SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The basis of modern written Arabic is the language of the grammars, the standard dictionaries, and the classical literature. This language has been considerably influenced during the past century and a half by contacts with modern Western civilization. On the one hand these contacts have augmented and accelerated the normal processes of linguistic change and resulted in a number of modifications of the Arabic language. On the other hand these modifications have in turn aroused widespread interest in and concern with their language on the part of the Arabic speaking peoples and led to the emergence of a group of reformers the majority of whom wish to reject the changes of the past hundred and fifty years and return to the Arabic of the first few centuries of Islam as the basis for developing a language suited to present-day needs. The interaction of these two essentially antagonistic forces has produced a language that differs from classical Arabic principally in its vocabulary and to a lesser extent in its grammar, idiom, and orthography and that is now capable of meeting most of the demands of contemporary life.