahimovic, y la estrella del pop, Rihanna, han estado plasmando palabras y frases árabes en sus cuerpos. Pero, ¿realmente sabrán el significado de las palabras que están grabando por siempre en su piel? Vamos a echar un vistazo a los tatuajes y sus significados:

Angelina Jolie: “Una Voluntad Firme”

Antes que todo, Angelina Jolie, quien parece ya haber rellenado cada espacio de su cuerpo con una u otra escritura. Su última adición a la colección es este tatuaje árabe:

El tatuaje árabe de Angelina Jolie

Examinando con detenimiento el tatuaje podemos completar la palabra العزيمة (al-’azeema), que significa “la determinación” o “una voluntad firme” en su antebrazo derecho. Ciertamente Jolie me parece una mujer que sabe lo que quiere – por lo cual el tatuaje va muy bien con su personalidad. No obstante, esta palabra también puede significar “el conjuro” o “el hechizo”.

Aun cuando la escritura escogida para el tatuaje es ciertamente sencilla, Angelina (o una de sus asistentes) al menos realizó una buena investigación para estar segura de que la palabra estuviese bien escrita – no hay equivocaciones en este.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Ahora nos movemos hacia Zlatan Ibrahimović, el famoso jugador de fútbol:

El tatuaje árabe de Zlatan Ibrahamovic

Para aquellos que están aprendiendo árabe, el tatuaje puede parecer ser muy confuso. Pero no teman, la solución es muy simple: la escritura es sencillamente una transcripción de su apellido en árabe إبراهيموفيج (ibraaheemoofeedj)

Aun cuando las letras árabes no corresponden una a una a nuestras letras españolas, el tatuador (o ciertamente alguien que habla árabe con fluidez) tuvo que escoger algo que estuviese cerca de la pronunciación del nombre Ibrahimović. Por ejemplo, la letra “v” no existe en el alfabeto árabe. El sonido vocal más cercano a este lo encontramos en la letra “f”.

Tal vez el egocentrismo demostrado por Ibrahimović en la elección de palabras no es del gusto de todos pero al menos el tatuaje está deletreado y escrito correctamente.

Rihanna

Finalmente, vamos a ver lo que la cantante Rihanna ha grabado en su cintura:

El tatuaje árabe de Rihanna

Las palabras árabes leen lo siguiente الحرية في مسيح (al-horriya fi maseeh), o traducido al español “la libertad en Mesías”. ¿Cómo? Parece ser, en efecto, que Rihanna es cristiana, pero ¿por qué esconder el mensaje de Salvación en árabe en vez de mostrarlo a su (supuesta) mayor audiencia anglo-parlante? ¿Quizás, después de todo, sus convicciones religiosas sean algo privado para ella?

Bueno, vamos a dejarlo en la manera en que está. Lo cierto es que la frase debió leer correctamente de la siguiente manera الحرية في المسيح (al-horriya fi al-maseeh), o “la libertad en el Mesías”. No todo está perdido, pero ciertamente había espacio de más para insertar el término árabe AL antes de la palabra Mesías. Así que Rihanna, te hace falta una nueva visita al tatuador.

Si quieres seguir el ejemplo de estas celebridades y deseas hacerte un tatuaje árabe, primero asegúrate de tomar tus diseños de una fuente confiable:

¡Descarga más de 1400 diseños maravillosos y correctos del tatuaje árabe!

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Just a quick word of warning: Arabic is a marvellous language, but also bewilderingly diverse. There are many different dialects spoken in the Arabic world today, with different vocabulary, sentence structures and accents. However, every Arab will understand some degree of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA or fuS-Ha), the language used in the media, in writing and on formal occasions. The resources below are primarily geared towards MSA, but I have included a section on dialects too.

Free Arabic Learning Resources

General courses

Madina Arabic Course

This is a thorough course in Modern Standard Arabic divided into three books and accompanied by audio recordings. All of these resources are available for download for free at http://abdurrahman.org/arabic/madina-arabic.html

Basic Arabic Course

While not as extensive as the Madina Arabic Course, this website provides a clear introduction to the Arabic writing system, grammar and vocabulary. http://www.arabic-course.com

Alphabet

Arabic Script Introduction

A quick and dirty intro to the Arabic script, written by yours truly. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/arabic-script

Omniglot Arabic Script

Omniglot provides a methodical overview at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/arabic.htm

Arabic alphabet with pronunciation

This ArabicGenie exclusive tool allows you to click on the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet and hear the correct pronunciation. http://www.arabicgenie.com/arabicletters.html

