A language is not just a tool to convey ideas or connect people. I believe it is the very personality of a nation. It is the identity, culture, civilization and history of a nation. It is the container of thought and understanding. It is the horizon of man’s feelings and imagination. It is man’s self. It is the link between the body and the mind. It was God who taught man to speak.
A thinker once said, "Language is my world. It is the house that I live in and from whose windows I see the rest of the world."
Language was the oldest means that shaped the identity of people. Language and identity are human qualities because a human being senses his own awareness and that of others. Both language and identity contain the history, thinking, feelings, will and aspirations of people.
Language and identity are two sides of the same object. For man is in essence but a language and an identity. They are his words and his affiliations. And they both need a history in order to shape and deepen.
The Arabic language is unique. It is more than just the personality of a nation. It is distinctively attached to its speakers. It is an identity of a special kind that has a deep civilizational dimension. It is sacred for its speakers because it is the words of God in the Quran. This sanctity makes it part of religion, the most important element of an identity. It is preserved because God promised that it shall prevail forever. It will never perish.
There is a strong link between language and culture. For there is no language that does not produce a culture, and there is no culture that does not depend on a language to disseminate. A culture is the bulwark of a nation, and a language is the identity of that nation.
Although the Arabic language is one of the oldest languages, it has preserved its characteristics in terms of grammar and literature. It is a language of structures, science, art, mind and soul. It has the widest vocal range between the lips to the throat.
Scientists classified the Arabic language as highly expressive. And the Arabic lexicon is one of the richest in vocabulary and synonyms, a verbal wealth of more than a million.
The Arabic languages evolved like other languages did. Some words ceased to exist, others were added to the vocabulary. And scholars of the Arabic language made great efforts to Arabize much of modern civilization terms.
It is the only Semitic language that became global. This would not have been possible had it not been the language of the Quran. For one would not understand the linguistic miracle of the Quran if he did not speak Arabic.
The fact that the Quran was written in classical Arabic was the most important element for the development of the Arabic language. The Quran united the various dialects of that language in one. It added to it many words and gave many others new semantics. It elevated the eloquence of its composition. It gave birth to linguistic sciences like philology and rhetoric.
If a language expresses emotions and thoughts and links people, the Arabic language does all that and more. It is the fortress that defends our identity, culture, heritage and social unity.
An example of a nation whose language has reunited its people under the same identity is Germany. We also have the language that unites us under one identity.
But there are three threats to the Arabic language, namely foreign languages, slang and grammatical mistakes. Foreign schools have become very common in the Arab world, threatening our national security. This needs a counter-strategy. It is in the early childhood years that one learns a language and builds a sense of belonging. Once these two aspects are changed, collapse and decay start. Perhaps we should teach more of the Arabic poetry, which has an enormous verbal and artistic wealth.
The Arabic language is being ignored and deliberately conspired against by a cultural dominance that the West keeps spreading in various ways.
Countries like Russia, France, Iran and China, who cherish their languages, passed laws to protect their identity and their mother tongue. It is imperative that we also do so.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
