UAE Stories and Cultural Learning
A guidebook to the Emirati Culture by Roudha Al Marri and Illaria Caielli
In this series of article we want to share some amazing tips of how to understand the Emirati Culture a bit more.
Arabic or English
Knowing the language of a region is fundamental to better understand its culture, traditions, history and lifestyle. The arabic language constitutes one of the central elements of the Islamic and Arab Culture. It represents the essence of national identities and is a direct expression of the local rich culture. It is classified into three distinct forms: Classical, formal or modern standard, and spoken/colloquial. Classical Arabic is not spoken in everyday life; most people speaks dialects which vary from country to country. The standard Arabic remains almost exclusively the only recognized language of literacy across the Arabic speaking world.
Arabic is the official language of the UAE, endorsed by law at all government departments, all branches of media and all written matter, like books and documents. Although Arabic is the official language , English is widely used in Business transactions and occupies a prominent position in the local education system.
The Arabic Language has a rich history. In addition to the Islamic religious texts and the classical literary texts, Arabic was the language of early astronomy, mathematics and navigation; of ancient, profound poetry and legendary tales. It was the language of science, medicine, technology and history. Many sciences were born in the Arabic language and then translated into others.
Because of the long history of Arabic language, its flexibility and adaptability, many languages of the world find their root in the arabic language. Spanish and Portuguese have thousands of words that can be directly traced to the Arabic vocabulary; English, too, has its share of words borrowed from Arabic, and those word typically begin with ‘al’ like “algebra”.
Preserving the mother tongue of the nation means preserving it’s heritage, culture and values, a true challenge for the future of this globally connected region.
Page 72 from the BookUAE 101 Stories and Cultural Learning
