Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh really, what about 'lead' and 'lead'?
They will never be confused because context supplies the clues.
If context supplied enough clues, grammar correction software would work much better than it does.
Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
231–240 of 318 posts
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Looking at the official languages of countries, French Countries with french as an official language only have a total population of 434 million people. And a few of them, like canada, has english as an official language as well. Also, most of the francophile countries are small former african colonies which may one day give up french as an official language and move to english or a native language. https://en.wiki…
> Also, most of the francophile countries are small former african colonies which may one day give up french as an official language and move to english or a native language. That’s not happening outside of a war. It did in Rwanda because of a war where the side that eventually won spent long periods outside their home country and hated French as a symbol of the Belgians. Ditto for Algeria with the French though Fren…
> Why would an entire country that’s not undergoing a war or revolution stop speaking a language basically all educated people speak?
Usually nationalism and self-interest. It's why england switched from norman french to english a few hundred years ago. It's also why kazahkstan switched from cryllic to latin alphabet recently and has been pushing for kazakh and english education to the detriment of russian.
> Where is the political benefit in doing so?
To get rid of their former foreign masters' language? As france's power and influence continues to wane, what incentive is there for africans to hold onto a language forced upon them by colonizers? The french language is a symbol of humiliation for a lot of african and asian countries and their elites. Especially the nationalists.
I'm not saying it will happen, but it could. Especially if france declines further and the political and financial incentive to stick to french disappears.
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a typical Brit who mostly just speaks English, and have over 50 countries on 6 continents under my belt, I've never been to a country that had Spanish as an official language. In a given year the languages that would help me are Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic. French in some parts of Africa (and France/Belgium of course). In places like India and Kenya, I follow conversations with the locals as they generally speak…
Just because Spanish isn't an official language in the US doesn't make it less useful. The US is the second largest Spanish speaking nation in the world, behind Mexico. There are a number of careers in the US where speaking Spanish is very useful, especially when you interact a lot with people (e.g., medicine & sales). Every major US market is served by at least two Spanish speaking TV stations over the air. And if y…
Indeed, a combination of English and Spanish will get you around 98% of the Americas (assuming you can do enough to comprehend Portuguese in Brazil).
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to Turkish I find Arabic quite messy
I’m not surprised Turkish is simpler. It was “reformed” so much after the foundation of the republic that modern Turks can’t understand Ottoman Turkish. It was written in Arabic script and had a great, great many Arabic and Persian words. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_language > Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the…
Interesting. I suppose reform worked for Turkish. I'm fascinated by the simplicity and the straightforwardness of Turkish.
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
> in english pronunciation depends on each word (a,u,o) can have a different sounds (depends in which word used) It is also highly regional. Someone from Glasgow pronounces things rather differently to someone from Brighton.
Is it as regional as Arabic, though? I don't speak Arabic, but my understanding is that someone from Morocco can't necessarily hold an easy conversation with someone from Qatar. Whereas, I can name very few varieties of English that aren't easily mutually intelligible with basically all of the rest of the English-speaking world - patois and gullah, for example.
In my work, I have colleagues from all Arabic countries among others, I talk to people of Morroco and my Arabic is more Levante, with no issue at all. Syrian dialect, along with Egyptian, has gained a lot of ease in the region due to popular tv series and movies (more Egyptian than Syrian ones)I predict that the variations will be reduced since the differences grow out of old geographical barriers that gave distinctions and differences. There is a lesser strict everyday language that is very simple yet formal Arabic, as in the news, be it TV or online. So please look further before jumping to conclusions, as in the region you would read the news regardless of the geographical aspect of the source. If an Arabic website in Morroco has a compelling news story, or article speakers of Arabic in the whole region and abroad will read it very comfortably.
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#236I am a native Arabic speaker. It is an awful language. As the article points out, the dialects are just too numerous for it to gain any kind of critical mass of adoption. But beyond that, I'd say the biggest problem with it is that there are just so many exceptions that knowing the rules of grammar is nowhere near enough to speak it correctly. edit: I also wanted to mention that written Arabic differs from spoken Ara…
You might think that but I decided to major in it in college and it led to many crazy life choices I sometimes regret, but I go to the Arab world often as a result of them. I'll never regret what Arabic has taught me directly and indirectly about the world. I have seen a lot of the contrast of the myopic sheltered culture of middle class Northeast US I grew up in. And I learned Europeans borrowed and saved a lot of i…
What is the meaning of the quote? that when someone teaches you to read, that you have a huge philosophical debt to them (that can never be repayed)?
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
France is doing the same with French.
French was a minority language in France until the 20th century. The other languages were basically beaten and shamed out of school children.
Fortunately for french children that currently aren't forced to learn five dialects to communicate the same thing in five different french cities. The opposite way is leading to a few very bizarre and unfair situations.
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a typical Brit who mostly just speaks English, and have over 50 countries on 6 continents under my belt, I've never been to a country that had Spanish as an official language. In a given year the languages that would help me are Russian, Mandarin, and Arabic. French in some parts of Africa (and France/Belgium of course). In places like India and Kenya, I follow conversations with the locals as they generally speak…
I'm frankly amazed that you've never been to a Spanish-speaking country given your homeland and travel propensity, and that are 20 of them (plus Puerto Rico). It's almost like you've gone out of your way to avoid Spanish-speaking countries. Do yourself a favor and buy a cheap flight to Barcelona and make it 51.
If you live in the Americas Spanish dominates as the main language. In the rest of the world it isn't so significant, which is what they were describing.
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#239So my original comment was flagged, possible by many sharia clerics floating around here. It was deleted. All I've said: "Nothing with importance is being produced in Arabic, especially in the last 1.4 years". Is this forum now abides Strict Sharia law ? f that. I thought hackernews readers are intelligent in average. clearly I was wrong.
Would you please read the guidelines and then stop trolling? Your comments in this thread don't meet the standards of civility and substantiveness of this site and we eventually ban accounts that don't fix that.
Re: Arabic, a great language, has a low profile
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any arguments as to why that is so?
Turkish is regular and straightforward. Arabic, not so much. As for speaking, you have to speak like something stuck in your throat and it doesn't sound that pleasant to be honest.
I think Turkish lacks consonants so it was tough for me to learn it with vowels flowing freely like there is no tomorrow. That throat sound, they call it glotral and it is there in many languages such as Spanish German and Irish and Scottish. kh' as in Scots 'loch' or German 'mach' but the Ein sound is toug: Ayin the sixteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ʿayin Phoenician ayin. Hebrew ʿayin ע, Aramaic ʿē Ayin.svg, Syriac ʿē ܥ, and Arabic ʿayn ع