Arabic language (الْعَرَبيّة al-ʿarabiyyah (informally: عَرَبيْ ʿarabī)), in terms of the number of speakers, is the largest living member of the Semitic language family. In ISO 639-3, modern Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage with 27 sub-languages. These varieties are spoken throughout the Arab world, and Standard Arabic is widely studied and used throughout the Islamic world.
Modern Standard Arabic language derives from Classical Arabic, the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century. Classical Arabic has also been a literary language and the liturgical language of Islam since its inception in the 7th century.
Arabic language has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world. During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it. Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and Sicilian, due to both the proximity of European and Arab civilization and 700 years of Berber and Arab rule in the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus).
Arabic language has also borrowed words from many languages, including Greek, Persian and Sanskrit in early centuries, and contemporary European languages in modern times.
Origin of language
Even before the theory of evolution made discussion of more animal-like human ancestors common place, philosophical and scientific speculation concerning the origins of language, implying that human ancestors once had no language, have been frequent throughout history. In modern Western Philosophy, speculation by authors such as Thomas Hobbes, and later Jean-Jacques Rousseau lead to the Académie française even declaring the subject off bounds.
The subject is of such interest to philosophy because language is such an essential characteristic of human life. In classical Greek philosophy such questions were connected to the subject of the natures of things, in this case human nature. Therefore already in Aristotle language is mentioned in discussions of the natural propensities of humans to be political and to dwell in city-state types of communities, to engage in pair-bonding, and so on.
Hobbes followed by John Locke and others claimed that language is an extension of the "speech" which humans have with themselves, which in a sense takes the classical view that reason is one of the most primary characteristics of human nature. Others have argued the opposite - that reason developed out of the need for more complex communication. Rousseau, despite writing before the publication of Darwin's theory of evolution, claimed that there had once been humans who had no language or reason and who developed language first, rather than reason - the development of which things he explicitly described as a mixed blessing, with many negative characteristics.
The subject is of such interest to philosophy because language is such an essential characteristic of human life. In classical Greek philosophy such questions were connected to the subject of the natures of things, in this case human nature. Therefore already in Aristotle language is mentioned in discussions of the natural propensities of humans to be political and to dwell in city-state types of communities, to engage in pair-bonding, and so on.
Hobbes followed by John Locke and others claimed that language is an extension of the "speech" which humans have with themselves, which in a sense takes the classical view that reason is one of the most primary characteristics of human nature. Others have argued the opposite - that reason developed out of the need for more complex communication. Rousseau, despite writing before the publication of Darwin's theory of evolution, claimed that there had once been humans who had no language or reason and who developed language first, rather than reason - the development of which things he explicitly described as a mixed blessing, with many negative characteristics.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)