Sharjah in the UAE has begun on a project to chronicle the development in the Arabic language spanning five distinct time periods, Sharjah 24 has reported.
Spoken by more than 400 million people in the the Middle
East and Africa, Arabic was the medium through which philosophers,
mathematicians, and astronomers communicated during the Golden Age of Islam, said to span the 8th to 14th centuries.
Dr Mohammed Safi Al Mostaghanemi, Secretary-General of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah, said: “The Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language
fulfils a dream of the entire Arabic-speaking world; it is an exemplary
feat that will shine light on the richness of the Arabic language.”
The Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language aims to offer insights into the world’s fifth-most widely-spoken language and serve as a linguistic resource for researchers, academia, linguists and students worldwide. It is envisioned to be a larger-scale project coupled with superb planning and funding.
Under the direct supervision of HH Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, the Arabic Language Academy (ALA) in Sharjah will lead the management and coordination of the project with the support of the Egypt-based Union of Arab Scientific Language Academies.
Experts from 10 Arabic language academies across the Arab world are currently documenting and researching the history and evolution of Arabic words. After an estimated six years, their research will form the most comprehensive historical corpus of the Arabic language to date, and also the first to cover its evolution from the pre-Islamic period through to its modern form.
The project will reference the broad history of science and arts, and
delve into the scientific study of the Arabic language, including
syntax, morphology, fiqh (فقه, Islamic jurisprudence), phonetics,
'aroodh (اَلْعَرُوض, Arabic prosody), rhetoric, and more.
With the digitisation of nearly 20,000 Arabic books, manuscripts, sources, and historical documents, the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language will
be designed for easy access. A digital library will host more than 40,000 titles,
extracts and documents, many in
digital format for the first time.
The corpus will answer questions about language use across the Pre-Islamic period, the Islamic era from Hijri years 1 AH to 132 AH, the Abbasid Caliphate, the development of nation states, and the present modern-day era. The Historical Corpus will outline the development and evolution of terms used throughout the centuries and document the entry of new words into the language over time, from word roots and derivatives to phonetic variations. It will also detail semantic changes – be it semantic shift, progression, development, or drift.
Word comparisons with Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Akkadian, Syriac, Abyssinian, and others, will be emphasised. To accomplish this task, a committee of Semitic language scholars are tracing the similarities and differences between Arabic words and their equivalents in Semitic languages.