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Summary

Tackling a knotty but crucial issue, Hussein Elkhafaifi examines deep-seated and protracted challenges of language planning in the Arab world. The long legacy of variation and language shift in spoken Arabic has led not only to the evolution of fixed boundaries between vernacular and written Arabic, but also to vigorous attempts to monitor, control, and update the written language, especially its lexical resources. Academies dedicated to strengthening and extending the lexicon of Modern Standard Arabic have existed for a century or more in several Arab countries, but have faced problems in dealing with modernization and expansion, challenged not only by the vigorous thriving of vernacular Arabic, but also by competition from Western languages such as English and French, especially in higher education, where wholesale borrowing of terms seems to continue unabated.

In this slim volume, Mohammed Sawaie has expanded and enhanced his earlier work in thefield of the lexical history of Arabic. By focusing primarily on the efforts of two distinguishedArab lexicographers, (Ahmad) Faris al-Shidyaq and Rifa[ayn]a Rafi[ayn] al-Tahtawi, Sawaiecreates a lucid and readable discourse on the state of the Arabic language in the 19th century. Heincludes material from original contemporary Arabic sources as well as from European writers.Sawaie gives a detailed account of the challenges faced by Arab writers and scholars as theircountries were flooded with new ideas. Western innovations in areas already familiar, such asagriculture, as well as modern technological developments created an immediate need for newwords to describe and explain these novel concepts.

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2 - Language Planning in the Arab World in an Age of Anxiety

Summary

MOHAMMED SAWAIE, Azmat al-mustalah al-[ayn]arabi fi al-qarn al-tasi[ayn] [ayn]ashar “La crise de la terminologie arabe au XIXe siècle. Introduction historique générale” (Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1999). Pp. 163.

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2 - Language Planning in the Arab World in an Age of Anxiety

Summary

MOHAMMED SAWAIE, Azmat al-mustalah al-[ayn]arabi fi al-qarn al-tasi[ayn] [ayn]ashar “La crise de la terminologie arabe au XIXe siècle. Introduction historique générale” (Damascus: Institut Français de Damas, 1999). Pp. 163.