The
Importance of Distinguishing Lebanese Language from Arabic Language
Abstract:
It is a common
practice for people to use "Arabic language" terminology
to identify all of the Semitic languages of the Middle East that use
Arabic letters for writing. The Lebanese who were raised in Lebanon
master both the Lebanese language and the Arabic Language. Refraining
from distinguishing between the two languages has begun to have negative
effects on people who want to learn Lebanese in Diaspora. The only way
to speak Lebanese is to learn the "Lebanese Language". Learning
Arabic will not allow people to speak or understand
Lebanese, on the contrary if you try to Learn Arabic before you can
speak Lebanese, it may make Lebanese seem tougher to learn. Furthermore,
calling both of the languages Arabic would confuse those outside Lebanon.
They will think that we speak Arabic in Lebanon, and they will be driven
to learn the Arabic language. Eventually, when they go to Lebanon they
will not understand what the Lebanese speak nor what they broadcast
on Lebanese television and radio.
Lebanese language
and Arabic Language:
Lebanese is one
of the most understandable languages among the Arab States*. In the
past fifty years, thousands of songs, poems and books, and hundreds
of plays and screenplays have been written in Lebanese. The Egyptian
language has also been growing in popularity in the past century due
to its tremendous media productions in the region.
Watching and listening
to Lebanese entertainment programs and songs have spread the Lebanese
language further among audiences from Arab countries*. If you pick a
random mix of 10 songs produced in the Arabic states* an average of
4 songs will be in Lebanese, 4 in Egyptian while the rest will be from
the rest of the languages. On the other hand, the songs written in Arabic
language do not form more than 1% (one percent) of the song production
of all of the countries that use Arabic as their official language.
Lebanese is a Semitic
language that was derived from the Aramaic language. Aramaic replaced
the Canaanite language that was spoken by the Phoenicians in the region
until around the days of Jesus Christ. Aramaic was spoken in the whole
region until about 900 AD. Later, the people in Lebanon were speaking
several dialects of Aramaic especially in the mountains of Lebanon.
Syriac-Aramaic was the dominant dialect in the mountains and North Lebanon,
while some Arabic dialects were spoken in some costal cities and South
Lebanon by the 13 th century. By the 17 th Century, a large population
had moved from the Lebanese mountains to the costal cities. The people
of Lebanon blended their Aramaic with Arabic utilizing Arabic words
in their spoken Aramaic, and from the 17 th to 20 th centuries, some
of the Turkish language was incorporated. The Lebanese language kept
developing and some French was introduced in the 20 th century. During
the past couple decades, some English terms became part of the Lebanese
daily conversation.
Arabic is a formal
language that is not spoken today in any of the countries that use it
as their official language. It is often used for documenting, publishing,
formal speeches and some religious rituals. It has merely changed (evolved)
since it was spoken in parts of the Arabian Peninsula some 1,500 years
ago. Nowadays, there is not a nation in the world with Arabic being
its native language. One cannot learn Arabic by living with Lebanese,
Egyptian or even Saudi Families; the only way to learn Arabic is to
study it. For example, Kuwaiti, Lebanese or Egyptian television stations
hardly have 5-10% of their programs in Arabic.
Most of the Lebanese
in Lebanon today know Arabic along with their native Lebanese. That
is because they learn Lebanese from their parents and their daily life,
while studying Arabic Language and Literature in schools.
Calling Lebanese
a dialect of Arabic is another dilemma that would hurt the intention
of teaching Lebanese in Diaspora. The people of Lebanon may have spoken
dialects of Arabic at some costal cities a thousand years ago, but the
language spoken now in Lebanon is much more different considering the
Aramaic mix and the Turkish influence, not to forget the several centuries
of development. In other words, if people learned Arabic a thousand
years ago, they would have been able to communicate with some people
in Lebanon that time. If people learn Arabic now, they will not be able
to communicate with the people in Lebanon today.
Confusing
Lebanese with Arabic:
While Lebanese
and Arabic are two different languages, the Lebanese (in Lebanon) do
not worry, or may not care, for the difference between the two languages.
They both come from Semitic roots, and have many common words and grammar.
The Lebanese more
than likely wanted to distinguish the language they speak from French
(a Latin language) that is widely used in schools and normal life, from
English (a Germanic Language) that is growing in education and business
life, and from Armenian (an Indo-European Language) that is used by
some Lebanese in education and business. Dealing with all these languages
descending from different linguistic branches probably made it easier
for people in Lebanon to refer to the language by the roots or by the
script (the letters) they use to write it with. Since Lebanese in general
use Arabic script to write Lebanese, they often refer to the Lebanese
language as Arabic language.
Add to that that
the Turks who occupied the region for four centuries used to call all
the Semitic languages other than Hebrew – "Arabic",
since they did not differentiate between the spoken Lebanese, Egyptian
or Arabic then.
Some people tried
to reach a compromise by claiming that the Lebanese people speak Lebanese
but write Arabic. This incorrect statement often used by people in Lebanon
who confuse the use of Arabic script to write, with the language itself.
The Lebanese use Arabic script to write both Lebanese and Arabic; They
write, read and speak Lebanese for their songs, poems, television production
and letters, while they write, read, and speak Arabic in Arabic Literature,
courts and some formal religious rituals. This is not different from
the people utilizing Latin letters to write both English and Spanish
languages.
Since the languages
that the Lebanese (in Lebanon) are familiar with are from different
roots except for Arabic and Lebanese, they think that there are no two
languages closer to each other than Arabic to Lebanese. Also, since
the Lebanese are raised learning Lebanese and Arabic side by side, while
the other languages they learn are form different roots they missed
the opportunity to compare apples-to-apples such in comparing Italian
to Spanish for example.
