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Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

economist.com

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Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#11

Post by Scriptor »

mega_behemoth wrote: post #2

Arabic, among many other languages is on a low profile simply because no science is produced in these languages. English won the game because bits and bytes were invented in English. Arabic is indeed a great and very rich language, perhaps more than English, unfortunately, nothing with importance is being produced in Arabic, especially in the last 1.4k years.

The Arab golden age was very important.

I am also unclear what you mean by "especially". Are you saying that there was actually more scientific output in Arabic before 1400 years ago?

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#12

Post by umeshunni »

Paraesthetic wrote: post #5

Having learned Arabic because my ex girlfriend was Jordanian I can say it is a difficult language, but anything gendered is frustrating and difficult. Its the writing that gets me, the right to left thing is entirely a new way of thinking.

As someone who studied elementary Arabic as a child temporarily living in an Arab country, the only bits that are left with me is the script. 25 something years later, I can still read elementary Arabic words I see on the internet or in TV, but I have forgotten most of the vocabulary and grammar.

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#13

Post by amasad »

mega_behemoth wrote: post #2

Arabic, among many other languages is on a low profile simply because no science is produced in these languages. English won the game because bits and bytes were invented in English. Arabic is indeed a great and very rich language, perhaps more than English, unfortunately, nothing with importance is being produced in Arabic, especially in the last 1.4k years.

Almost all of science and philosophy was done in Arabic during the middle ages so "1.4k years" is an overestimate. Without the Arab and Muslim scholarship much of Greek/Roman wisdom would be lost.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Cl...

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#14

Post by tehlike »

amasad wrote: post #13
mega_behemoth wrote: post #2

Arabic, among many other languages is on a low profile simply because no science is produced in these languages. English won the game because bits and bytes were invented in English. Arabic is indeed a great and very rich language, perhaps more than English, unfortunately, nothing with importance is being produced in Arabic, especially in the last 1.4k years.

Almost all of science and philosophy was done in Arabic during the middle ages so "1.4k years" is an overestimate. Without the Arab and Muslim scholarship much of Greek/Roman wisdom would be lost. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Cl...

Islamic/arabic world could not keep up with the science, unfortunately.

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#15

Post by luminati »

mega_behemoth wrote: post #2

Arabic, among many other languages is on a low profile simply because no science is produced in these languages. English won the game because bits and bytes were invented in English. Arabic is indeed a great and very rich language, perhaps more than English, unfortunately, nothing with importance is being produced in Arabic, especially in the last 1.4k years.

1.4K years is certainly an overestimate. 150 years maybe a better timeframe since the Industrial revolution started going in full swing.

But your same logic applies to any non major Western European language too. But past 150 years -> don't think any major scientific discovery was done in the Japanese/Korean/Chinese language. All of them was first written down and communicated and published first in the English language.

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#16

Post by sdegutis »

amasad wrote: post #13
mega_behemoth wrote: post #2

Arabic, among many other languages is on a low profile simply because no science is produced in these languages. English won the game because bits and bytes were invented in English. Arabic is indeed a great and very rich language, perhaps more than English, unfortunately, nothing with importance is being produced in Arabic, especially in the last 1.4k years.

Almost all of science and philosophy was done in Arabic during the middle ages so "1.4k years" is an overestimate. Without the Arab and Muslim scholarship much of Greek/Roman wisdom would be lost. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Cl...

Both "Zero" and "Cipher" come from the same Arabic word "ṣifr" and whenever I remember that, I tell whoever's near me.

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#18

Post by amasad »

sdegutis wrote: post #16
amasad wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost all of science and philosophy was done in Arabic during the middle ages so "1.4k years" is an overestimate. Without the Arab and Muslim scholarship much of Greek/Roman wisdom would be lost. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_of_the_Greek_Cl...

Both "Zero" and "Cipher" come from the same Arabic word "ṣifr" and whenever I remember that, I tell whoever's near me.

Yup cipher comes from sifr which is arabic for zero.

Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile

#19

Post by gumby »

ianbicking wrote: post #7
sandworm101 wrote: post #3

Except for arabic numerals. All of science, in every language, uses arabic numerals. That is a really big deal we rarely even mention.

I've been struggling some to describe numerals and Mikey's to my small children, and it often feels like they area backwards. As you describe this I wonder: are we literally writing them backwards?

In Arabic numbers are written in the same order as in, say, English, Thus Arabic is little-endian.

I grew up with the Hundu digits (and the European ones!) which look more like the digits we use here than the actual arabic ones.

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