A Propsal for Reforms of Written Arabic

the Blog Papers of Dr. Michael Sakbani; Economics, Finance and Politics

Dr. Michael Sakbani is a professor of economics and Finance at the Geneva campus of Webster-Europe. He is a senior international consultant to the UN system, European Union and Swiss banks. His career began at the State University of NY at Stoney Brook,then the Federal Reserve Bank of New York followed by UNCTAD where he was Director of the divisions of Economic Cooperation, Poverty Alleviation, and UNCTAD`s Special Programs. Published over 120 professional papers.co- authored six books

Contributors

·        Michael Sakbani

·        Michael Sakbani

With the great upheavals in the Arab world in the wake of the Arab Spring, it might seem the wrong time to raise the issue of reforming the Arabic language. Nonetheless, cultural reform will be an important topic for future generations of Arabs. Reforming the language does not have a specificity of time; it is one of the developmental changes posed by history.

To this writer, there are three parts to reforming classical Arabic:

1.    Reforming and simplifying the Grammar

2.    Integrating the colloquial with high Arabic so as to do away with the duality of the spoken language. 

3.    Changing the written alphabet as a facilitator of learning and mastering Arabic. 

  

Reform and Arabic

Arabic used to be for five centuries the world`s lingua franca. The genius of the language and its flexibility and richness are deservedly admired. As a multinational language, its speakers brought into the language over the centuries, words and modes of expression, which while enriching communication, did deviate from the original classic Arabic grammar and pronunciation. The result has been the development of local colloquial dialects, which are unwritten and essentially inarticulate. Classical Arabic was in time replaced in everyday use in various places with these spoken dialects. The use of the colloquial language relegated classical Arabic to confined use by the learned thereby stultifying its growth and development and rendering it remote from current use. Linguists estimate the range of the spoken dialect to be about 3000 words whereas classical Quranic Arabic has a range of about 50,000 words. In comparison with average western children at primary school age, whose vocabulary range is about 6,000 words, the Arabic speaking children have indeed a limited linguistic ability. The limited vocabulary of spoken Arabic has a nefarious impact on the development of culture and literature, on communication, and, according to education experts, on the development of the learning abilities of children.

In our era, foreign languages such as English and French have encroached upon Arabic because the current relative underdevelopment of the Arabic speaking people has meant that new technological, scientific and cultural terms of current use in advanced societies have had difficult access to Arabic and its speakers have an easier time using foreign languages. Sometimes translation just would not do.

The difficulties of Arabic grammar and its special alphabet has impeded the spread of Arabic and made it hard to learn and master by both natives and foreigners. At the same time, the remoteness of classical Arabic coupled with the overwhelming use of inarticulate spoken dialects have resulted in the widespread use of English and French among educated young Arabic speakers further undermining the mother tongue.

Reforming Arabic has extra difficulty because Arabic is the language of the Holy Quran. Consequently, many reforms rejectionists would consider that any reform is sacrilege Thus, any reforms must be tested against preserving accessibility to the sacred texts.

Why Changing the Alphabet

The alphabet reform would have at least seven advantages:

First, it facilitates access to Arabic throughout the world by using common letters and Arabic numbers. That was done successfully in modern times by Turkey,  Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, all of whom used the Arabic alphabet, and in our time, Kazakhstan also converted over a period of a decade to the Latin script. Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, also changed to Latin in the recent past. 

Second, it enables the speaker to read what is written including the three“tanweens” and the vowels. This would ease the absorption of colloquial language into written Arabic on the standards of Arabic grammar. and increase the use of classical Arabic. The experience of Germany after Martin Luther`s translation of the bible into spoken German, and more recently that of Turkey as well as other countries, demonstrate that such reform reduces the use of the colloquial and bridges the gap between common and educated speakers.

Third, it standardizes the spoken and written language throughout the Arab-speaking world, thereby reducing regional differences;

Fourth, it facilitates the adoption of new words and technological terms generated by new technologies and scientific progress in this digital age; it really opens up the language.

Fifth, it facilitates the use of the internet and the transfer of digital software and information technology and makes exports and imports cheaper to exchange with other countries using the same alphabet and the Arabic numbers. In a word, it facilitates global trade and cultural exchange.

Sixth, it gives a boost to theatre drama and to literary works in novels and poetry, by the absorption of colloquial dialogue into standard Arabic.

Seventh, at present, there are three forms of letters in Arabic, depending on whether they are at the beginning, middle, or end of the word. This proposal reduces the script to one form only.

How to Do it

Latin script was proposed because it is the most universal alphabet and is also the alphabet in which most of the new technology and digital inventions are written.

The cardinal rule in this proposal is to write the way one pronounces. Thus, the modified Latin alphabet of 29 + 1 letters is divided conceptually into five categories.

The first one consists of 17 letters with the same pronunciation in Latin and Arabic. This category includes A,B, D, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, U, S, T, Y, W, and Z.

The second category of four letters is given specific pronunciation to accommodate specific Arabic sounds. 

 X is used for    ص    , Q is used for    ق, J is used for   خ   as in Spanish and .C is used for  ث     , again as in Spanish.

The third category compensates for the three Arabic vowels, a, e, o, respectively: “nasba”, “kasra”, and “damma”, - all written in Latin lower cases - while assigning to A, Y and U and W the open sounds of these letter. For example: walad, Yaser, Ayman., ruh

The fourth category consists of six letters of Latin which are written in a slightly modified way, namely, 

-        Superimpose a dot on D to make it pronounced as  ض

-       Superimpose a dot on G to make it pronounced as غ

-        Superimpose a dot on Z to make it pronounced as ذ

-        Superimpose  a dash on H to make it pronounced as ح

-        Superimpose a dash on T to make it pronounced as ط

-         For S, add a lower cedilla like in Turkish to make it pronounced as ش

The fifth category is a new letter introduced outside Latin. This is an inverted A (with a sharp bottom) to make the sound of  ع .

The “hamza” in Arabic has no equivalence in Latin. So, it is added as a lower case turned around z, namely,   ء  . It is placed on the relevant places exactly as in current Arabic.

The “madda”  ࣤ    is retained as is  and placed as in current Arabic.

The Art of Calligraphy and Old Texts

Changing the alphabet should not mean not teaching the old alphabet after mastering the new one. For example, it can be taught early in secondary schools just like Latin has been taught in German, English and French schools.

Having access to the old alphabet preserves the glorious art of Arabo-Islamic calligraphy and gives an option to those who want to read the old texts in the old alphabet. This proposal is for facilitating and preserving Arabic and not for cutting it off the past.

Testing Examples of Applications

The author applied the proposal to a Quranic text, to a poem, and to play involving colloquial dialogue. All these tests were successful. Unfortunately, these hand-written trial examples could not be shown here, because there are no available machines with keyboard letters that include the seven modified Latin letters.

Language reforms are always difficult to accept at first encounter. We learn how to speak since childhood by familiarity and repetition and synchronization of the mind sound and vision. It is in use that new ways become easy and practical in writing and in pronunciation. The defenders of Arabic as is, have to choose between further marginalization of their tongue or rejuvenation and relevance.