Arabic Alphabet Pronunciation Videos

A compilation of videos on YouTube that make learning the Arabic alphabet a little more fun than usual, including various Alphabet songs. http://www.arabicgenie.com/alphabet-videos.html

Short vowels

What short vowels are and why you should care about these often marginalized little squiggles, explained by yours truly. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2009/09/arabic-short-vowels-what-you-need-to-know-about-tashkeel-and-harakaat

Short vowel mnemonics

An easy way to remember the sounds and shapes of the short vowels. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2009/09/an-easy-way-to-remember-the-short-vowels

The Magic Key To The Arabic Alphabet

Of course, you could also purchase a copy of my ebook on learning the Arabic alphabet, The Magic Key To The Arabic Alphabet. Although not free, I’d like to believe it is reasonably priced. http://www.arabicgenie.com/

Grammar

Arabic Nouns

Attempt at giving a thorough explanation of Arabic nouns. Maybe a little too thorough for beginners. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/arabic-grammar/arabic-nouns

Transparent Arabic Blog

Aziza provides clear explanations of many grammatical aspects of the language at http://www.transparent.com/arabic

Arabic Grammar Tutorials

Focussing mainly on verbs and their conjugation, this website has a plethora of information. http://multimediaquran.com/quran/arabic/

Arabic Verb Conjugator

An essential tool for those occasionally baffled by the bewildering array of conjugation rules. Just provide some basic information (root letters and verb form) to this almighty device and it will return a full conjugation chart. http://acon.baykal.be/index.php

Arabic Verb Conjugations

http://arabic.desert-sky.net/g_conj.html

Arabic Online website

Massive amount of articles dealing with many different topics of Arabic grammar. http://arabic.tripod.com/

Vocabulary

200 Arabic Words You Already ‘Know’

Initially I planned to sell this book on my website, but I decided to make it available for free as an instant download for the benefit of my visitors. The book contains over 200 Arabic words that are very similar in pronunciation to their English equivalents, thereby making learning the vocabulary very easy. http://www.arabicgenie.com/arabicwords/arabicwords.html

Arabic Phrases

For those looking for a quick primer on Arabic phrases that might come in handy on travel or at the local restaurant. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/arabic-phrases

Arabic Proverbs

As of yet incomplete list of proverbs and idioms taken from John Lewis Burckhardt’s book “The Manners And Customs Of The Modern Egyptians”. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/arabic-proverbs

Increase your Arabic Vocabulary

An article explaining how to enlarge your Arabic vocabulary. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2009/12/how-to-increase-your-arabic-vocabulary

Dialects

Arabic Dialects Overview

Essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the dialectal situation on the Arabic speaking world. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/arabic-dialects

Egyptian Arabic Easy Words

A list of Egyptian Arabic words with pronunciation tips. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/arabic-dialects/egyptian-arabic

Egyptian Arabic A Quick Introduction

Primarily aimed at those with at least a rudimentary knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), this two part series of articles aims to explain the main differences and idiosyncrasies of the Egyptian dialect.
Part 1 http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2009/08/egyptian-arabic-a-quick-introduction
Part 2 http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2009/10/egyptian-arabic-phrases-words

Speak Moroccan Arabic

A solid course on the Moroccan dialect. http://www.speakmoroccan.com/

Friends of Morocco Course

Provided in a number of PDF documents, this website has much of value for the learning of the Moroccan dialect. http://friendsofmorocco.org/arabictoc.htm

Syrian Colloquial Arabic

The first three chapters (including audio!) are provided free of charge by the author, with the remainder of the book available for purchase. http://syrianarabic.com/

Quranic (Koranic) Arabic

Introduction to Koranic Arabic

http://arabicgenie.com/blog/free-arabic-resources/the-quran

Arabic Gems

Excellent Blog dealing with (mostly) Koranic Arabic. Unfortunately, it has been discontinued since April 2008. That shouldn’t keep you from exploring the archives though. http://arabicgems.wordpress.com/

Quran Transliteration

http://transliteration.org/quran/home.htm

Dictionaries

Overview of Arabic dictionaries

http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2010/07/arabic-dictionaries

Sakhr Multilingual Dictionary

The best online English-Arabic-English dictionary by far. It’s extremely comprehensive and provides a lot of words to choose from. http://dictionary.sakhr.com/

Google Translate Dictionary

Many people might know that Google has a machine translation service, but they may not know that Google has a useful dictionary feature too. http://www.google.com/dictionary?source=translation&hl=en&langpair=ar|en

