Modern Standard Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic, or MSA is the variety of Arabic used in most written media, news reporting, and some television talk shows in the Arabic-speaking world, primarily learnt at school rather than through spoken interaction in the home. It is the continuation of Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an, with which it shares most of its vocabulary, syntax and morphology. Its modernity is obvious in comparison to the Classical language by the existance of words for "elevator", "electricity", and other modern ideas. It is to be distinguished from the varieties of Arabic usually learnt through interaction with family, which are radically different in grammar and vocabulary.

Note the term "Standard Arabic" is used by authors who find the difference between the Arabic written language used today to that used before the 20th century. Other authors use the term "Standard Arabic" because they view the title "Modern Standard Arabic" as questionable because it suggests that it is a significantly different language from "Standard Arabic" used 1000 years ago. The Arabic word Fụṣha is translated as "Standard Arabic" although it the word in Arabic implies "eloquence".

Vocabulary

Due to Arabic's long length of existance, the number of words in Arabic became incredible. Many of these words of course have been archiac for a very long time. At the time of the Quran's writing many synonyms for the same word already existed due to ancient Arabic dialectical variation.

In modern times, Arabic became increasingly used as an international, political language of many countries. As a practical language not all of Arabic's words gained currency and so many words became archaic. This created one of the greatest differences between Classical Arabic and Modern Standard.

The vocabulary of MSA does not include every word in the Quran. The vocabulary of the Quran includes many common terms, and many rare words. A few of these words were at least almost archaic at the time the Quran was written.

Along with these purely Arabic words there are borrowings from the English and French. These borrowings however are avoided by some authors, who use an Arabic equivalent instead; for example hžaasuub in place of kumbyuutir ("computer").

Use in Education

Diglossia in Arabic countries is usually characterized by the use of a vernacular in speech only, and MSA for writing, and rare occasions such as debates, and many public broadcasts. The use of vernacular in published writing sets off great debates, and is harshly criticized by authors who feel it is a danger to the language they feel they should defend. It must be noted that such people who criticize the use of vernacular in text, feel it is natural to speak a vernacular on a day to day basis, and do so. This of course leads to the inability to tell who is fluent in Modern Standard Arabic in a setting where its use is not dominant.

This split between the spoken language and the written language is also visible in schools. Although Standard Arabic is used for reading, and writing in Arabic schools; diglossia is also part of the school environment. So for the most part, Arabic teachers do not speak in Modern Standard Arabic, but are more likely to use a vernacular that is highly mixed with standardisms (which might also be known as Educated Spoken Arabic). The variety of accents and Vernaculars used by teachers is one reason for the cross-dialect understanding that most Arabs have.

Most Arabs will not comment on this or find it odd that vernacular is usually spoken in school.

However, some people blame the lack of spoken practice of the language for the general dislike of the language, and the lack of excellent proficiency, that develops in some students. However it is more common to blame other factors such as lack of full vowelling in all children's books. These measures have been followed in Morrocco.

Some more daring people have used Chomsky's theories to conclude that there is a need for children to be spoken to in Standard Arabic before 6 years of age. Proposals of the one parent speaking Standard Arabic to the child have been proposed by such thinkers. They have also started //www.raodah.com/ conducted solely in Modern Standard Arabic. The idea being to assure that children do not stumble on the language differences between the vernacular spoken at home and the Standard language found in books once they begin school. Such attempts have shown success.

Spoken Usage

Most Western academic studies find that even many university-educated Arabic speakers experience difficulty conversing in MSA for a long time without switching to a dialect. At the same time, people can be found on news channels speaking MSA without a script with no code switching. On debates on Arabic news channels, the debators are often fluent in the language. There are also speakers who tend to mix in colloquialisms, mispronunciations of letters, and varying degrees of pausal pronunciation.

There are few situations where one is expected to speak MSA without preparing first. Some do not feel confident speaking the language while others who do, feel that they would sound artificially pedantic.

When two Arabs cannot understand each other at all due to dialectical differences, they may use some forms derived from MSA. MSA's resolution of dialectical clashes in Arabic is important, as unlike variants of Spanish, Russian, and other pan-regional languages, some dialects of Arabic are mutually unintelligble. Without MSA, it would be difficult for a Moroccan to converse with a Saudi Arabian.

