The Terminology Work of Arabicization and Dissemination of Arabicized Terms in the Arab Press from the Perspective of Arab Journalistic Translators

The paper investigates Arab journalists and journalistic translators’ perceptions towards the terminology work of Arabicization, which is laboriously shouldered by Arabic Language Academies (ALAs) in the Arab region. The paper discusses the Arabic academy’s Arabicized terms’ popularity and dissemination in Arab press agencies and outlets, in addition to the linguistic and extralinguistic factors, which play a key role in disseminating these Arabicized terms among Arab journalists, journalistic translators, and news editors. So far, the ALAs have made hugely concerted efforts to Arabicize foreign terms, particularly scientific and technical terminology, particularly from English (ST) into Arabic (TT). However, there is a lack of circulation of the academy’s Arabicized terminologies among Arab journalists and translators in the Arab press. Therefore, Arab journalistic translators in several Arab news agencies and networks were approached as respondents of five semi-structured, detailed interviews to provide an insightful understanding of the case at hand. Accordingly, data were collected via in-depth interviews, and based on the interpretive content analysis of the interviews, the data were analyzed, described, and interpreted. The findings revealed that the ALA’s Arabicized terms are not well-received by Arab journalists and translators and, therefore, these terminologies are not frequently used in the translation of news in the Arab press. The respondents pointed out that the ALA’s Arabicized terms are sometimes difficult to understand because they are unfamiliar forms of Arabic.

LINGUISTIC REPERTOIRE PROJECT BY ABDEL RAHMAN HAJJ SALAH

The linguistic repertoire project is one of the most prominent projects established by the linguistics scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Hajj Saleh who succeeded in convincing many Arabic language academies and research communities of its importance and feasibility. Despite the beginning of its concretization and its cultural importance, the exorbitant commissioning of this project and the death of this great scientist suspended its application. However, this project must be valued and resurrected. There should be also a political and civilized will to allocate sufficient funds to ensure its success, as planned by its founder, because his students and followers believe in it. What does this linguistic project consists in? How can we make it successful? and What is its civilizational and political impacts on the entire Islamic nation? This project aims at introducing a new automatic Arabic lexicon including all the vocabulary of the Arabic language as it was used in the ancient and contemporary Arab heritage, so that the researcher for the meaning of a word or phrase can know their various uses. In this context, heritage books should be edited, automatically stored and electronically processed, hence the importance of creating an automatic bank for the actually-used language, containing texts and not vocabulary. Those texts represent the real language utilization, which extends over time and includes countries, employing the Arabic language, as well as the various knowledge and sciences. Treating language in this way makes it a living, vital and practical material, which is not the case in the available dictionaries that represent the theoretical explanation of a word rather than its meaning in the context where it is used because they do not take into account the real use of language. However, such treating requires great effort and important coordination between a large number of researchers in various disciplines such as mathematics, computer sciences, automated media and software. It also necessitates huge funds and continuous and methodical work, which has already been initiated through many research centers and universities in the Arab countries, particularly Algeria. Nevertheless, this project began to fade away with the death of Abd al-Rahman al-Hajj Saleh and the absence of binding laws to continue its application. The aim of this intervention is to explain the importance of the project, its implementation plan and its great cultural and physical implications. This project is like an Arabic search engine or Arabic Google, as called by the late Hajj Saleh. So, will the dream of this man, which instilled it in the souls of many of his students who can supervise, follow up and embody this civilizational linguistic work, come true?.

Linguistic Histories and the Role of Transatlanticity

In this chapter, we discuss how a glottopolitical approach to the role of language academies may trigger a revision of the basic postulates behind the history of the Spanish language (understood as an epistemic paradigm that has dominated the field of linguistic history). Such approach reveals transatlanticity as a condition of our object (the Spanish language), one that itself reveals the permanently contested nature of its history.