Wordreference dictionary

Often very useful in listing all the alternative translations for a word. http://www.wordreference.com/enar/

Miscellaneous

Learn Persian from Arabic

Aimed at those with a solid grasp of Arabic, this article explains how to make your knowledge of Arabic work for you when you are learning Persian. http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2010/06/learn-persian-from-arabic

Perfect your Arabic Pronunciation

How to get closer to being mistaken for a native speaker (or at least be understood by Arabic speakers). http://arabicgenie.com/blog/2009/12/perfect-arabic-pronunciation

Arabic TV

Al Arabiya

A great news channel with regional reach. http://www.livestation.com/channels/57-al_arabiya_arabic

Al Jazeera

You have probably heard of it, even if you haven’t studied Arabic before. http://www.livestation.com/channels/43-al-jazeera-arabic

Various other Arabic TV Channels

http://www.livewtv.com/arabic_tv.htm

The Arabic Student

An Excellent resource of various short clips taken from Arabic TV programmes or movies and annotated with transcriptions and translations. http://thearabicstudent.blogspot.com/  

This list is not exhaustive, so please let me know in the comments below if you’ve come across a useful website that might help others to learn Arabic for free.

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سنة سعيدة وكل عام وأنتم بخير

(sana sa3eeda wa kull 3aam wa antum bi-khayr)

sana – year
sa3eeda – happy
wa kull – and every
3aam – year
wa antum – and you (plural)
bi-khayr – good

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Windows XP

In Windows XP you will probably have to install the “file for complex script and right to left languages” from the Windows CD.

1. Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options
2. Select the Languages tab and check the checkbox next to “Install the file for complex script and right to left languages”.
3. Click the OK button and insert your Windows XP CD when prompted. You may need to restart your PC after that.

Congratulations! Now you should be able to read Arabic writing on your PC.

To write in Arabic you need to add Arabic language input.
1. Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options
2. Select the Languages tab and check the checkbox next to “Install the file for complex script and right to left languages”.
3. Go to Details and then click Add. Choose Arabic (Egypt) and Arabic (101).
4. Click OK twice and wait a few moments.

You can now change the input language from English to Arabic by holding down the ALT key and pressing SHIFT.

For the layout of the Arabic keyboard, see below.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Both of these operating systems should be able to display Arabic script without any updates having to be installed. To write in Arabic on these two operating systems follow the steps below:
1. Go to Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options.
2. Select the “Keyboards and Languages” tab and click on “Change Keyboards”.
3. Choose “Add” and then press the + sign next to “Arabic”. Then click on the + sign next to Arabic (Egypt) and check the checkbox next to Arabic (101).
4. Press “OK” and “Apply”.

You can now change the input language from English to Arabic by holding down the ALT key and pressing SHIFT. For the layout of the Arabic keyboard, see below.

Arabic Keyboard Layout

Here is a picture showing the layout of the Arabic keyboard:

Arabic Keyboard Layout

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I think this is total B.S. a tattoo is personal and you can do what you want with it. I personally have the four letters of my name “disconnected” that an artist put together in an art piece for me. It means a lot to me and I’m not writing an arabic book on my body, it’s ART, so why feel like I have to put these constraints on myself? it’s your body…do what you want with it!

Here is what I replied:

Kiba, I completely disagree with you.

Of course, everyone is free to get the tattoos they want and it’s great that you like your tattoo. But remember, most people will be highly uncomfortable with a tattoo that is incorrect, nonseniscal or even worse doesn’t mean what they want it to.

Knowing Arabic and then deciding that you want to have disconnected letters for artistic reasons (fully aware of the fact that in 99% of all cases this is a bad decision) is different from getting a wrong tattoo due to not knowing the language.

Something being art presupposes that you are actually aware of the different nuances of the Arabic script and of its rules. Only then are you in a good position to judge whether you really want to break conventions for artistic reasons.

Having a tattoo read “I’m awsome [sic!]” or “Everyone Elese [sic!] Does” or “Only God will juge [sic!] me” is a mistake in the vast majority of cases and an embarrassment most people would like to avoid. And so is an Arabic tattoo that is not spelt correctly or obviously simply a mistake that is the result of a failed copy-pasting attempt.

Where do you stand on this issue? Does art permit everything? Even when the individual is not aware that what he is doing is contrary to convention (think “juge” instead of “judge”)? Am I too pedantic? I would love to hear your comments.

