4/16/2020 Arabic: An Endangered Language - Globalization Partners International

Written By:

Ahmed Mossad El-

Arabic: An Endangered Language Saba
Country Specific
Date: Connect:

Spoken Arabic is becoming more widespread, but classical Arabic is at risk March 31, 2015

as it fails to modernize.

There is a big difference between the classical, written form of Arabic and
the colloquial spoken dialects.
What to Read Next

Classical Arabic is sometimes referred to as the Arabic used for literature. It Video Game Localization

is never used conversationally because each Arab country has its own April 14, 2020
dialect. We can even find different dialects within the same region. In
Learn More
Northern Africa, Berber is spoken in many parts of Algeria and Morocco
and their Arabic is influenced by French colonization.

Doing Business in India

As a child, I had to learn Arabic and one other language, in order to join any
school in Lebanon. All schools teach Arabic and one second language, April 8, 2020

French or English, in preschool and add a third language in middle school.

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The new generation of Arabs struggle with the classical form of the
language due to the educational system that delivers most of the
The Importance of Multilingual
curriculum in foreign languages. SEO

History of the Arabic Language April 1, 2020

Arabic is a language spoken by over 300 million people in more than 22 Learn More
countries. The language is native to the Arabian Peninsula. The word
“Arab” means “nomad.”

In the seventh century it became the language of the Qur’an and the
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liturgical language of Islam. The territorial expansion of the Arab Empire in feed
the Middle Ages, along with Islam, resulted in widespread use in the Your Name*
Middle East, North Africa and Europe (Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, Crete,
Cyprus, and Malta).
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The language has spread on several continents and extends to non-Arab
people and is now one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is the
official language of more than twenty countries and several international I accept the privacy
organizations, including one of the six official languages of the United statement
Nations.

Emphasis on Grammar
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Literary Arabic is a written language, not spoken. Most Arab writers only
manage to master it after the age of 40 because language proficiency
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requires more time than for European languages. The grammatical Privacy - Terms

analysis is in fact the main problem of our language, because it is a barrier

that exhausts teachers, while blocking the possibilities for mastery of Subscribe

reading and writing.

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4/16/2020 Arabic: An Endangered Language - Globalization Partners International

I started to learn Italian at the age of 15 when I arrived in Rome. My Italian

teacher asked me to assist some of his friends who wanted to master Arabic.

After two years of studying Italian, I wrote well enough to have a biweekly
column in one of the school newspapers. But, my students still struggled to
learn to read Arabic. One of them said:

“We taught you our language in two years and now you are able to write and
speak it, but we have not yet succeeded in learning Arabic.”

I was frustrated because my students were not young children and I taught
them using the same method used in college. I thought about my
experience and realized that we were losing time learning complicated
grammar rules, including syntax, which only a minority of specialists can
master.

Preserving Arabic in the UAE

In Dubai, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA),
responsible for the growth, direction and quality of private education and
learning, has put great emphasis on the Arabic language.

Experts blame many factors for the decline of the Arabic language,
including:

Globalization
Use of the English language in these countries, especially on social media
Use of Arabizi (Roman characters and English numbers) in speech and text
Foreign, non-Arabic speaking workers out-numbering native Arabic
speakers
Classical Arabic being replaced by local dialects among Emiratis
Inadequate Arabic language teachers

According to an article in The National, the government is preparing to

introduce a law to protect the Arabic language.

In late 2014 a conference was organized in Dubai to discuss the problems of

the Arabic Language. It was organized by the International Council for
Arabic Language in cooperation with UNESCO, the Association of Arab
Universities and the Arab Bureau of Education for the Gulf States.

Panelists discussed the state of the Arabic language in the Arab countries
and agreed that the curriculum used for teaching needs major changes. The
committee wants Arabic to be the official first language used for teaching in
all institutions across the country.

One school administrator from Abu Dhabi voiced his concerns over the law:

“What concerns me is the universities and colleges that would be forced to

deliver their content in Arabic when the content was written in English and
delivered by people who are not necessarily Arabic speakers.”

“I’m talking about engineering, architecture, law. Rather than bringing

excellence you’re driving people offshore if the first language is going to be
in Arabic.”

In contrast, The New York Times cites Patricia Ryan, an English teacher at
Zayed University in Dubai with over 40 years of experience teaching in the
Gulf, with believing that promoting Arabic in schools is a way to preserve

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4/16/2020 Arabic: An Endangered Language - Globalization Partners International

written Arabic and may also lead to more original research in Arabic. She
cautions, however, that this jump in instruction language is something that
must happen slowly over time if it is to be beneficial.

The opinions on the matter are very controversial within the Arab world.
Some, like Egyptian Philosopher Mustapha Safwan, argue that Classical
Arabic is a dead language like Latin and Greek, while others see it as a tool
for unifying the Arab world

GPI’s Approach to Arabic

At Globalization Partner International we have been providing translation,
desktop publishing, website localization and Arabic SEO, into and from
Arabic for many of the world’s top brands who operate in the region. We
understand firsthand the challenges of working in the Arabic language.
Working with numerous Arabic professionals, both in-house and freelance,
we recruit, test and utilize only Arabic native speakers from many
countries including Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, UAE, Syria, Oman, Qatar,
Kuwait, Saudi, Morocco and Egypt. These mixed teams with subject matter
expertise in various fields are formed and utilize GPI’s global collaboration
tools such as our Translation Portal and Globalization Project Management
Suite to globally collaborate in order to produce Arabic language content
that engages with the Arabic speaking world.

Further GPI Resources on Country Specific Topics

Globalization Partners International (GPI) frequently assists customers with multilingual
website design, development and deployment, and has developed a suite of globalization tools
to help you achieve your multilingual website localization project goals. You can explore them
under the Translation tools and Portals section of our website. You may also find some of the
following articles and links useful:

United Nations Arabic Language Day 2019

Arabic Translation Requirements in Qatar
UAE Franchise Opportunities and Arabic Translation
Qatar: Franchise Opportunities and Arabic Translation
Preparing Your Documents for Arabic Translation

For more information or help with your next website translation project, please do not hesitate
to contact us via e-mail at info@globalizationpartners.com, or by phone at (866) 272-5874, or
by requesting a free web translation quote on your next website translation project.

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