E3d3 Ahmed Shawky Amer.docx

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Ahmed Shawky Amer Dr. Carol Clark RHET 1010 May 19, 2015 Save Arabic For about 2000 years, the Arabic language was the main feature of our identity as Arab people. During this long period, our region encountered a lot of wars, foreign military campaigns, social and intellectual changes. Nevertheless, Arabic remained invincible. Unfortunately, a new threat rose currently to destroy our language. It’s Arabizi, a system of slang Arabic written in roman letters (Ghanem), in addition to replacing some Arabic terms with English ones, so it mixes Arabic with English when spoken, but with no fixed structure (Sperrazza). Arabizi became popular those days, especially among the youth. For example, I’m 19 years old, and most of those who are of my age, especially in AUC, are using Arabizi all the time in Speaking, posting on social media, chatting and texting. I was shocked when I found that 3ayezanga7.com, which is a very famous and beneficial website for AUC students, doesn’t support Arabic, but supports Arabizi instead. This shows how serious the problem is. Therefore, Arabizi is said to be a threatening wave that will result in eliminating our identity as Arabic speakers, and we should defend this identity against such an enemy. On the other hand, there are some people who claim that Arabic doesn’t need defending and Arabizi is just a better means of communication aside from our original language. In my opinion, Arabizi is a threat to our language for many reasons such as eliminating our identity and Arabic culture as well as weakening the Arabic language knowledge in the next generations, so we should defend Arabic against it.

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The first reason why the Arabic language needs defending is that Arabic is a major part in our identity. In addition, Arabic has been the language of our people for about 20 centuries, and their entire heritage reached us in Arabic. The Arabic and Islamic civilization in the middle ages, and all the contribution it made in sciences, history, politics and strategic planning of states were all recorded in Arabic. This is our history which is a part of our identity, and a man with no history is a man with no future. We are Arabs, and the word “Arab” is apparently generated from the word “Arabic”. Therefore, we can’t separate the Arabic language from our identity. Nowadays, we are losing our identity unconsciously because the Arabic language is abandoned to some extent (Ghazal). Using Arabizi in almost all situations will gradually make people forget Arabic. I remember when the famous Egyptian Thinker in the last century Lotfy El-Sayed called for using English letters to write Arabic, which he thought of because English is the language of this era, all the Arab thinkers and the linguistics experts attacked him alleging that he had gone mad. They claimed that if we lose our standard Arabic, it’d be a loss of our identity and respect among other nations. To demonstrate on sticking to the Arabic language, Prophet Mohamed said that “Arabic is our tongue” (El Kurdi). Thus, the Arabic language is the main part of our identity as it’s the language of our great ancestors and the major feature of our people, who are called Arabs for that, and that’s why we need to defend it against the trending danger of Arabizi. Another trending threat is that using Arabizi will affect the Arabic language knowledge among the youth of this generation and in the coming generations and affects their ability to write in Arabic (Ghazal), so they will be detached from their mother language. This Arabizi invasion is going to keep the next generations away from their mother language and consequently from their historical heritage and civilizations. Unfortunately, recent research

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shows that Arabizi is being used in 40% of the general situations, while Arabic is used only in about 22% (Allehaiby). I remember that once I was chatting with Mona, a friend from AUC, on WhatsApp, and she uses Arabizi as it’s the most popular in the AUC community and among young people in general. We were talking about a tough course and she once typed an expression in Arabic not in Arabizi as usual. The expression was: "‫"حسبي هللا و نعم الوكيل‬, which means “God is the one to take care of me”. I was shocked that she wrote "‫ "نعمة‬instead of "‫"نعم‬, which is the correct spelling for that word. I wondered how she doesn’t know how to write such an easy and popular expression in Arabic, but the worth is yet to come. When I read that, I started to laugh at it and told another friend of mine about it, but the catastrophe is that she said that nothing’s wrong with the sentence. Here, the situation has changed from laughing to complete shock, and I started to show her how the expression is written correctly. This example shows us the crucial problem that is spread in our generation, the one which will form the future of our society. Currently, the young people are always using Arabizi instead of Arabic while speaking or writing, and this will destroy the Arabic language knowledge among our generation and the coming ones (Ghanem). Arabizi really affects the youths’ ability to write in Arabic or even in English (Yousef). Currently, it’s hard to find an adult who can write professional Arabic (Ghazal). Thus, it’s wrong to say that Arabizi is not a threat to the Arabic language. It’s now obvious that young people are gradually losing their knowledge of their original language, and this would increase as well in the coming generations if we did nothing about it (Yousef). Moreover, this takes us again to the main reason mentioned before about defending Arabic as it’s our identity and was our great ancestors’ identity. How can the coming generations have their ancestors’ identity and heritage if they lack the main part of it, which is the Arabic language.