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Arabic Genie on facebook

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غنى النفس أفضل من غنى المال

ghinaa an-nafs afDal min ghinaa al-maal

Arabic Proverb: Inner Wealth Is Better Than Other Wealth

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Well, after some trial and error I am proud to announce that the Arabic letters application is now online. Please head over to the website and try it out as soon as you can. I am sure that this will help all Arabic learners to get a good grasp of the Arabic letters and their sounds.

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In letzter Zeit haben sich Schauspielerinnen wie Angelina Jolie, Fußballspieler wie Zlatan Ibrahimović und Sänger wie Rihanna arabische Wörter und Sätze auf ihre Körper tätowieren lassen. Aber wissen sie auch wirklich, was genau die Wörter bedeuten, die sie auf ihrer Haut verewigt haben? Schauen wir doch mal genauer auf die Tattoos und ihre Bedeutungen:

Angelina Jolies arabisches Tattoo: Die Entschlossenheit

Als erstes an der Reihe ist Angelina Jolie, die, wie es scheint, schon jeden Zentimeter ihres Körpers mit Tattoos überdeckt hat. Bei ihrem letzten Besuch im Tätowierstudio hat sie dieses arabische Tattoo gekriegt:

Angelina Jolies arabisches Tattoo

Bei näherem Betrachten können wir das Arabische Wort العزيمة (al-‘azeema) auf ihrem rechten Unterarm erkennen. Das heißt soviel wie „die Entschlossenheit“ oder „der feste Wille“. Ich glaube Angelina ist eine Frau, die weiß, was sie will. Also scheint das Tattoo recht zutreffend. Allerdings, kann dieses arabische Wort auch „die Beschwörung“ oder „der Zauberspruch“ heißen.

Der Schrifttyp für das Tattoo ist relativ einfach gehalten, aber zumindest hat Angelina (oder einer ihrer Mitarbeiter) sich darum gekümmert, dass das Wort richtig geschrieben ist – keine Fehler hier.

Zlatan Ibrahimović tätowiert seinen eigenen Namen auf Arabisch

Weiter geht’s mit Zlatan Ibrahimović, dem Profifußballer:

Zlatan Ibrahamovics arabisches Tattoo

Für diejenigen, die gerade anfangen Arabisch zu lernen, ist dieses Tattoo wahrscheinlich schwer zu entziffern. Aber die Lösung ist recht einfach: der Schriftzug ist einfach eine Transliteration seines Nachnamens – auf Arabisch: إبراهيموفيج (ibraaheemoofeedj).
Weil das arabische Alphabet nicht für alle Laute in seinem Nachnamen die richtigen Buchstaben hat, musste der Tätowierer (oder jemand der Arabisch spricht) etwas auswählen, was so nah wie möglich an der Originalaussprache ist. Zum Beispiel gibt es kein “v” im arabischen Alphabet. Hier muss man also ein “f” nehmen.

Vielleicht mag nicht jeder die Ichbezogenheit die Ibrahimovićs Tattoo durchblicken lässt, aber zumindest ist das Tattoo korrekt geschrieben.

Rihanna muss ihr Tattoo noch nachbessern

Zu guter Letzt, was hat Rihanna sich auf die Hüfte stechen lassen?

Rihannas arabisches Tattoo

Auf Arabisch steht hier الحرية في مسيح (al-horriya fi maseeh) – auf Deutsch “Die Freiheit in Christus”. Hmm, anscheinend ist Rihanna also religiös, aber wieso versteckt sie diese Nachricht dann auf Arabisch, anstatt sie auf Englisch einem größeren Publikum zugänglich zu machen? Vielleicht sind ihre religiösen Überzeugungen doch eher privater Natur…

Wie dem auch sei, was man mit Sicherheit sagen kann ist, dass das Tattoo nicht ganz richtig ist. Es hätte الحريةفي المسيح (al-horriya fi al-maseeh) lauten sollen, weil „Christus“ im Arabischen einen Artikel braucht. Vielleicht gibt es ja doch noch Hoffnung, denn genügend Platz sollte zwischen den Wörtern sein um den arabischen Artikel AL einzufügen. Also Rihanna, vielleicht noch ein Besuch im Tattoostudio?

Willst Du auch ein arabisches Tattoo haben?

Falls Ihr es den Promis gleichtun wollt und Euch ein arabisches Tattoo stechen lassen wollt, dann solltet Ihr sicherstellen, dass Ihr genau wisst, was die Wörter bedeuten, die Ihr für den Rest Eures Lebens auf Eurem Körper tragen werdet.

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