Thursday, February 12, 2009

Arabic language endangered in the Arabian Gulf

The Arabic language is endangered due to the domination of the English language, particularly in the GCC communities where thousands of expats live, a senior Qatari official has said.

Dr Marzook Basher Binmarzook, of the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, said the language was also under threat from the domination of the English language in school curriculums and the impact the media has on the Arabic-speaking audience.

Binmarzook was speaking at a press conference to announce a seminar titled Language and Identity, due to take place from Feb. 15-17 at Sharq Village and Spa, Qatar daily Gulf Times reported on Friday.

For more see HERE.

2 comments:

Snake Oil Baron said...

I have heard of this trend before. I have also heard that what is called "Arabic" varies significantly across regions and that different dialects including the so called "classical Arabic" are not completely mutually understandable. The Egyptian dialect is gaining some ground due to soap operas from the region but generally the advantage of learning Arabic is weakened by the diversity of dialects and technologies like the Internet and satellite TV make English a much more useful language for neighboring populations to learn.

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