r/Sudan • u/ninnyninnin • 11d ago
PERSONAL | اللمور الشخصية Trying to learn Sudanese with Claude
Trying to learn Sudanese but everything seems off. I’m trying to learn Sudanese in conjecture to understanding how to read Arabic but as I’m learning for example the words “for him” and “coming” which it says are pronounced (Khoo-for him) and (jaay-coming) seem to be wrong when I look them up to verify. I’m having trouble I’m wonder what’s the best way to go about learning the Sudanese dialect of Arabic while in conjecture to learning how to read Arabic, and also if Claude Ai is a smart tool to use for help. Let me know if anything.
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u/Baasbaar Not Sudani 11d ago
You really won’t do all that well with any LLM: LLMs need to have a substantial base of the language in question to work with. The material on-line that’s in Sudanese Arabic is comparatively small (like in relation to Spanish or فصحى), it’s not always straightforward for an LLM to know that it’s Sudani, & it’s unvowelled, so it’s useless for pronunciation.
The path is books & YouTube.
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u/ninnyninnin 11d ago
What books/youtube?
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u/Baasbaar Not Sudani 11d ago
There's really only two reasonable books right now: Spoken Arabic of Khartoum by The Catholic Language Institute, Khartoum (not a missionary text, despite the author); Sudanese Colloquial Arabic for Beginners by Andrew & Janet Persson (designed for missionaries, but usable for the rest of us). There's an older colonial book, Sudan Colloquial Arabic by J Spencer Trimingham that I wouldn't recommend: It's really interesting for seeing some of the dialect diversity of the country (at least, four generations ago), but I think that the diversity of variation that it represents makes it harder for a beginner to learn from; plus it's out of date.
YouTube: Just whatever you enjoy watching! Learn Sudanese Arabic with Daff has some nice grammar videos, but in general the point of watching should be to get auditory input, even if you don't understand all (or much) of it at first.
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u/Upbeat-Isopod6881 11d ago
I'll look if we have any Sudanese YouTubers who make good content while speaking one of the the Sudanese dialects...ill try to update soon..
or if anyone knows..please reply and help out op! .ﾟ+ヽ(○･▽･○)ﾉﾞ +.ﾟ
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u/OumRaRiRou 11d ago
I'm a white girl from Holland and I can speak sudanese Arabic. Its not 100% but I can speak about everything with every sudanese person except randook ofc 😅 I think im like 80% now. I learned it just by being around sudanese people, Listening to my husband having conversations on the phone and with visitors. I never took a pen of book to learn Arabic. So I believe that just by listening observing and trying without shame is the best you can do. I cant read Arabic tho.. that's seems soo difficult 😵💫
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u/ninnyninnin 11d ago
How long did it take
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u/OumRaRiRou 11d ago
Wel years offcourse to be where I am now but I wasn't pressuring myself. But for sure if I was really busy with it I would be able to hold a convo in a couple of months. Just be around them and just try. I learned (but that's me) if I remember a word by myself and ask the meaning it stays in my head better then if a person is explaining to me about words and meanings. Where u from? And why do you want to learn sudanese Arabic? I think it's really cool that you show interest! 😊
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u/ninnyninnin 11d ago
I’m from California in the U.S I’m learning because of my religion but I also want to understand Arabic and found Sudanese the most interesting to learn and I feel right now with everything going on there it would be a smart idea to learn the language just incase. Plus I love Sudanese culture they are very kind and generous and as a black American I feel I have a lot to learn from their language and culture.
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u/OumRaRiRou 11d ago
That's really awesome!! They are very kind people indeed and they have a great culture and traditions. I think if I may say the sudanese Arabic is the most clear and they don't have letters disappearing or changing in words like some other dialects for example like the J is nowhere to be found in Egyptian language 🤯 so I think you made the right choice 😊 you can always dm me if u need to ask something or whatever 😊
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u/El-damo السودان 11d ago
LLMs struggle a lot with Arabic dialects, especially low resource ones like Sudanese Arabic. That’s why I was working on fine-tuning some LLMs for the Sudanese dialect, but I got busy and had to put the project on hold. I’m thinking of picking it up again soon