|
 |
Arabic v. Hebrew and others | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| SmilingStraw Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4911 days ago 35 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 9 22 December 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I've been studying Arabic for several months, almost a year now, and I started thinking about other Semitic languages, such as Hebrew and Amharic.
One thing I have noticed is that Arabic is considerably more popular than Hebrew and Amharic and i was wondring why. I know Arabic hasn't been popular for recent times (over the past decade), and that is still not studied as much as popular European languages, but what is it that draws more people to Abraic and Hebrew? I was personally drawn by its looks, but was wondering why Arabic is sometimes considered more importnt than the other two. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5600 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 9 22 December 2011 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Let the numbers speak:
Native speakers in millons: 206 of عربية 27 of አማርኛ 7 of עִבְרִית And African languages are generally unpopular among western learners. For Hebrew you have mainly heritage learners. So what are you puzzled about? PS. Amharic has also a nice script of its own, as you see. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5179 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 3 of 9 22 December 2011 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hebrew is spoken in a high developed country, whereas Amharic in one extremely poor.
Arabic is very widely spoken, in many countries, some of them quite well developed. So no wonder many people study it. 300 millions of speakers, plus great influence over a great deal of languages. but i don't agree that African languages are not popular. There are some Afro-Americans who want to connect to the heritage. Nevertheless, not many people would like to seek their brighter future in Africa. Edited by clumsy on 22 December 2011 at 9:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SmilingStraw Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4911 days ago 35 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 9 22 December 2011 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Yeah but if you split Arabic into the dialects, the number of speakers is greatly reduced. Lebanese arabic, at around 4 million speakers is on par with the number of Hebrew speakers.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Humdereel Octoglot Groupie United States Joined 4979 days ago 90 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written), Turkish, Persian, Urdu Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 9 22 December 2011 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | ||
The statement of the number of speakers being greatly reduced because of the dialects isn't something that really affects Arabic's status versus that of Hebrew and Amharic. First off, Lebanese Arabic is highly intelligible with the dialects of Jordan, Syria, and Palestine. If you learn Lebanese, you're practically learning the other dialects as well. The differences are like those between different dialects in the United States. In all, Levantine Arabic accounts for 30-35 million speakers, greater than either Amharic or Hebrew. Egyptian is spoken by roughly 60-80 million speakers, and it is also very approachable with knowledge of Levantine (it works the other way around as well). Hijazi Arabic (6-7 million speakers), a dialect spoken along the western coast of Saudi Arabia, also shares many features and is fairly intellgible with Levantine and Egyptian. If you considered this, the number of speakers ranges from 100-125 million. It gets tougher with other dialects such as Iraqi (at least 15 million speakers, some estimates as high as 30 million), which is intelligible to most Gulf dialects and most of the Levant, though it's tougher for Egyptians. Even learning Moroccan, a dialect that is widely considered quite divergent, would help you understand Algerian, Tunisian, and Libyan, totaling around 40-50 million speakers. Sure, for a non-native dialects seem more of a problem, but if you follow the MSA-to-Dialect path, it's not too overwhelming to access many of them. As people have already stated, these numbers play a role in why Arabic is among the more popular Semitic languages. Politically speaking, some Arab countries get more attention onw western media than Ethiopia does, sparking quite some interest, even if some Westerners might not always know how to find Syria or Oman on a map instantly. Also, among many of the people I've met, there seems to be a misconception that Arabic is spoken in an area even greater than where it already is. Some tend to believe that the Arabic-speaking world extends from Morocco to Afghanistan and Pakistan, for example. When I was little, I thought the same until I started studying Arabic. Economically, it can be different. Israel is quite advanced economically. With Arab countries it depends. Before the Arab Spring, some of the countries had stable economies (though not necessary equally spread), others had emerging economies, others still lagged behind. How it will be from now on, we'll have to see. As for Ethiopia, as someone already mentioned, its economy is not as strong as Israel or a few Arab countries. People also like how Arabic is spoken in plenty of countries. Although I prefer "geographic extensiveness" versus "number of countries" as a factor, people notice that Arabic is the official, working, or minority language of 18-25 countries, versus one for Hebrew and one for Amharic. However, I disagree that Hebrew is dramatically unpopular compared to Arabic. As someone already mentioned, it's studied by many interested in their heritage, and it's considered very important religiously speaking as well. The number of Hebrew students isn't dramatically lower than that of Arabic. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| SmilingStraw Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4911 days ago 35 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 9 24 December 2011 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I see, thanks, but what about languages like Aramaic and Akkadian? Weren't those semitic, or am I wrong?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Voodie Tetraglot Newbie Russian Federation Joined 4805 days ago 17 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, GermanC1, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Written), Greek | Message 7 of 9 25 December 2011 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
They are Semitic and I even came across some learning materials.
But their popularity IS dramatically lower, that is obvious. Having mastered Aramaic, you will be able to read part of the Old Testament and (theoretically) communicate with about 400,000 people scattered around the Middle East and speaking their own dialects. Having mastered Akkadian... I don't know what exactly you can do with it, apart from reading tablets. But for a scholar it will be a good asset anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Humdereel Octoglot Groupie United States Joined 4979 days ago 90 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English, Spanish*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written), Turkish, Persian, Urdu Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 9 26 December 2011 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Although important historically speaking, the Aramaic languages and Akkadian are probably not that popular since they're either spoken by very few people or not spoken at all in modern times. Since most people learn languages so that they can speak, and there's arguably less of a chance to encounter an Aramaic speaker, it's not surprising that Arabic (and Hebrew) are more popular than either of those. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
