Language conference set to preserve Arabic

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Language conference set to preserve Arabic

Arab League launches prize for best childs work in Arabic, accepting
prose, verse participations.


By Ahmed Fadl Shablool  CAIRO

Language of the Arab Child in the Age of Globalisation conference kicked
off Saturday with a dominating theme of preserving the purity of the
Arabic language amidst the challenges it faces from some of the effects of
globalisation. The conference, organized by the Arab Council for Childhood
and Development in cooperation with the Arab League, started with a
lecture by Dr. Suhir Abdul Fattah, an expert at the Council for Childhood
and Development, where she warned against the dangers of language
extinction, citing examples of 3000 thousand that have become extinct in
the past decades. Fattah called for utilising the research conducted at
this conference for future language policy planning in the Arab world.

On a similar note, the message of Saudi Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz,
President of the Council for Childhood and Development, derived on his
behalf by Prince Turki Bin Talal, emphasised the important role of
language in protecting peoples heritage and culture. Prince Talal
emphasised the vitality of learning foreign languages to empower people
with access to modern knowledge, and facilitate communication among
peoples of the world. However, he maintained that this must not be at the
expense of losing touch with ones own language. In his lecture, Dr. Abdul
Aziz Bin Othman Al Tawijiri, touched on the concept of language pollution
where the purity of a language is influenced by more dominating ones, a
case often affecting children from developing countries.

Dr. Tawijiri called for developing the Arab language to suit the
requirements of the age as an effective safeguard from language pollution.
As an incentive to promoting childrens command of the language, Amr Mousa,
Secretary General of the Arab League, announced the establishment of an
annual prize given to the best work written by a child in Arabic, be it
prose or verse. The conference also sought to discuss the best methods of
capitalising from the positive effects of globalisation, while protecting
the language of Arab children from its negative side effects.

The conference concluded its opening day with an opera performance
entitled, Welcome to the Children of Classical Arabic, performed by
children representing the Arab world.

Ahmed Fadl Shablool is the cultural editor of Middle East Online.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=19645

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