Cairo: A symposium on linguistic policies in Arab states, held at the General Secretariat of the Arab League, highlighted Qatar’s efforts towards the advancement of the Arabic language and identity consolidation.
Headed by Dr. Ali Ahmed Al Kubaisi, a professor of Arabic language at Qatar University, the symposium was held yesterday as part of the activities of the second day of the international conference on laws, regulations, legislation, policies and language planning.
Dr. Abdulsalam Al Sayed Hamid, professor of grammar, linguistics and prosody at the Department of Arabic Language at the College of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University, praised Qatars efforts to overcome the dominance of the English language and issue of linguistic duality in its various forms. He also shed light on methods to achieve plans for upgrading the Arabic language, developing its programmes, and enhancing its civilizational role, especially in affirming the Arab-Islamic identity, building a personality that is both based on this identity but that also keeps up with modern learning and having communication links with the external world.
During the symposium, Hamid referred to a research paper about language policy in Qatar, and institutional and legislative efforts.
Nadia Ali Mubarak Al Musifri, an Arabic language guidance consultant at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, presented a research paper that dealt with several axes regarding Qatar’s law protecting the Arabic language.
Al Musifri also reviewed Qatar’s efforts to enhance the position of the Arabic language globally, pointing to Qatar’s proposal last December to adopt the Arabic language as a fifth official language in FIFA.
The Associations members voted for the proposal and FIFA adopted the proposal at a meeting in Doha on March 31.
