UAE: Modernising the Mother Tongue

[Francis Hult]

The National

 

Modernising the Mother Tongue

 

The last speaker of Arabic on Earth will probably be a tour guide, singing songs in the early morning air as he escorts tourists who have never heard his native tongue. He will tell them about the poetry of Mutannabi, the words of Umm Kulthum and the music of the Cairo khan and the Sana'a souq and they will smile and wonder how such a beautiful language could ever pass from the Earth.

 

It has happened before and is happening now. Today is International Mother Language Day, a United Nations-organised day designed to promote linguistic diversity and warn that nearly half of all the 6,700 languages of the world will probably vanish before the 21st century is over.

 

At first glance, the idea of the language of the Emirates vanishing seems absurd: the arrival of satellite TV and the internet has linked the Arab world more closely than before, more non-Arabic speakers are learning the language and Arabic media have been set up in Russia, the US, Britain and Iran. But a stroll through downtown Abu Dhabi quickly highlights how few Emiratis use Arabic as a social language, especially the younger generation.

 

Full story:

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090221/WEEKENDER/594588548/1080

_______________________________________________
Edling mailing list
Edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu
https://lists.sis.utsa.edu/mailman/listinfo/edling
List Manager: Francis M. Hult