“Arabic” and harmony with the times

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Any language is based on an internal structure that makes it coherent, understandable, learnable, and expandable. However, the units of this structure differ from one language to another. Our Arabic language suffers from basic obstacles that only specialists notice, and we often do not pay attention to. However, it is characterized, in the view of some, by the following characteristics:

1 – Triple root system; Most Arabic words stem from a three-letter root, such as “ktb,” which is the root of books, book, writer, library, writing, written. Or “ALM”, which is the root of knowledge, scholar, teacher, science, education, and this makes it a language capable of infinite theoretical expansion, and it also shares this feature with Hebrew, Syriac Aramaic, the language of Christ, Amharic, Tigray, the languages ​​of Ethiopia, Maltese, and others, especially the very ancient ones. As for non-Semitic languages, such as English, Persian, Turkish, or Kurdish, and European languages, they do not know the rule of the triple root. Rather, they rely on the system of adding a few letters before or after them to change the meaning, and not on formulating a new word around a fixed silent root.

2 - Its ability to generate new words, and this is called derivation, that is, creating new words from old roots, which means that Arabic can, “theoretically”, absorb new concepts without borrowing.

3 - Morphological logic, or the weights of words, such as “verb, subject, object, subject,” is an accurate mathematical system through which the meaning of a word can be predicted before hearing it.

4 - Synonymy and semantic breadth, and this is the reason for the richness of the language, as the lion, for example, has 50 names, and there are dozens of names for water, sand, and dates, and this gives the language a rare descriptive accuracy.

It is not enough to acknowledge the language's need for development, as there are obstacles that prevent this. Among them is the multiplicity of cultures of the Arab peoples, and the multiplicity of their dialects. It is also difficult to derive words for modern technologies and sciences, and therefore they are borrowed from their languages. It is impossible, for example, to create or derive a word from Arabic that gives the meaning of software. There are also psychological, religious and political obstacles that prevent the development of the language, other than the absence of an entity that possesses this right, or has the authority and ability to bridge the gap between classical and colloquial, or facilitate the Arabization process, which complains of weakness, lack of digital standardization, and reluctance to implement Teaching Arabic through literature and daily life, not through dry rules. Arabic is not only a language of religion, but also a language of science and creativity.

From all of this, we see that it is almost impossible for even three Arab countries to agree on what “developing Arabic” means, let alone doing the job. Otherwise, the language will remain stagnant, due to its difficulty and the near impossibility of teaching it to others easily.

We also find that the official language of the United States is English, but there are many differences between their language and the mother English, whether in pronunciation or spelling. For example, the word color is written in America as color, while in English it is color, as well as the word organization, while its origin is organise. These differences came as a result of immigration, printing techniques, colonial history, and the efforts of a man who insisted on simplifying American English.

At the heart of this debate has emerged the question of whether orthographic writing should reflect tradition and history, or prioritize clarity and efficiency, and this is indeed the dilemma we face, as no entity or country is willing to answer the question. What we need is for a number of Arab countries, which have great cultural, religious and financial weight, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco, to address this matter and bring young people back to Arabic, so that it is more in harmony with the times.