Arabicization
Arabicization is one of the most contradicting aspects of Arab life nowadays. People in Arabic countries seem to forget their national roots and start to forget their own language while being westernized. The language, as the trait of the cultural identity, suffers the unfair war with other languages that seem to be more recently used. However, the defining aspect of the problem is that Arabicization has many meanings that are not addressed strongly enough while the Arabicization itself is being opposed and compromised all over the Arabic part of the world.
The recent trend around the world is to implement specific policies that might help people to prevent different problems with specific misunderstandings. However, Arabicization is not the exception of that new tendency so that people think about the development of the new educational system as well as the new Governmental heading. One of the main meanings of the Arabicization is the policy promotion that has to be achieved through the proper legislation process. Hence, that specific term is not used only for the currently mentioned perspective. The word Arabicization is widely used to describe specific issues that are common in gender studies, politics, communication, translation, education, sociolinguistics.
However, there is a difference between Arabicization and Arabization. Two related concepts represent that change in the sociolinguistic field while Arabicization expresses the partly-implemented policies that aim to enrich public policies and create a better literacy experience for Arab people and Arabization aims to change the whole concept of historical and cultural identity by implementing changes in sociolinguistic aspects of the Arab life. Hence, people in a modern world cannot support the second term due to its inconsistency and out-of-date meaning and objective. It was said that Arabization “failed” to accomplish its goals while the Arabicization succeeded in some parts of the post-colonial Middle East and North Africa.
Hence, there are specific reasons for the failure that the complete Arabization faces while Arabicization overcomes some of them. While Arabization follows stricter objective to change the community and people’s attitude towards the cultural identity and language, Arabicization faces three specific patterns. Those three patterns are the critical position of Arabicization, post-, and anti-Arabicization positions. The first aspect of that problem that is the post-Arabicization includes specific views about religious and other background concepts that might enlighten the need of the Arabicization. Some people define the need of the Arabicization as the aspect of self-realization of any Arab country. For example, some people thing that Arabicization might help Moroccans to revive their national identity and rich cultural legacy, after the French colonization impact. Some faculties also find that appropriate to implement the Arabization on all levels of education to enhance the cultural enrichment. Moreover, people think that the language has to be developed in a greater one so that people might invent the way to learn it in a better and more competitive way.
The anti-Arabicization point of view was supported by those who find it inappropriate to make forced changes in the educational or any other systems so that people have to choose what they want. Moreover, that point of view also enlightens the argument that some people are tended to prioritize French and English languages in their lives so that 100% support is impossible in any country due to the post-colonization world’s perspective. Furthermore, the problem here also concerns the new tendency of the modernized world that aims to use more concise languages that compete with others. Hence, those languages are the most common ones like English, French, Spanish, Russian, or Chinese. On the other side, there are more reasons that include the spreading of the languages among other cultures. That question includes marriages among different cultures so that future generations will be able to change their cultural understanding and language usage. In contrast, the new generation uses modernized words that “damage” the Arab language while enhancing the meaning of the point. Unfortunately, the main problem of the Arabicization is that it cannot say that all words from other languages can be translated with the same meaning as they are used in other languages. Therefore, people do not want to lose some specific information from specific sources, especially if those sources are scientific. Arabic scientists understand that their perspective is to read specific journals and other pieces of information in English because Arab language does not provide the needed number of journals and other sources of information. Moreover, the highest number of journals is written in English due to the popularity of the English language. Therefore, the new generation that seeks for knowledge cannot be limited by the Arab language usage in order to enhance the evolutionary development of the humanity.
Those who support the critical position of the Arabicization express their thoughts about that aspect in a manner of changing the why people want to implement that new tendency in the educational system. Those people concentrate on the usage of successful models to implement them in the educational system and learn failures from other parts of the world. These people concentrate on specific aspects that might enhance the usage of the Arabicization as the tool to establish a better country rather than something that might enhance the cultural contradicting change. That change is usually referred to the implementation of “new” new concepts that are out-dated. People who support critical Arabicization say that the new world requires the modern implementation of the Arabic literacy. Some sources state that the failure of the Arabicization can be described in the origin of its influence so that people are trying to change the new world for the old world that is in the past so that we are changing the future and replace it with the past. The obvious thing is that it is wrong to establish past connections because the humanity has to develop its heading to the nearest future perspective, and forget about old tendencies and issues. Moreover, Morocco and Algeria oppose to that new tendency because they have their unique system of thing that rely on the usage of other languages while the problem here is to change the life that is impossible. That is also the way people want to replace something that is new with something that is old. The problem, in that case, is that people are tended to think that old cultural roots are more important than new knowledge and advanced development while it is not. Therefore, a critical position, in that case, requires the evaluation of all pros and cons of small implementations while the effort has to be positive in the long run. Moreover, problems with new cultures that are present in new countries explain the contradiction of specific views. For some people, the implementation of the Arabicization policies would mean the win of the cultural identity while other will lose their cultural identity due to the fact of the forced law implementation which is wrong in its origin. The problem that once might be solved can provoke another problem that might be even greater than the last one. Besides, some implementation of language classes or other subjects that are specific to that language and culture should be the proper usage of the effort and interest while supporting the Arabicization. In addition, only a few percents of people feel the need in the implementation of Arabicization in the majority of Arabic countries.