Television Usage

Extending from its role as the language of news on the radio, MSA continued its role in this capacity on television. Every news channel in Arabic is in it.

Cartoons in the Arabic world are rarely ever written originally in Arabic. Rather they are translated into the language. Due to the wide variances between the dialects learnt at home, cartoons are with very few exceptions dubbed into MSA, so as to reach a wider audience.

Historical Television Dramas (known to be boring) are almost invariably in MSA. Note that these shows are characterized by costumes, slow talking, and usually bad acting.

Television Dramas are for the most part in vernacular. However, translated television dramas are invariably in MSA, and although in their infancy are beginning to show traits that are more conversational, and also less vernacular.

For the most part, anything translated is in MSA.

Influence from dialects

Dialects influence spoken MSA through colloquialisms in live speech, mispronunciation, and pausal pronunciation. Other than these three factors influence from dialects is minimal.

Some Arabic literary authors follow a more colloquial style in dialogue by deleting connectors that are uncommon in dialects. Note that other authors set their dialogue or part of it in a vernacular.

It must be stated that influence from dialects tend to be gaurded against, so obvious influences from vernaculars are unlikely.

Pronunciation

The standard pronunciation of Arabic is used in documentaries, and in newscasts.

These always include case endings, and mood endings, except at pauses. Cartoon shows (except for the few in dialects) use the highest standard of pronunciation. It is based on the Quranic pronuncation of Arabic which is known as tajwiid in Arabic. Due to the pronunciation of case and mood endings, differentiating between a dialect and MSA is easy.

Other pronunciations are usually influenced from dialects. Some of the most common pronunciations heard on newscasts, by those being interviewed is "th" => "s" and "j"=> "g"; e.g. "masalan" instead of "mathalan". Mispronunciations are almost always due to interference from a dialect.

Some people when speaking MSA, do so pausally. This means that case endings and mood endings that are not written with constants are not pronounced. The Standard pronunciation does this only when the speaker pauses. Some speakers tend to also use their local accent when speaking; the result is Modern Standard Arabic with a noticeable accent or a regional variety of MSA.

Note that in Arabic there is no difference between the "p" and "b" phoneme, and the "v" and "f" phoneme. However some translated shows keep these phonemes distinct. Some of these are the hard "g" sound, the "v" sound, and the "p" sound.

The hard "g" sound is perceived by almost all speakers as a separate phoneme from the "k" sound, of which it is treated as an allophone. Some words which are foreign in origin seem to require the hard "g" sound instead of the soft one. (e.g. "anglatair" meaning England). But there is no standard way to write the "g" sound without making it ambiguous with either the "k" sound (as would be done with the hearing of Classical Arabs), the "j" sound, the "q" sound or the "għ" sound. There have been attempts to use ghain غ with three dots, for a distinctly Arabic representation of the ^* phoneme. However this new letter has gained little acceptance or recognition. Some people dissapprove of the addition of new phonemes to the language, and new trends in cartoon voice acting tend to avoid the new phonemes.

The difference between MSA and Classical Arabic

Most Arabs do not differentiate between the two, and will insist they are the same. Western scholars of Arabic do differentiate, especially if they are linguists. The differences between Classical Arabic and MSA are usually viewed as merely stylistic by Arabs.

Newer vocabulary has become part of the language, some originated from an Arabic dialect, some from other languages, and some are neologisms. Along with this, some Classical Arabic words are archaic and not understood.
Avoidance of the word "maa" as a negative particle due to the ambiguity it can create. This might have been part of Classical Arabic as well, but is not obvious in the Quran.
Having the subject come before the verb is more common than it was in Classical Arabic.

Some of these trends are:

New words for foreign words that need translating.
The verb, as often as not, comes between the subject and object.
The word "inna" is used less in detached writing, and is used greatly in rhetorical text.
The energetic mood and the "la" particle meaning "certainly" is reserved for extremely rhetorical speech and is rarely used in writing.

An existential "There is..." construction has been introduced by calquing the word هناك (hunaaka) or هنالك (hunaalika), both meaning "there", in imitation of English sentences such as "There were three problems".

Secondary object pronouns were attached directly onto the verb complex in Classical Arabic, but use a separate helper إيا (iyyaa-) in Modern Standard Arabic.

External links

Arabic Gems Learn about the intricacies and subtleties of Arabic linguistics and morphology.
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