Can we imagine our society without a language? Can we imagine relationships between people in the society without it? Can we think about the achievements of this society without it? These are difficult questions to be answered, because language is communication, and without it the tight link of such communication between individuals is cut. This is true on the level of the present and on the level of transforming knowledge and experience from the past to the present; which means that there is no future. In short, if there is no language, then there is no society because without a language there is no purpose, short term plan, long term plan, or even a system for life. Hence, language means culture and civilization.
The Arabic language is our means to understand each other. It is the tool of expressing meanings related to humans' feelings and thoughts through what is called speech that consists of nouns, verbs, prepositions and a group of images, meanings, feelings with understandable significance between sender and receiver. This is due to the fact that sounds alone without any common symbols between speaker and receiver have no meaning. Accordingly, languages become a main element in tightening social ties between all humans, and maintaining the core of the society itself, as by languages humans made the law and the system that would organize the society. Languages transform trends of awareness from one generation to the other. They are capable of creating culture and civilization, because God has gifted humans with minds, with the ability of knowing names, with the language by which they can communicate, elevate, and integrate in the development of human experience. It is a good sign to dedicate the year 2006 to the Arabic Language, as this noble act created a kind of energy in our cultural and scientific life. This is apparent in the conferences dealing with the Arabic language, media programs, many articles in daily and weekly newspapers, indigenous associations holding seminars, which are all considered useful and important efforts. However, what we want for the Arabic language is not a seasonal ceremony related to a conference or a seminar, but we want a continuous and developed interest in the Arabic language for the sake of this language that protects the identity of all its speakers. The Arabic language faces many trends from different cultures and different languages in the age of globalization. This age has new characteristics spurred from the revolution of information, the revolution of modernizing arts, the revolution of biological sciences…… This age has opened the doors for many trends of obligatory interaction with different and many mass media such as, the radio, the TV, the cinema, the press, the computer, the internet, the satellites…. So the old barriers between countries do not exist any more. At this point I remember the attitude of the French president "Jack Sherak" when he left the European conference with anger last month because one of the French businessmen used the English language and not the French- his mother tongue- when he was saying his word. This scene gives significance to the necessity of respecting one's language and holding on to it, as it is important to present this language- the mother tongue- in international occasions. Languages live by its speaker, and those who use the Arabic language bear the responsibility of making it flexible in expressing science, knowledge, and modern notions of life and civilization. Languages are affected by the society and the social manifestations, as it is considered one of the important organizations in our Arab world. However, such a role is on everyone's shoulders; the family, the school, the university, mass media, for only one purpose: to advance this language as it is the mirror of the nation, and one of the important elements for civilized presence.
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