Hello blog! Long time no see!
There is a special form of writer’s block that happens when one has unintentionally neglected one’s blog for quite a while. I want this first new post to be really special, and it starts to feel like a lot of pressure, so then nothing gets written and the days and weeks turn into months…
But enough of that. I have just learned that today is officially World Arabic Language Day! Today, UNESCO celebrates the 40th anniversary of Arabic becoming the sixth (and so far, final) of the official working languages of the UN. Each of the six languages get their own special day during the year, but I just had to pause to observe this one.
I love Arabic. I mean, I love all languages, and I love this world of thousands of languages, but somehow I managed to fall in love with this one in particular. One day soon I really need to get back to it, because those vowels, those throaty consonants, that beautiful script always gives me goosebumps.
Of course, one of the fascinating things about Arabic is that in reality, there are quite a few different “Arabics.” The language that the UN recognizes is known as Modern Standard Arabic, but so-called “regional dialects” like Moroccan Arabic and Levantine Arabic, are worlds apart; the farther the geographic distance between any two speakers in the Arabic world, the less and less intelligible they become to each other, until it barely seems like they’re speaking the same language at all. And the Arabic in those calligraphy samples I linked to is the Classical Arabic of the Qur’an – close to MSA, but again very different from the regional dialects. It’s a perfect illustration of some of the big questions sociolinguists ask – what is a language? What is a dialect? And what’s the difference between the two? The blog Arabic Literature (in English) actually refers to this as “World Arabic(s) Language Day” and has a nice brief overview of how complicated things get when you even start to talk about the Arabic language.
To celebrate the day, I suggest spending a little while poking around the wikipedia page on the language(s) while listening to some great music – I’m personally very partial to Rachid Taha’s latest:
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What language would you like to have its own special day?
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polyglossic 
Mashrou’ Leila would be my arabic music recommendation, they’re from Lebanon and they push the boundaries of Arab pop music in so many ways. I started learning Levantine Arabic about four months ago… I wasn’t ever particularly interested in it but I’ve totally fallen for it!
I LOVE the sounds of Levantine Arabic. It’s such a beautiful dialect and even my MSA teachers (who have all been Tunisian somehow) agree that it’s the prettiest.
How did you pick Levantine specifically?
I need a bit more exposure on the different dialects for sure, all I know is I find Egyptian is a whole new language when I listen to it. I’ve personally got a soft spot for Lebanese even though I’ve not been to Lebanon, perhaps it’s the French influence, or maybe it’s the music…
I ended up picking Levantine accidentally, strangely. I just graduated uni, hugely determined to become fluent in German, but then fate sent me to live in the West Bank for 3 months. I only found out I was going under 2 months before I left and knew nothing about Arabic, so I decided to go for the dialect as I didn’t have a lot o time and I was learning it for communication.
Saying that, now I’m back in the UK, I may start taking MSA classes… also I have no idea where to start trying to find Levantine Arabic classes in Scotland!