Loading ...This Why the Arabic Language May Be the Most Beautiful To Learn
By: Sara Tawfik/Arab America Contributing Writer
Beauty is subjective. To many Arabs and Arab Americans, the Arabic language happens to be one of the most beautifully written and spoken languages in existence. While some of the pronunciation within the Arabic language sound aggressive, much of the language has an enchanting allure to it. Arabic is a consonant-heavy language that requires gut force in order to speak it. Many would probably find trouble with the pronunciation of the language. Some sounds within the Arabic language do not exist within any other language.
The Arabic language carries with them the symbolism of Eastern culture. Arabic is an extremely complex language with extensive lexical and grammatical elements similar to Chinese and Japanese. The language is so complex that even scholarly professors do not claim to know every vocabulary word.
Classical Arabic, with roots in ancient Semitic languages, is a literary form of Arabic (as opposed to dialectical Arabic) dating back at least 1500 years. The first evidence of Arabic script, the inscription of Zabad from the year 512, was found in Syria. Over the centuries, the Arab-Muslim civilization has made lasting inroads into Europe, Africa, Asia, and to a lesser extent America, sharing the richness of its arts, science, and knowledge. Today Arabic is spoken by an estimated 420 million people, 300 of whom are native speakers. It is an official language in 26 countries across the Middle East and North Africa, from Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, Qatar to Chad.
So, learning Arabic means not only gaining linguistic instruction, but learning to speak the most beautiful, or at least one of the most beautiful foreign languages, in the world. Arabic is a fascinating language, and there is a lot that you need to know. In this article, Superprof will tell you why it is the most beautiful language in the world.
Arabic is a Poetic Language
Every year, fairs were held during which poets would recite their works. The best poems were then hung on the Ka’aba, Islam’s most sacred mosque in Mecca. From that point on, these chosen works would be considered sacred objects of religious worship. Learning Arabic with a private teacher will help students discover various types of Arabic poetry and branches of Arabic literature (in Arabic, the word for literature is “adab”) from the Middle Ages to today.
As well as developing your vocabulary with new words and phrases, a good private tutor will ensure that each lesson of your Arabic learning will consist of studying the rich culture and history of the Arab world. In the West, artists use writing as a means fof expressing their feelings, promoting their culture, religion, or philosophy, and conveying their love of words. It would be impossible to provide a complete survey of all of the Arabic genres and poets since the Middle Ages.
It’s important to note that there are four main trends in Arabic poetry in which the descriptive and lyrical styles regularly intermingle.
- El-fakhar: praise for one’s tribe and for oneself
- El-madih: praise for others
- El-hidja: satire
- En-nasib: eroticism
Arabic poetry allowed for playing with Arabic vocabulary. Love, sexuality, nature, medicine, sanctity, family, friendship, nostalgia, death, mythology, war, and civilization are just some of the subjects broached by numerous Arabic poets through whom you can learn about the Arabic culture and language.
Written Arabic Is an Art Form
Some consider the language of the Arab-Muslim world to be the most beautiful of all written languages. In fact, Arabic calligraphy is seen as a completely separate art. Though it may be considered to be in the same category as drawing or painting, it is often honored above all other Arabic art forms. There are good Arabic lessons on Superprof, if you’re interested.
For a non-Arabic-speaking student, learning to write Arabic is an artistic endeavor involving drawing characters, or letters, with very rounded shapes featuring curls and lines that require particular attention to reproduce.
Calligraphy actually resembles illumination more than writing. In the past, calligraphy was used to decorate religious Arabic texts.
Writing the language of the Quran properly means calculating the placement and size of the Arabic characters and adding decoration to the Arabic letters and words – the very definition of calligraphy. To master this skill, only a series of Arabic lessons will suffice.
Do you still doubt the beauty of the written Arabic language?
A quick Google images search of Arabic calligraphy will show you straight away some of the forms of writing are truly graphic art.
You’ll find figurative patterns, drawings of animals using Arabic letters, and multi-colored ornamentation.
Reproducing such creations requires the talent of a graphic artist or illustrator!
But, it might be best, to begin with, more modest goals. Students can start by learning the Arabic alphabet and how to write in Arabic. When you start to learn Arabic, you will realize that it has always been written from right to left. In a basic Arabic class, learners will begin by copying the letters of the Arabic alphabet in order to memorize them.
The Arabic alphabet is made up of twenty-seven letters including the hamza. At first sight, this may not seem like much, but we’re not through yet. Things become more complex when you learn that each letter has a specific arabesque shape according to its location within a word. There are four different ways to write each character.
Arabic Is a Rich Language
The Arabic language includes an infinite number of circumlocutions for expressing the same idea in various ways as well as an incredible amount of vocabulary words. Learning to speak Arabic means studying the historical richness of the Islamic civilization. Citizens of the Arab world may proudly boast that the Arabic language has 60,000 words, which is quite impressive when compared to the average native English-speaker’s vocabulary of 20,000 words.
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