The adoption of the word “trend” by the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo and its inclusion in the Arabic dictionary provoked a strange and controversial situation among linguists and other Arab academies. Arabic with foreign languages ​​in response to modern development, and is there “diarrhea” or “lexical lethargy”?

Asharq al-Awsad posed these questions to several experts and linguists:

Dr. Khaled Fahmy (Professor and Expert in Linguistics at the Academy of Arabic Language in Cairo): Cultural Significance

Before clarifying what the experts of the Arabic Language Academy have to say about the word “tendency”, it is worth mentioning three basic dimensions that govern the general context of the process of obtaining any developments in the Arabic lexicon. The first dimension is the psychological dimension. After living through a historical moment in which the Arab nation developed science and knowledge for about 8 centuries, we are a nation in crisis, suffering from real and existential frustrations. The Arabic language was absorbed by the languages ​​of the earth, and there was another side to the civilizational coin, which was “”Arabization”, which is the opposite of Arabization. World dictionaries are full of words of Arabic origin. Which brings us to the second dimension of civilization. We are a nation that has not developed a machine, nor a theory, and therefore has not developed a language. This is what can be described as the cultural health of the nation.The third dimension is the confusion of the Arab street because there are no restrictions at any level, the most important of which are ethical and professional restrictions and governing expertise and science.

As the process of Arabization is historically linked to specific practical steps, Dr. Khalid explains. Car,” and there is another criterion by which it is done. As the ancient Arab put the word “television” in his Arabization, “maf’al” refers to the Arabic meter for a foreign word like meter. The word “television” preserved the central sounds in it and changed them to “maf’al” meter, so it became “television”.

As for what happened to the word “trend” and the controversy surrounding it, we could theoretically implement Arabic alternatives such as “top”, “popular” or “most widespread”, but Arabiser al-Jama’i looked at it. The word “trend” with its foreign sounds and looks is more indicative of the cultural meaning expressed within the framework of media culture and means of communication. During the period of the Islamic Renaissance, the science books of Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd contained foreign words similar to poetry, such as “biotics” and “mechanics” and “kinetics”. The difference is that there was no civilizational crisis at the time and they knew that borrowing those foreign words would not harm them.

The Academy of Linguistics has an established law known as the “Arabization Practices” Law, and the Academy’s use of “tendency” in its foreign verbal form is a purely scientific indication of the scientific and cultural context. , which is a social interaction environment.

Language dies when it approaches grammar and sentences, not because it approaches the limits of the dictionary. All dictionaries in the world expand and cross-fertilize with other languages, and foreign dictionaries are full of Arabic words. That is the cultural deadlock. whats going on.

Dr. Dalia Southi (Education with specialization in Translation Studies and Linguistics): Necessity and Luxury

Linguists distinguish two types of borrowing: borrowing for necessity and borrowing for luxury. Borrowing means that the specific fact it describes is difficult to express in the receiving language. When it comes to luxury borrowing, alternatives can be found in the receiving language. Overused, the vocabulary implies laziness, stagnation of imagination and inability to use the derivational potential of the mother tongue. Like excessive borrowing, it does not lead to wealth, but to loss. This is an unwelcome dimension today in light of the problems the Arabic language is experiencing globally even before it was affected by its people. Therefore, I see the “trend” and its sisters as a threat to the Arabic language in the era of globalization where every people protects their language. For example, Hebrew is a dead language. But David Ben-Gurion insisted on renewing it.

The problem is deeper than the Arabization of a word… Thinker Antonio Gramsci says: “Every time a linguistic problem is called primary, it means, in one way or another, a series of other problems. will inevitably rise to the surface.”

The issue of “trend” invites the issue of identity. Some commented in English! This is a natural linguistic phenomenon. Some derided the level of anxiety that prevailed upon hearing the council’s decision, which was extended to other Arab councils. The issue is simple: Do we still consider ourselves Arabs in Egypt? What is the status of Arabism today among the elements of our complex identity?