Linguists here,
especially those who were not raised learning these two languages, can
point out the difference. Professor Wheeler Thackston of Harvard pushes
this analogy a bit further and argues that "the languages the 'Arabs'
grow up speaking at home, are as different from each other and from
Arabic itself, as Latin is different from English."
Results
of not distinguishing Arabic language from Lebanese language:
Very little effort
was done to distinguish Lebanese from Arabic language, while some refer
to it as "Spoken Lebanese", "Spoken Arabic",
"Arabic Lebanese", "Lebanese Dialect", "Aramaic
Lebanese", "Lebanese Language" or just "Lebanese",
most of the Lebanese did not care to use any differentiating terms.
If people around
the world had the chance to learn both Lebanese and Arabic languages,
there would not be a need to distinguish Lebanese language from Arabic
Language. However, the problems of claming that Lebanese and Arabic
are the same language, or that Lebanese is just a dialect of Arabic
started to emerge on the surface in the twentieth century.
Due to the events
that were taking place in Lebanon and the region since 1850’s,
many Lebanese had to leave their country. Unofficial estimates show
that there is approximately 15 million Lebanese living out side Lebanon
while only 3 million Lebanese live in Lebanon today. Some Lebanese descendents
in Diaspora kept speaking Lebanese with their kids while others have
not followed up with doing so. Not to mention the Lebanese married non-Lebanese
descents, which made it even harder to pass the language to the next
generation.
As for the people
who were born in the United States and Canada, those who can speak Lebanese
learned it solely from speaking it at home and within Lebanese communities.
On the other hand, many people who tried to teach their kids or friends
Lebanese, tried to use Arabic language books. Those who tried to learn
Lebanese using Arabic teaching books experienced unpleasant result;
it was like trying to teach someone Italian using Spanish language books.
The kids and adults were not able to learn neither Arabic nor Lebanese.
Furthermore, most of them became convinced that Lebanese is a very tough
language to learnI therefore losing the desire to learn it while in
fact it is one of the easiest languages to learn from that region.
Those who learned
Lebanese abroad do not understand Arabic. This is natural since, as
previously stated, they are two different languages, and despite the
similarities between the two languages it is a must to differentiate
between them. In the case of the people who learned Arabic (whether
they were of Lebanese or non-Lebanese origins), they do not understand
Egyptian or Lebanese except for few common words or phrases. The same
exists for Egyptians or Kuwaiti language for example. The people who
learned Lebanese abroad cannot understand Egyptian and visa versa.
Native Lebanese,
who know Lebanese and Arabic, find it will easy to pick much of the
Egyptian language due to the large Egyptian production in radio and
television, and because of the Arabic, Aramaic and Turkish mix in the
Egyptian language. On the other hand, they can hardly understand some
words from Saudi or Moroccan languages.
The necessity
of distinguishing Lebanese language from Arabic language:
Hence, it is important
for the people who are first generation Lebanese to understand the need
to differentiate and distinguish between Lebanese and Arabic Languages.
Being able to master both Lebanese and Arabic was a privilege for those
who were raised in Lebanon. However, this does not help their children
abroad since they do not have the chance or the atmosphere to learn
two Semitic languages at the same time. Dealing with the Lebanese language
and Arabic as one language has caused numerous amount of Lebanese descendents
a failure in learning Lebanese.
Furthermore, some
books and teaching material that claim to teach Arabic or "spoken
Arabic" actually teach Egyptian, while some teach Lebanese and
others teach Saudi. The results of such methods are drastic since those
who learn Egyptian will not be able to understand Lebanese nor Arabic.
This is just a small example of how uncontrollable the situation has
become and will continue to be when people consider all the languages
Arabic.
The effect is not
limited to the Lebanese who try to learn their mother language; it furthermore
reaches the governmental and diplomatic affairs for countries. Most
of the diplomats and the people who travel to Lebanon (or other Arabic
states*) fall to the myth that people there speak Arabic or a dialect
of Arabic. So they learn Arabic language only to later reach Lebanon
and find out that they have learned a different language. In most of
the cases they will end up not able to communicate On the other hand,
the Lebanese would understand them since they studied Arabic at school.
But this will not do them any good in daily communication because of
the limited use of classic Arabic in daily conversations. It is not
unusual that most of the people who learned Arabic and went to Lebanon
ended up communicating with the Lebanese in English or French.
Conclusion:
To conclude, the
Lebanese and Arabic languages are two different languages yet of same
Semitic roots. Calling the language we speak in Lebanon, Arabic or a
dialect of Arabic has proved to more confuse those who want to learn
Lebanese by pushing them to learn a different language than their intended
one. Arabic is a rich language for literature, culture and religious
cleric. It is acquired in Lebanon and the Arabic states* at schools
as a second language. First generations in Diaspora have a responsibility
to clarify the difference between the two languages, and to be responsible
for what their children are learning. It is advisable that people do
not get involved in any other language-learning processes whether Arabic,
Egyptian or Saudi until they master their native Lebanese language.
The normal procedure is to follow what the people in Lebanon do; first,
learn their native Lebanese language and after mastering Lebanese, they
can then study Arabic if they choose to add another language to their
vocabulary.
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* The countries
referred to as Arab countries/states in this article are the countries
members in the Arab League, where Arabic is their official language
and Arabic culture is part of their cultures. However the nationals
of those countries could be of Arabic or non-Arabic ethnicities.
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