SALAH, Said.

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Spoken Arabic in Saudi Arabia. Later enlarged edition of this pocket book for American businessmen in the oil industry, seeking to learn the Saudi Arabian dialect.The preface begins with the statement that Classical Arabic is difficult, but spoken Arabic is easy, and learning a few polite phrases will go a long way and be appreciated by Saudi colleagues and friends. There follow a few pages devoted to Saudi culture - "When they say, as they often do, My Home is Your Home, they mean it" - and a guest's appropriate behaviour in a Saudi home, as well as sections on local pronunciation and the most basic words, such as "zain" (OK), "kedah" (I see), and "Inshallah", courtesies, greetings, business vocabulary, food, informal conversations, dialogues at the office, at the hotel, air travel, "instructions to the servants", and more. The second, newer part includes vocabulary lists including food, seafood, and hors d'oeuvres, clearly intended to assist the reader at business lunches; useful everyday articles (needle, donkey earrings), parts of the car, travel by taxi, numbers, motor travel and maintenance ("Excuse me, I am lost, please help me"), road signs, commonly-used verbs, and a few Arabic proverbs ("Why blame a man for resembling his father").

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