The alternative definition of the term Arabicization also relies on the opposite flow of the impact. That aspect meets its reflection in the Arabicization meaning by the appearance of foreign words that ultimately do violence to the original language. The overflow of new tendencies is unstoppable, but the usage of new words could be passed or rejected if the one wants that idea to become accomplished on the national level. The first supporting argument warns people of not using the specific Arabized roots in order to form new words in the new language. Another perspective of that argument is that the richness of the language might be damaged in the long run due to its future modernized inconsistency. Moreover, there is a need to implement new Arabic words in order to enrich the language rather than implementing more new words that do not have the Arabic origin. Therefore, new “borrowed” words could be a nice tool to enhance the literacy while the Arabic language could be unable to accomplish that goal, but the problem is that people are using modernized words instead of Arabic ones in order to express their thoughts rather than using old ones to say what they needs. On the other side, those new words in the Arabic language could be replaced with old one, but the problem in that is that they can lose their eternal meaning. The result could be crucial due to the inconsistency of the translation and inability to express the needed information and idea. In contrast, other scientists emphasize that this strategy might prevent people from being interested in outside tendencies while developing their unique cultural identity. The ability to create something by their own might define their ability to adopt and develop. As for positions about the Arabicization, there is also a compromising expectation of the language change. All scientific works aim to implement as many new words as it is possible so that the main idea that might be helpful here is to add new words by filtering them through Arabicization concepts, and if the one fails to express them with the use of basic Arab rules and principles, there would be a need to implement the new world without any significant changes. The compromising aspect of the language orientation might be helpful to satisfy all needs and enhance the performance of both parties that might get satisfied by both conservative usage of the language and new trends, and words that appear in the language will satisfy opponents.
Over the top of previously mentioned facts, the study was conducted by Albirini that enlightened the real need of new policies of Arabicization. Only one out of more than twenty students said that there is a need for the implementation of subjects that might be taught in the “old” language. Other students tried to explain the inconsistency and the pointless effort of that implementation. Moreover, they highlighted the inability of that language to stay against other languages. Moreover, they also pointed about the inconsistency of its usage due to the technological expansion and growth. Hence, new technologies are developed in order to satisfy recent needs in products that also use the most common language in order to reach their buyers. Therefore, the English language is the only one that might be cost-effective to study in order to be updated with new tendencies and have the needed knowledge in any field of study.
On the other side of previously mentioned fact, there is a UNESCO intervention that provided the implementation of specific education-based models. However, they were not really successful while different cultures did not implement new tendencies completely due to their post-modern structure. Hence, the post-colonial heading in any Arabic country will not let the needed tendency to pass through the filter of anti-Arabicization. The majority of Arabic countries do not see any point of new implementation of old stories while other does that in order to satisfy everyone. However, even the implementation of small changes within Arabicization is still opposed by different social and mass media claims that damage the process.
Despite all previously mentioned facts, there are also specific positive aspects of the given subject due to its basic definition. The definition of native language also provoked different claims that were tested and supported in their expression. As a fact, the old Arabic language is the mother tongue for all children so that it might enhance their performance at school. Moreover, their learning ability might benefit due to its easy access. Over the top of that, there will be no need to learn new languages to learn something. Besides, different educational facilities report translating documents and other pieces of information in the old Arabic language to enhance the educational performance. Their translations have the best possible way to express the information in the adopted language so that their translation as closely related to the original text and express the same idea as the original one.
To summarize the issue, it should be mentioned that Arabicization is a complex topic that might be discussed on the regular basis even on local levels of legislations. People in Arabic countries are tended to save any cultural identities they have so that there is a need to enhance the interest in enhancing the Arabic culture on the same level as they want to keep their own culture. People are tended to change, but sometimes there is a need to stick to your roots and do not forget the elders’ legacy in order to save the cultural identity.