Foreign Terms in the Daily Arabic Discourse of Arab University Students

This study investigates the presence of foreign terms, especially communication-oriented ones, in the daily Arabic discourse of University students. Data in the study were culled from 70 university students in two stages. Data obtained from the first stage of elicitation were made into a survey that comprises foreign terms together with their Arabic counterparts. The second stage involved distributing the survey to 50 freshman University students at the AOU, Kuwait. The students were to select the terms that they use in their daily Arabic communication, i.e., Arabic or English. The findings of the analysis reveal that the English terms emerged as the vividly dominant code of communication in Arabic conversations as far as the terms in the study are concerned. The paper delineates the results of the analysis. The implications of this research will be important in the area of Arabicization and the role of the Arabic language Academies in maximizing their efforts toward Arabicization in this age of technological revolution. Key words: Arabic, foreign words, English, equivalents.

Metaphorical Recurrence and Language Symbolism in Arabic Metalanguage Discourse

This article, written by Chaoqun Lian, begins by pointing out that in Arabic metalanguage discourse one often encounters metaphors associating the form and situation of Arabic to non-linguistic entities and activities. Many of these metaphors, according to Lian, belong to ‘organic metaphors’, as they depict Arabic and its varieties as living organisms. In his article, Lian investigates the recurrence of ‘organic metaphors’ in language policy discussions within the Arabic language academies in Damascus and Cairo. By carefully analysing selected cases of metaphor-making, Lian unearths the normally covert link between language perception and socio-political circumstances in the Arabic-speaking world. According to Lian, when these socio-political circumstances are taken into consideration, academic research will be able to produce a more nuanced, dialectic understanding of the ‘organic’ perception of languages.

Rakākah and the Petit Quarrel of 1871: Christian Authors and the Competition over Arabic

This article, written by Rana Issa, sheds light on a fascinating linguistic battle over the correct modes of Arabic expression between two Arab intellectuals – Ahmad Faris al-Shidyāq (1804–87) and Ibrahim al-Yāzijī (1847–1906) in 1871. At its core, the debate is over the ‘correct’ writing style, and whether Arab intellectuals suffered from a rakākah (solecism) in their use of language. Issa places this debate in the context of other linguistic debates prevailing in the nineteenth century – a period in which languages served as vehicles for constructing national identities. She examines the dynamics of Arabic linguistic ideology through the lenses of Arjun Appadurai’s technoscapes and Yasir Suleiman’s history of Arabic in his book The Arabic Language and National Identity. Following from an analysis of the battle over rakākah, Issa highlights that the two sides – al-Shidyāq and al-Yāzijī – represented two competing ideologies regarding Standard Arabic. Whereas for al-Shidyāq, a linguistic error was an aspect of the creative process, for al-Yāzijī, an error cheapened an author’s text and was nothing but a rakākah. Issa demonstrates that the obsession with rakākah reproduced itself in subsequent writings by nahḍa authors, and observes that the ‘protection of the language against rakākah’ was also a central part of the Arab language academies.

Modernisation, Globalisation and Citizenship in Israel

This chapter discusses the difficult position of the Arabic language from the point of view of the ‘volatile conditions’ of Arab citizenship in Israel. Azmi Bishara’s political career is a good example of the limits of citizenship for the Arabs in Israel. The chapter also discusses the meaning of ‘official’ languages, the role of language academies, the language arrangement in bilingual schools, and lastly the new imagined nationality of ‘Aramean’ and its genealogical connection to Aramaic. This new identity is in line with the state’s continuous attempts to fracture the Palestinian community in Israel, but at the same time it is drawing inspiration from the fragmentation of Arab communities in surrounding states such as Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.

The Académie Française and monocentricity in a multicultural world

The Académie française, one of the oldest language academies in the world, represents a prototypical institutional body that supports strong monolingual ideology. This article sets out to understand its relevance and the normative stance it represents in a multicultural world. It analyzes the symbolic position that this institution still holds in and beyond France in light of the challenges associated with preserving a traditional monocentric language ideology in an era of globalization. In the last two decades, this ideology has been challenged by claims that French can survive as an international language only if it is open to legitimate influences from other cultures.