Language Practices in the Arabic Community - Research Paper Example

Professor Name Institution, course number Date Language Practices in the Arabic Community The study of Arabic language practices is a process, which includes the total analysis of the language in terms of its morphological and semantic structures as well as the spheres of its application. Arabic language has greatly contributed to the world culture. It exists in different equivalents, each of which corresponds to a particular style of writing. The aim of this work is to analyze the main values of the Arabic language in terms of modern linguistic approaches. As Arabic belongs to one of the most complicated languages in the world, it is necessary to analyze its historical background. Speaking about the ancient form of Arabic language, it is first of all revealed in the Muslim’s Holy Book – Quran. “The Qur’an has been kept in Classical Arabic, known as fus’ha, which means ‘the clearly spoken one’ or ‘the language of eloquence’. It is part of the Semitic family of languages, where the defining feature is the use of triconsonantal roots to create words” (Muslim lifestyle, 2012). This quotation is a great evidence of the fact that the first book, which reveals the clear Arabic, is Quran. I consider this Holy Book to be the interesting source for the analysis of the pure Arabic language structure. The classical Arabic is not very different from the ancient form of this language. Many of the roots of Semitic languages are also present in Arabic. In ancient Semitic studies there was a tendency to consider classical Arabic as the most archaic of the Semitic languages. However, by means of comparing Arabic with other Afro-Asian languages, it has been found that much of classical Arabic is not so ancient. “The Arabic of the Quran remained a prestigious and nearly unchanging standard throughout the Islamic world. This is what most Arabs consider "Arabic". But all spoken languages change, all the time, and the Arabic people actually used on the streets and in their homes, predictably enough, changed quite a lot in those 1400 years. Today, the Arab world is sometimes compared to medieval Europe, when classical Latin was still the only "real" language most people wrote and studied in—but "Latin" in the mouths of its speakers had become early French, Spanish, Portuguese and so on” (R. L. A., 2013). It means that despite the ancient roots and culture of the classic Arabic language, it had undergone serious changes during the period of its development. Due to its significant evolution, I consider it very important to analyze the influence of other cultural peculiarities on the Arabic language and vice versa. Arabic had a strong influence on other European languages. Cultural and historical influence of the Arabic language is traced in many languages of Western Europe, evidenced by borrowing terms and Arab roots, which are included in almost all European languages and used up to this day. Arabic language, having a developed system of terminology for many areas of social, scientific and cultural life had not received proper development before the arrival of the Arabs in Europe. “Arabic is not the language of one country, of course, but of 26 nations across North Africa and the Middle East. It is a language that unites at least 400 million native speakers in the Arab world, as well as being something of a lingua franca of Muslims worldwide” (Kemp, R. A., 2014). In this case the author explains the interconnection of Arabic language with other cultures. Some people consider that it is widespread only on the territories of Muslim countries. However, by this statement I express the disagreement with the acceptance of Arabic as the language of one nation. Arabic is an international language as other European ones. Nowadays, the practice of Arabic language is revealed in different life spheres, such as education, business, international technologies and so forth. The loyalty of Arabic people to their language is impressive. The technological process is mostly built on English, which is the most popular language in the world and taught in the majority of European schools. However, Arabs are not satisfied with usage of English in the world technologies, considering that Arabic should be included in them as an option. “In the Middle East people were excited about being able to seriously program in Arabic. But then I had to deliver the news that our dependence on English is so deep that an all-Arabic coding experience is simply not possible” (Heaven, D., 2013). By this statement the author shows that the progress and development of Arabic language is prevented by the rest of the countries, involved in the technological process. I consider such state of things quite rational, because Arabic has not achieved so much popularity as English yet. Taking into consideration the place of Arabic language in the world, it becomes obvious that its involvement into the technological process will cause additional costs for both the manufacturers and consumers. In other words it is the question of price and efficiency. Cultural and historical influence of the Arabic language can be traced in many languages of Asia and Africa. This was facilitated by the spread of Islam, as well as the high cultural status and well-developed system of general and special terminology for many areas of social, scientific and cultural life. The early Arabic monuments show the wide layer of cultural borrowing from neighboring Semitic languages of South Arabia, from the Aramaic language of Syria and Mesopotamia, from Middle Persian, Greek and Latin. Later appear the borrowings from Persian and Turkey. The modern period is characterized by active penetration of Western technical terminology in the Arab lexicon. Despite the purist activities of the Academy of the Arabic language in many countries, the modern Arabic language acquires the new international scientific and technical terms, which form the equivalents of standard phrases and expressions typical for the press and mass media. Concluding this article, it is necessary to mention that modern Arabic language is characterized by great amount of borrowings. Despite, its difference from other groups of languages, it managed to acquire the elements of grammar and vocabulary of the European languages. Arabic is easily assimilated to other linguistic groups. However, the variety of dialects and mixture of the original Hebrew, Syrian and Latin alphabet in the Arabic writing manifests about the uniqueness of this language among other linguistic groups. Definitely, Arabic is a lively language, which has overcome significant evolution during the period of its formation and development. Works Cited R. L. A., 2013. A language with too many armies and navies? Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/06/arabic Heaven, D., 2013. Does computer code need a new, universal language? Retrieved from: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729090.300-does-computer-code-need-a-new-universal-language.html#.VHYMm4usXuI Kemp, R. A., 2014. Arabic: more accessible than you think. Retrieved from: http://blog.britishcouncil.org/2014/10/03/arabic-more-accessible-than-you-think/ Muslim lifestyle, 2012. The Arabic language and the Quran. Retrieved from: http://www.emel.com/article?id=99&a_id=2770 Read More