It seems it is a party of the people of western countries only. There was a crowd of youth in the corridor. The girls were spilling liquor. The language of the people could surprise many.
Although it was a gathering of young Emiratis, almost everyone there was speaking in English. Now English is becoming the main language of the Gulf countries. On paper, Arabic is one of the most important languages in the world. More than 40 crore people speak it. The people of Arab countries speak many other regional dialects. Poor Arabic education is destroying its purity. On the other hand, English is expanding.
Many children in primary school speak a mixed language of English and Arabic. A former British diplomat who has knowledge of Arabic says, in a hundred years Arabic will be finished. The decline of language shows a glimpse of recent history.
Violence has shaken Baghdad and Damascus, once strongholds of Arab nationalism and culture. Emirati scholar Abtesam Al Ketbi says, “Language tells you how powerful you are.” The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans have preserved their languages, says a Bahrainian intellectual. But we haven’t done that. Even those who rule our country no longer speak good Arabic.
Publishers are publishing more and more books in a bid to increase sales and circulation. In 2019, Nadia Kamel has received the Literature Prize in Egypt for writing a novel in a local dialect. TV news channels are still broadcast in Arabic. But many people prefer to know the news on social media through dialects in Latin script. Disney now dubs its films in Egyptian dialects.
Against this background, the supporters of Arabi are trying to stay in the front. Because of its use in the media, religious sermons and speeches, Arabic are more prevalent and alive than Latin, says Hosam Abuzahar of the online platform Living Arabic Project. They expect the Latin language to exist for centuries because of churches, despite the absence of native speakers.
In 2017, an agency survey of Arab youth in Dubai found that Arabs in the Gulf are using more English than Arabic. Saudi Arabia has joined the ranks of countries in the Gulf to teach English to school children from the beginning. Last year, a World Bank study reported that many Arab children in the fourth grade are unable to write a sentence in the Arabic language properly.
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