Kuwait Times

Published Date: June 04, 2010
By Ahmad Saeid, Staff Writer

Languages have lives too. They have families, they are born, they give birth to other languages; they grow, develop, transform and change, and they die. Linguists predict that half of the approximately 7,000 extant languages will die by the end of this century. Just as global warming is driving numerous species into extinction, globalization is killing many languages.

In recent years, some have begun to suggest that Arabic language faces the danger of extinction. Those suggesting this warn that globalization is affecting the development of the language, and various dialects of the language, are 'eating' the language from inside.

The Friday Times asked the opinion of a number of Kuwait University (KU) professors searching for the answer to this extremely important question: Is Arabic dying?

I believe that Arab literature is at its peak now," said Marie Therese AbdulMessih, a professor of English and Comparative Literature at KU, who argues that the level of literature in any language could be an indication of the level of that language's development. "We have had an international award for Arabic literature for three years now, and there is an abundance of Arabic literary works, especially Arab novels, many of which are translated into many foreign languages," she said.

Low readership
According to AbdulMessih, the problem of Arab literature is in the low Arab 'readership' rates. "I blame the media for that," she said. "How many TV shows are shown on Arab channels about books or writers that you can think of?" she asked.

Language is not just words and sentences, it is a way of expressing meaning, a 'dialogue,' a form of speech," she explained. "Language cannot change until the dialogue changes, and the Arabic dialogue now is divided between frozen tradition, and attempts to blindly mimic of what is modern.

According to AbdulMessih, there is no Arabic philosophy or ideology, which is the main driver for the development of any language. "Languages don't just develop in a vacuum; they need advancement in all fields of science, but if a nation has a lot of restrictions and red lines that are extremely limiting to creativity, they will not allow ideology to develop, and the language will not develop as well," she asserted.

AbdulMessih argues that the adoption of foreign languages in any nation is not wrong in itself. "In French there are numerous foreign words, in English too. It is not a wrong thing to do. It is wrong, however, if it is used as a mean for compensating for a shortcoming in a nation's attempt to develop itself," AbdulMessih said.

Translation
She said that in order for any nation to rely on translation sciences, it should have translators and interpreters who are qualified both in the field of language and in the field in which they are translating, which is not present in the Arab world today. Among the reasons why translation is not playing its required role in the Arab world, according to the Egyptian professor, is because of the contempt for the humanities as subjects in the region's academic circles.

There's this belief that only losers study at arts and literature colleges, and that the most losers go the college of Arabic language," she concluded. The prestigious standing of engineering and medicine in the Arab world, combined with the fact that these and other professions are taught in most of the region's universities in English, means that they are viewed by many as part of adapting to globalization.

Professor Abdullatif Al-Khalifi, the Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs at KU's College of Engineering and Petroleum, said that language is only a tool, not a goal in itself. "What matters most to me is that my students get the latest information about the specific field they are studying in; the language they are obtaining it with is not the main issue," he insisted.

He explained that there are numerous advantages to studying in English. "When we send students to complete their education abroad, English language knowledge becomes very handy," he said. "Not only that, but even after finishing their studies, when engineers start working, they find out that most of the menus of devices and all the manuals are in English, so they will need to know the technical terms in English in order to be able to use these devices," he added.

The last thing we would think about is to undermine the importance of our language; on the contrary, it is the language of the Quran, and we are proud of it," he emphasized, adding, "Our culture has nothing to do with the education we are acquiring - one must learn to live with having a [linguistic] dual personality, and the best example for that is South Korea; they have a principle that they want civilization but not westernization, and I am a profound believer in that philosophy.

Language of preference
Muhammad Rashid, a student at the Engineering Faculty in his fifth year of an electrical engineering degree, also said that students in this field prefer to study in English: "All the new research is published in English," he said, "All the scientific websites are in English too, so it's definitely better to study in it.

Third-year student Sheikha Al-Sama'an, said that studying in English doesn't affect the learning process: "At the beginning it is a little bit difficult to learn in English, but with time you get used to it," Al-Sama'an said.

Noor Al-Hassan, another third year student, said that having studied in English offers graduates better work opportunities: "If you are an engineer who cannot speak English, then your chances of getting a decent job are drastically reduced," Al-Hassan noted. "That is why it is important that we study in English.

Arabic language is one of the oldest languages in the world. Different statistics give various numbers of Arabic language speakers. Over 280 million people speak Arabic as their first language, while about 250 million people speak it as second language. It is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and is among the official languages of all the countries in the Arab League, amounting to 22 countries. So far, then, there seems to be no indication that the language is dying.