Cairo, December 19 (QNA) – A symposium on linguistic policies in Arab states, held at the General Secretariat of the Arab League, highlighted the State of Qatars efforts towards the advancement of the Arabic language and identity consolidation.
Headed by Arabic Language Professor at Qatar University Dr. Ali Ahmed Al Kubaisi, the symposium was held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League today as part of the activities of the second day of the international conference on laws, regulations, legislation, policies and language planning.
For his part, Dr. Abdulsalam Al Sayed Hamid, professor of grammar, linguistics and prosody at the Department of Arabic Language at the College of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University, praised the State of Qatars efforts to overcome the dominance of the English language and issue of Linguistic duality in its various forms. He also shed light on methods to achieve plans for upgrading the Arabic language, developing its programs, and enhancing its civilizational role, especially in affirming the Arab-Islamic identity, building a personality that is both based on this identity but that also keeps up with modern learning and having communication links with the external world.
During the symposium, Hamid referred to a research paper about language policy in Qatar, and institutional and legislative efforts.
Dr. Hamid also reviewed examples of institutions concerned with Arabization, linguistic planning, and the Arabic language protection law issued in 2019, as well as examples of linguistic diversity usage in the State of Qatar, in addition to the concept of linguistic justice, in its requirement of preserving national language and identity in the pursuit of achieving linguistic security.
Nadia Ali Mubarak Al Musifri, an Arabic language guidance consultant at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, presented a research paper that dealt with several axes regarding the State of Qatars law protecting the Arabic language, as well as national projects and initiatives that support the Arabic language, in addition to organizing local school competitions and activities.
Al Musifri also reviewed the State of Qatars efforts to enhance the position of the Arabic language globally, pointing to Qatar’s proposal last December to adopt the Arabic language as a fifth official language in FIFA. The Associations members voted for the proposal, saying that the FIFA adopted the proposal during a meeting hosted by Doha on March 31, on the sidelines of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 draw.
The international conference on laws, regulations, legislation, policies and language planning kicked off on Sunday at the headquarters of the Arab League. It dealt with laws, constitutions and linguistic legislation that are of interest and priorities to governments, leaders, officials and decision-makers, in addition to exchanging experiences amongst Arab countries, and the efforts of Arab organizations, federations, institutions and universities to stipulate linguistic laws and legislations, in conjunction with the celebration of the World Arabic Language Day, which falls on the eighteenth of December of each year. (QNA)