Al-Arabiya and Aljazeera Updates on the Crisis in Sudan

Al-Arabiya and Aljazeera Updates on the Crisis in Sudan

Background to This Week’s Texts

The two very brief texts (two minutes and one minute each) we focus on this week provide a useful summary of the impact the on-going conflict is having on everyday life in Sudan and make an emotive appeal to viewers across the world.

The first text is standard journalistic Arabic and includes expressions you would expect to hear in the context of military activity and impact on services. The second text is a highly personal monologue by a young woman witnessing events in western Sudan.

Possible Approaches

As the two texts are clearly enunciated, intermediate standard and easy Sudanese colloquial Arabic, you might like to use the listenings as dictations at normal speed to test your written Arabic accuracy. After you listen, compare your version with the transcripts below. You could also try reading the texts aloud before listening, trying to adopt a fluid, journalistic delivery in the first case and the appropriate tone of personal testimony in the second. Then compare your delivery and pronunciation with the originals.

If you would like specific comprehension areas to focus on, then consider the following:

What is considered news by normal criteria, according to the correspondent? How does that impact the reporting on Sudan? What is the issue surrounding statistical data related to the conflict? What information is given on the territories affected by the conflict and who controls them? What is the situation in terms of basic services in Sudan? What events indicate a possible change in military approaches to the conflict? The correspondent corrects herself during her report. Can you catch her correction?

What is the tone of the young western Sudanese woman’s message to the world? What does she want the world to know?

Lexical Focus

You will hear several expressions for “extend / widen” the scope of the war, “take control of / be in control of” (region), as well as words for “numbers”, “statistics”, “approximate” and “periodic / regular” relating to the issuing of statistics, and “death toll”. How would you say “the dead”, “wounded” (two words) and “victims / casualties”? And for “clashes”, “bombing / shelling”, “positions” “displaced” and “catastrophic / disastrous”?

Can you predict what expressions will be used for “voluntary organizations”, “deterioration”, “lack / shortage”, “influx”, “gruesome / ugly ” for scenes, and “standard / normal / typical”, referring to what is considered to be news criteria? How would you say that something has become “a familiar sight”? And which expression for “humiliation” might you hear and in what context?

You will hear expressions for “both” and “whether it be”. What terms might be used?

Watch The Reports Here:

Text 1 Al-Arabiya

مديرة مكتب #العربية بـ #السودان: “الدعم السريع” قام بتوسيع الحرب والسيطرة ع

Text 2: Aljazeera

فتاة سودانية تناشد المسؤولين بالبلاد لإيقاف الحرب

Transcripts

Text 1

Text 2

Transcripts with explanatory Notes

1 qaam bii-tawsii`; the RSF have brought about the widening / amplification of the war and

2 as-sayTara `ala; control over

3 al-iHSaa’iyaat; and there are no statistics

4 `adaad al-qatla: death toll

5 tabaadal lil- qaSf; exchange of shelling / bombing

6 ma`yaari; standard / normal / typical; the speaker is emphasizing that by normal news standards / criteria, there is no “new” news but that everyday there are continued / recurring clashes and bombing – and this is news in itself

7 yatakarrar; repeat / recurring

8 ishibaakaat wa-l-qaSf; clashes and shelling

9 bii-ma`aayiir; by the standards / criteria of news

10 / 11 tasquT DaHaayaa; note this way of saying the causing of victims / casualties in war; note too the way of saying whether it be; siwaa’ ann kaan

12 muSaabiin; wounded / injured

13 i`tiyaad; familiarity; this has become a familiar sight to …

14 saHb; literally, to drag / pull / tug, here the idea is the RSF has succeeded in bringing the war to other regions

15 tawassu`; extension / widening / spreading

16 al-muwaaqi`; sites / positions

17 al-mafaahiim al- `askariyya; a change in the military perceptions / understandings / concepts

18 taDarrar; damage of the two main bridges

19 lil-ta`aaTii; practice / pursuit

20 killaa; both

21 satu’ athir; influence / affect

22 khalafat; the conflict has left behind it … note too, in same line jarHa; the wounded

23 yashbi al-waDa` aS-SaHHii al-kaarithii; the health situation resembles a disaster

24 maa yu’ sif aiDaan; what is also sad is

25 fii waqt min al-aawqaat; from time to time / sometimes

26 tuSdir; issue almost weekly /

27 dawriyya; periodic / recurring

28 Taw`iyya; voluntary

29 taqriibiyya; approximate, referring to the statistics

30 tarudii; deterioration

31 yatawaajiduun; those who are present

32 naqs; lack / shortage

33 quSuur; insufficiency / failure

34 mu`aalaja; treatment

35 ishkaaliyyaat; problems

36 tu`aanii; suffer

37 tadaffuq; influx

38 al-naaziHiin; the displaced

1 tanaashid; calls upon / appeals to

2 mawt al-ihaana; a humiliating death; ihaana; humiliation

3 tataqaTa`; to be cut into pieces

4 aw raas-ik da yatafajjar; or your head explodes / is blown off in an explosion

5 manaaZir bashi`a; gruesome / ugly / horrid

6 / 7 `alaykum allah shiiruu; please please share this

Supplementary Texts; 2-minute, captioned footage from Al-Arabiya

زعيم أهلي وابنه و8 من أحفاده يتعرضون للاغتيال بغرب دارفور .. برأيك هل تزيد هذه

في ظل اتساع رقعة المعارك بين #الجيش_السودانhttps://www.facebook.com/alarabiyasu/videos/318949254218842/?extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharingي و#الدعم_السريع.. إلى أين يمضي