Are other languages, especially English, now a threat to Arabic in our homes and schools? As well as adopting local dialect dialects? Will Classical Arabic die at the hands of colloquialism? Are the dialect translations significantly different in the field of destabilizing the identity of “Trend” and its sisters and confusing the language of writing?

I am not denying the idea of ​​contact between languages ​​because there are many channels of linguistic cross-fertilization throughout history. Linguistic cross-fertilization became evident in Egypt in the presence of foreign communities at the beginning of the twentieth century. Did it influence classical Arabic at the time? No, because the boundaries between written language and spoken language were clear. Because the war between languages ​​is not so fierce. According to the Academy of Arabic in Cairo, today the dictionary – that is, in the written language of classical Arabic – includes foreign words that are hastily Arabicized, such as “tendency” and “tendencies”. Simplify, then it shakes the foundations of the language, shattering its people’s confidence in its capabilities and institutional embracement, to a mentality that cannot escape the prison of cultural alienation.

In short, this type of Arabization, which does not follow the rules of Arabization, does not expand the uniqueness of the language, blurs the features that make it unique, and does not give it openness to other languages ​​as much as eliminate it. Typical weights.

Dr. Ismail Taif Allah (Assistant Professor of Literary Criticism at the Academy of Arts in Egypt): Arabization or surrender to reality?

We regularly appreciate the efforts of Arabic language academies, whose experts and scholars demonstrate their ability to find Arabic equivalents for words or words that are in the tongue day and night, and people do not see an alternative way to use them, especially if people accept them. Arabic is associated with consent and it is gradually replacing the foreign language. Examples that we should remember in the jurisprudence of successful councils: car – telephone – e-mail – social networks – digital platforms … etc. At the same time, we appreciate the councilors’ practice of accepting foreign words and acknowledging that they have become part of the Arabic language and are not foreign words to be banished from the classical arena.This includes accepting words such as computer, telephone, etc. Finding an Arabic alternative is a laudable effort because it is Arabization through translation and the recognition of the use of a foreign accent is Arabization because it introduces the Arabic language on its terms, not an admission of its impossibility. Nor surrender to the supremacy of the English language among all the languages ​​of the world. Recognition is an act of councilors, and they are not compelled to do it, just as people are not compelled to abandon a foreign word, so long as it serves them a vital function, which they cannot find in another word capable of doing.

It is important to remember that the linguists in the Arabic tradition, al-Khalil bin Ahmad and Sibawe, blocked foreign words and isolated them from Arabic words, calling them foreign words, and this isolation did not mean using them. Rather it becomes Arabization when it acknowledges their existence while recalling non-Arab origins and the need for them to acquire Arab dress. It makes changes in the phonetic structure of Arabic words according to the conditions of the Arabic language to accept Arabic words. Therefore, Arabicization is a proof of strength and at the same time a means of strengthening, that is, proof of the power of the Arabic language when it controls a foreign word and wears it as its own word, and a means of strengthening it. Introducing the Arabic language and at the same time modern life and scientific terms at the gate of Arabization is like injecting new blood into the arteries, the language, so people feel that their language is alive and responds to their linguistic needs and is not a dead language. Other languages ​​mummified in texts did not take to the streets and fight with other languages ​​on the tongues of their children.

I believe that unanimous recognition of the word “trend” is a form of debt that reveals weakness, laziness and surrender to the status quo. In my opinion, accepting this word with its phonetic structure and its popular meaning in social media is a false vote, because the claim that there is no Arabic alternative for this word is based on the absence of a colloquial pronunciation. A suitable alternative to the term “trends” is that while the users of the term do not claim to be eloquent or that they speak classically, they are closer to the colloquial illuminati than to the classical tradition. Therefore, the appropriate translation of the word in the context of the classical classical tradition becomes “trends”, for example, in the context of the colloquial Illuminati, the Council is hostile and does not seek to confront the flood. In alien terms, we find that people talk about the talk of the hour or the issues of the hour if they want a positive or neutral meaning, but if they want a negative meaning, they define “tendencies” as “nonsense.” “What’s up today?” Hear someone say that means “trend”. I know, of course, that borrowing “trend” is dearer to the hearts of many councilors than the “hiri” of many!