Standard Arabic ought to be protected, popularised, says seminar

Areas of complementarity and collision between the local dialects and the standard Arabic were discussed Sunday at the second event of the ongoing Seminar Series, organised by the Ministry of Culture in partnership with Qatar University (QU) and the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI). Sunday's seminar was hosted in the Ibin Khaldoun Hall at QU, and titled "Do the local dialects complement the Standard Arabic?" The various dimensions of Arabic dialects and their connection to Standard Arabic were discussed. The panellists were Dr Mohamed Khaled al-Rahawi, Professor in the Department of Arabic Language, College of Arts and Sciences - QU; Dr Elias Atallah, professor of linguistics and Arabic lexicography at the DI; Dr Ezz al-Din al-Bouchikhi, executive director of the Doha Historical Dictionary, and Dr Ahmed Hajji Safar, professor of Arabic at the College of Arts and Sciences, QU. Media specialist Hassan al-Saei, moderated the session, attended by a number of cultural and academic elites and scholars, who enriched the seminar with discussions, specifically with regard to ways to preserve the Arabic language.The seminar started with a paper by Dr al-Rahawi about bilingualism, which he described as the existence of a literary language and its multiple dialects. This happens in all languages over the ages. "The contemporary local Arabic dialects are mostly ancient dialects inherited from the ancestors. They possessed the strength that enabled them to survive since the pre-Islamic era. They lived alongside standard Arabic during these centuries, and they did not pose a threat, but rather coexisted. "Dialects since ancient times have played a functional role that classical Arabic does not. Each old dialect has its own characteristics, but they all share a set of linguistic phenomena that facilitate communication between those who speak varied dialects. "Dialects are also a space in which they are used and perform a function, and one of the dialects or the standard Arabic does not perform what the other does, as they complement each other. Every society has its customs, norms and traditions, and dialects and the oral history they carry help a lot in studying those customs, social life and patterns of behaviour, unlike standard Arabic, which bears the official history of the nation and its ruling system, and literature."Dr al-Rahawi concluded that dialects do not pose a danger to the standard Arabic as long as they remain in their daily domain. They should not intrude into the shrines of the standard Arabic, for a number of reasons, including: the existence of the fixed standard represented by the Holy Qur’an, then the honourable hadiths, the poems of previous eras, most of which are eloquent. If a non-Arab would be able to speak a sound language by reciting the Holy Qur’an alone, so that would be easier for an Arab if he wanted to, he stated.In turn, Dr Atallah described the classical language as the language of the nation, and it does not pose a threat to the colloquial, just as dialects do not pose a threat to the standard Arabic. He said that whoever believes in the sovereignty of nations believes in the sovereignty of languages. "The threats facing the language are from its people. We are the ones who threaten it. I do not see any threat from the classical Arabic to the colloquial. Rather the former is a protector and supporter of the latter. Referring to the most prominent differences between the standard and colloquial ones, and at the forefront of these differences is the syntax, as the dialect is devoid of signs of syntax, in addition to not being restricted to the acoustic structure." Dr Atallah pointed out that his presentation does not reflect his position on the standard Arabic, as he loves it, as well as the colloquial language, but each one of them has its own taste and function.A number of participants from the audience emphasised that the use of local dialects instead of standard Arabic leads to a widening of the gap between people in the various Arab countries. They warned of the danger of local dialects on the standard Arabic. During their comments after the presentations, they stressed the importance of paying attention to education and that it must be in a sophisticated language and not in different dialects, which distracts the student's mind.HE Dr Mohamed al-Sada, a former minister of energy, said that the vernacular in Arab countries did not come in a colonial way. But it is a natural issue of our language and not an engineering that took place in colloquial planning. He wondered how to achieve integration between standard Arabic and colloquial Critic HE Dr Mohamed Abdel Rahim Kafoud, a former minister of education, said that the twentieth century must have witnessed a trend against the Arabic language. It was targeted, so that local dialects are used, which leads to a widening of the gap between people in the various Arab countries. The dialects included many terms and images that do not relate to standard Arabic.He pointed out that the Holy Qur’an adopted many dialects and did not adopt the Quraish dialect alone. The dialects of the eastern Arabian Peninsula region, which included many poets, were not overlooked. He warned of the danger of local dialects, which reached the field of education, as this has a negative impact.He pointed out at the same time that dialects are part of the identity and part of the Arabic language, but it is necessary to have reservations about the vocabulary that entered Arabic and is not related to it, but is considered a departure from it.Dr Ahmed Abdel-Malik, a professor of media at the Community College of Qatar, spoke about the need for the media to pay attention to the content of the Arabic language, and for news releases to be devoid of any local dialects. He warned of the negative impact of using local dialects with the standard Arabic, because it distracts the student's attention.In his presentation, Dr Safar said that the standard Arabic is a cultural reservoir for each region separately. It is a social incubator in many school curricula. Dr Atallah commented that the task of teaching standard Arabic is not only entrusted to the teacher, but rather a joint responsibility between the media, education and the family.At the end of the seminar, Dr Safar said: "Truly, the main and essential point that was raised and revolves in the mind of every Arab person is the relationship of the standard Arabic language with colloquial languages. Does this relationship constitute a relationship of integration or collision? Is there a danger to the other or the others? The answers of the professors, as well as of the audience, says there is an integration of standard Arabic and colloquial dialects. The matter requires us to pay attention to the necessity of using the standard Arabic language more than it is used now, in order for it to continue as a living language, so,that it does not die gradually as many languages that were prevalent did, such as Latin and others.”On the whole, there was a majority of those who called for the consolidation of the Arabic language. They said that the family has to play its role, and the media has an important role to play too, with education. In general, the Arabic language holds prestige in discourses, especially since it is the language of the Holy Qur’an and the language of the prestigious Arabic literature.