IS ARABIC THAT IMPORTANT?
Arabic ranks technically among the most widespread languages in the world.
But —no offence intented— I have a feeling that it is loosing momentum, that some day it may well be reduced in its core regions to a status similar to what Latin was in mediaeval Europe.
In north-west Africa, after Morocco, Algeria and Tunisian became independant, the authorities tried to fully arabize the educational system. It turned out to a complete failure. French, despite decades of effort to eradicate it, is still spreading by itself throughout the local societies.
I see a similar phenomeon starting in Egypt and the Middle East with English. English is catching, just the way it did in the Philippines.
French political presence in Lebanon and Syria was rather symbolic and remarkably short (in the 20's-30's), however the educated class is as a whole perfectly fluent in French (especially in the Christian communities) while a large part of the population speaks unbelievably good English.
What's you opinion on the matter?
The problem is that there are many varieties that diverge widely from one another - both from country to country and within a single country.
If they want to understand each other they use Standard Arabic (a lot of people don´t know Standard Arabic) or Egyptian Arabic (the most known Arabic variety thanks to TV programs and Egyptian films).
In my opinion, Egyptian Arabic is a key variety to understand all Arabic people (300 million people).
I don´t know if English or French will be important in these countries in the near future. Perhaps only the first one.
<< don´t know if English or French will be important in these countries in the near future. Perhaps only the first one. >>
French will be very important too as you can see in Egypt. It was ruled by Britain but it's not a member of Commonwealth but La Francophonie. French is widely spoken in that country and many choose to learn French istead English to offset the English language so that it will not become dominant.
English and French are the most widely spoken languages in Saudi Arabia.
You underestimate the nationalism of Arab countries. Arab will remain the main language of these countries, because it is the language that the prophet Mahoma used to write the Q'uran. So muslims must learn arabic language in order to be good muslims and go to the heaven.
Oil
you forget that as the language of the Koran Arabic has a 'liturgical' life outside of Arabic speaking countries, in places such as Iran, Malaysia and many former Soviet states. Arabic is also a major second language in many of these countries and others such as Eritrea.
Adolfo
Please make sure your knowledge before you post it.
* Mohammed or Muhammad is the correct name.
* He did not write the Quran. Quranic verses were revealed to him by Angels of God. So, the Quran/Koran is not the book that is authored by him but God.
In short, I don't forsee a bleak future for Arabic as it is going to be spoken by new converts to the religion (who do not neccessarily live in a muslim country) and those who reside in other muslim countries outside the Arab world.
Oil your sheer arrogance is staggering. You make be laugh when you say French is catching up to Arabic in Algeria, when its not even an official language anymore. It not even part of La francophone.
Also my i just and that more and more Arabs are learning Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is just a simplified version of Quranic Arabic. There is an estimated of at list 300 million speakers of Arab alone in the middle-east, and that not counting the countless muslims who learn it.
Furthermore, French is actually losing out to Arabic in some former colonies such as Djibouti, where Arabic is becoming more important in busines as the Dubai shipping company has brought up the port, the main source of income to the countries. Furthermore, my youngsters in those countries are going to Arab universities instead of French ones.
So you insecurities about your language is plain to see. Arabic will always be a major language as it is the holy language to about a billion Muslims. Furthermore, French is losing grounds in other African countries as they see it more profitable to count there business in English.
why you say?
BTW what does JMO
It would be more interesting if someone would discuss semitic languages here, well, more interesting to me. I don't speak any semitic languages, but I've played around with computer and language programs that teach them.
If you speak Arabic, how much Hebrew do you understand? For others, if you speak Hebrew, how much Arabic do you understand?
the thing is a like French, my parents speak and i am learning. but i hate it when people talk rubbish, with no facts
sorry last post made no sense. What i meant to say was, i like french and that my parents speak it and i want to learn as well. But hate hate it when people talk rubbish.
why you say?
BTW what does JMO
JMO=Just my opinion, perhaps I'm wrong perhaps it is "Guest"...
i cant speak Arabic fluently, just know a bit. But my dad can speak it and i can get the jist of the conversation. I am not sure how much an Arabic speaker would be able to understand Hebrew. But i know they sound completely different.
"sorry last post made no sense. What i meant to say was, i like french and that my parents speak it and i want to learn as well. But hate hate it when people talk rubbish."
After reading opinions in this forum I am led to believe that "rubbish" means whatever another person does not believe, but jmo.
All of us come to the forum with different experiences. I really enjoy the posters who write in their native languages or who are able to discuss their languages in English beyond things like "Hello"...