Report of the specialized meeting on "interlingual relations"

On the occasion of Research Week, the Office of International Scientific Collaboration of the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, in cooperation with the Persian Gulf University and Wasit University of Islamic Sciences in Iraq, held a specialized meeting entitled "Interlingual Relations" on Sunday, December 13, 2020 (19-21). In this convention, which was held online and welcomed by audiences all around the world, Dr. Abdul Nabi Al-Ashqar (Head of the Arabic and Hebrew Department of the University of Montpellier, France), Dr. Asad Abbas Kazem Al-Mayahi (Professor of the Arabic Department of Wasit University, Iraq) and Dr. Haidar Karam Allah al-Daraji (Director of the Arabic Language Department at the Imam Kadhim Wasit College in Iraq) delivered a speech.

The first speaker of the meeting was Dr. Asad Abbas Kazem Al-Mayahi, who gave a speech entitled "The concept of language duality and its consequences." He pointed to the differences between Western and Arab scholars in the definition of bilingualism and its consequences, and said that if some believe that if no solution is found, languages, especially Arabic, will face great problems and dangers, such as Collapse or extinction. Others have different opinions. However, several attempts have been made to find a solution, the best of which is to create an intelligent tool for the use of eloquent language in writing, literature and everyday speech, based on careful, documented and calculated planning. Dr. Asad al-Mayahi also stated that bilingualism in Arabic also means confusion between eloquent and slang Arabic and has had complex ethnic, scientific, economic, social and religious implications so far.

The second speaker at the meeting was Dr. Abdul Nabi Khalil al-Ashqar, who delivered a speech entitled "Foreign Languages; Coexistence or competition?; Language interactions in the structure of contemporary and progressive Arabic language." In his speech, he said: "The movement of people is the most important factor in the transfer of language / culture from their original homeland to other places in which languages are mainly revived and strengthened by learning as a foreign language, and in a way which provides a brief understanding of the literary, discourse and cultural creations of its speakers. From other point of view, this linguistic presence in a foreign country inevitably reflects the socio-linguistic characteristics of the official or national language or cultural languages ​​of the host country and its boundaries to ensure a peaceful coexistence with the foreign languages ​​within it.

He noted that in addition to the political status of foreign languages, French and English have gone through two stages of accepting administrative and educational institutions in Arab countries. First, these languages ​​entered the Arab countries through colonization and found harmony and peaceful coexistence with the living conditions of the Arabic speakers. Secondly, these imported languages ​​were able to adapt to the new environment around them, and as a result, they were accepted by the people of their host society and somehow recycled, and this, of course, by marginalizing the original language and local languages ​​in language interactions. Social, communicative, commercial, political and the like. That is, in fact, these languages ​​somehow tried to compete with and replace national and local languages.

Examining the case study of language policy in the Arab Maghreb countries, he examined the phenomenon of coexistence and, consequently, language competition, which could lead to the replacement of a foreign language with a language in its original homeland and culture, and explained how this phenomenon coincided with ideology and the challenges of the power discourse are linked to the Arabic languages’ market.

The last speaker of the meeting was Dr. Haidar Karamullah Al-Darji, who gave his speech entitled "Globalization and the Challenges of Linguistic Identity" in a way challenging the theory of Dr. Abdul Karim Al-Ashqar and stated that the concept of globalization with its various manifestations indicates the domination and influence of foreign cultures. It is against each other, especially the Arab cultures, that it has been made possible by destroying the identity of nations and dominating the ways of thinking by means of advanced technologies, technologies that are the window of interaction with the outside world. Thus, globalization is in fact the domination of the global cultural language by imposing its patterns on nations and tribes, including the Arab nations, which means eradicating Arab culture and abandoning it altogether and replacing planned cultures with them. Therefore, it can be said that language policies and the multiplicity of language phenomena have a positive effect on the realization of the globalization of linguistic identity and the destruction of Arab cultures in the light of the challenges of the time.

At the end, the speakers answered the questions of the audience. You can watch and download the video of this meeting here.