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In contrast to my argument, there are other people who claim that Arabic does not need defending. Although defending Arabic against this trend is said to be a duty of every one of us, some people are keeping Arabic away from modern civilization and classifying it as an old language. They add that mixing Arabic with English is just an easier means of communication as English is now understandable globally (Ghanem), and it’s the language of modern civilization. It’s true that English is the language of science in this era, but that doesn’t mean to mix it with Arabic to produce such a bad mixture (El Kurdi). My response to these claims is that Arabic has always proven that it’s adaptable and can fit all the times. If English is the language of the current civilization, that doesn’t mean to forget ours. We can take the word “computer” as an example to prove that Arabic is strong and adaptable. It’s a new term that we use to refer to this new extraordinary invention, which is considered as the main feature of the 21st century. Although the word “computer” is new and a bit tough, Arabic managed to find its special one for it, the word "‫( "حاسوب‬El Kurdi). Nevertheless, we are using the English term instead of the one that our strong language created. Currently, we are using the modern English terms for the modern things although our language is strong enough to produce our unique one (El Kurdi), and this is another crucial problem that needs to be handled before we reach a point at which we put Arabic away and use English only. Hence, our great language needs defending, otherwise it will vanish slowly. Our duty as Arabic speakers is to defend Arabic against this detaching from the modern civilization. In conclusion, Arabic is endangered, and it’s our duty to defend it. Arabic is the main part of our identity and that’s why we are nothing without it. Our great history is all in Arabic and the great heritage of our ancestor is also in Arabic, and as I mentioned before, a man with no history is a man with no future. In my opinion, Arabizi is a danger to our language that

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should be wisely handled. It’s getting more popular everyday among the youth, and if we do nothing about it, it will weaken Arabic language knowledge in the future generations. That’s why Arabizi should be regarded as a real enemy who declared a war against Arabic to destroy it (Ghazal). Our language is very strong and we don’t have to replace it or mix it with another one. It’s strong enough to be linked to the modern civilization and the following ones. We must save our identity. We must save Arabic. Word Count: 1400 words.

Work Cited Allehaiby, Wid. "Arabizi: An Analysis Of The Romanization Of The Arabic Script From A Sociolinguistic Perspective." Arab World English Journal 4.3 (2013): 52-62. Education Source. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 May 2015. El Kurdi, Dalia. "Arabizi." 2008. IKBIS.com. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. . Ghanem, Renad. "Arabizi Is Destroying the Arabic Language." Arab News. Jeddah: Arab News, 19 Apr. 2011. Lexis Nexis. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. . Ghazal, Mohammad. "Arabizi Popularity Threatening Arabic Proficiency among Native Speakers, Experts Warn." The Jordan Times. 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. . Sperrazza, Lelania. “I Am Not My Tongue.” AUC TESOL Journal, 2011. Web.

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Yousef, Wassim. "Do You Know That Arabic Is in Danger?" YouTube. Noor Dubai Channel, 10 Mar. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2015. .

Outline 

Introduction. Arabic needs defending.

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Body 1. Reason 1: Next generations’ knowledge.

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Body 2. Reason 2: Modern Civilization.

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Body 3. Reason 3: Identity and heritage.

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Body 4. Counter argument.

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Conclusion.