The Impact of Global English on the Arabic Language: The Loss of the Allah Lexicon1

Abstract

For over ten years, we have been researching the Allah Lexicon, a linguistic phenomenon which is unique to the Arabic language. In works like The Allah Lexicon: Frequency and usage in Arabic (Ohio University 2000) and Arabic, Islam, and the Allah Lexicon: How Language Shapes our Conception of God (Edwin Mellen, 2006), we demonstrated that the word “Allah” is the most common content word in the Arabic language. In some of our other works, such as “Arabic and the Allah Lexicon: The Loss of Culture in Second Language Acquisition” (2000), we studied how the spread of English contributes to the loss of Arabic culture.

In “The Impact of Globalization on the Arabic Language” (Intercultural Communication Studies, 2007) and “Arabic Instruction in France: Pedagogy or Politics?” (The International Journal of the Humanities, 2007), we examined political attempts to subvert the religious dimension of the Arabic language. In a more recent study, “In the Name of Allah: Reverence Phrases in Arabic,” we examined the loss of the Allah lexicon among Arabic speakers in the English-speaking world. If our previous studies demonstrated a diminished use of Allah expressions among Arabic speakers living in the Western world, this current study, which is based on a survey of scholarly literature and a survey of fifty Arabic speakers, suggests that the spread of “global English” in the Arabic-speaking world has also started to erode this unique language feature.

Introduction

Language is a gift a people offer to themselves and their children. Within its myriad variations, language names all that can be seen and other treasures that cannot; it conjures up diverse names and descriptive expressions for feelings that exist within a part of our brain where language has no place. Even that is a conundrum. The human is compelled to communicate: from birth we listen, watch, sort and define in order to understand all that surrounds us. It is only through language that those elements that arise in a part of the brain where no language component exists, our emotions, reactions, and feelings, are given voice. The tongue finds refuge for all the mind’s thoughts, the heart’s yearnings, and the body’s functions within the limitless spectrum of the spoken and written word. African clicks, Asian tones, and the marvelous rolls of tongue, glottis, and nasal cavities, are just a few of the sundry sounds which have come into being in order that humans could share themselves, their world, and their ideas with other people. Language performs like the most talented thespian, taking on a myriad of roles in government, business, relationships, and spiritual devotions.

Just like that brilliant actor on the stage, language develops elements, skills and distinctions that slip quietly into our speech almost without notice. Economic changes, cultural variations, new inventions, and disasters all contribute to these new word forms. Populations across the globe adopt them at varying rates, and adjust existing language to make a place for the newer members of the lexicon. “Internet” and “cyber” are two such words. From northern India, to Morocco, to tiny towns in Mississippi or Michoacán, Mexico, anyone can ask for “Internet” and be directed to the nearest tech café or computer sales establishment.

Within the spiritual dimension, the retention of all the tools related to religious devotion requires that they, too, be identified, sustained, and passed on to the younger generations. The Prophet Muhammad, in his role as the revealer of truth, considered all these different levels of spiritual life. Islam itself asks for five prayers per day, special prayers in specific situations, the Hajj, and other doctrinal requirements. In his wisdom, the Messenger of Allah also focused on daily speech by promoting and encouraging a change in language across the board. The result was the Allah Lexicon, the duly defined, scientifically-sound name for this semantic field of Allah-centric religious expressions.

Fourteen years ago, when a Peace Corps volunteer taught English at a science and technological university in Morocco, she was met with students uniformly polite and willing but also frustrated by the need to learn yet another language. “We’ve already learned darijah,” they would say, “and then classical Arabic, and finally French. All of our university classes are taught in French. Now, you are here to teach us English.” And she was, at the behest of the Moroccan government, which had recognized a growing trend that has since erupted into what we call “Global English.” Even then, as the internet was beginning to gain ground, but before internet cafés with second-hand computers became as ubiquitous as Moroccan coffee shops, foreign governments recognized that English was the language of science, social science, and technology journals. Innovation, invention, and research appeared first in English publications, later in French, and much later, if at all, in the Arabic language.

Whether one likes it or not, English is the most widely published language in the world. According to the latest available statistics from UNESCO, the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia combined publish an average of 400,000 English language books per year. The Chinese publish approximately 136,226 books per year while the Russians publish 123,336. The Spanish speaking nations of the world release an average of 102,250 works per year. The Germans and the Austrians publish roughly 104,000 books per year. The Japanese churn out some 45,430 books on a yearly basis. Yet, all the Arab countries combined publish a mere 15,000 books per year, many of which are in French and English.

If the number and type of books published per language per year is an important standard index of education, the English language has overwhelmingly become the language of culture, civilization, and science in the 21st century. As important as they may be, languages like Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German, and Japanese, lag far behind the English language in influence. Although it is spoken by 200 million people in 28 countries, and is the liturgical language of 1.5 billion Muslims, the Arabic language has long lost the privileged role it once had in the transmission of knowledge when the libraries in Muslim Spain churned out as many as sixty thousand Arabic works per year (Morrow, 2008, p. 523). Since so few books are translated into the Arabic language, and even fewer books are translated from Arabic into other languages, monolingual Arabic speakers are very much insulated from information that speakers of culturally dominant languages take for granted. In fact, for these Arabs, the door to anything newly written, whether it is in the area of literature, science, technology, or philosophy, is effectively slammed in their faces by their dictatorial governments. If one peruses the type of books now published in Arabic, they are predominantly related to religion, with relatively few concerned with scientific matters, literature, or international issues. This reality anchors Arabic, in the minds of Arabs as well as the rest of the world, firmly in the purview of religion.

As reluctant as certain regimes may be to relegate Arabic to second place in favor of English, the development of their countries currently depends upon it. For example, English is overwhelmingly the primary language of scholarship in the world; one can scarcely find a graduate program which does not require knowledge of English as a basic requirement. As Roy (2004) has explained in Globalized Islam, the English language has also become the de-facto language of political Islam. This state is not simply ironic, it is also one vehemently opposed by clerics who are limited by their single language fluency. As Roy further commented in an interview, Islamic fundamentalists are a perfect paradox. They oppose McDonalds and the spread of the English language, yet they speak English and consume halal fast-food. As evidence that global English has become the dominant language of the global jihad, the number of English-language sites sympathetic to al-Qaida has increased to more than 200, while radical Arabic language sites have dropped down to approximately 50 (IMRA, 2009).

At first, students like those in Morocco might have shared qualms about abandoning either their first language, Arabic, or even their second, French, in favor of a third, a language best known at the time for being the tongue of the blind supporters of Israel and those nations that were politically antipathetic to the Middle East in general, and Islam in specific. Yet, as young people’s cultural attachment to their first language faded in the face of expedience, perceived benefit, and a wave of mobile phone and computer technology, those voices, at first so vehement, have grown mute. The sentiments shared by Moroccan students are also shared by young Arabs throughout the Muslim world. As one young Kuwaiti graduate stated,

English is linked to openness and developed cultures, while Arabic is associated with strict rules and no freedom. So, of course I would be interested in English rather than Arabic. Arabic equals…no development, while English gives more chances to reach places other than home. (Kuwait Times, 2007)

His sentiments echo those of young men and women of ages and ages past, all of whom left home and language to go in search of work and advancement. “In doing so, they joined, willingly or unwillingly, a larger and broader culture, and their loyalties shifted from their geographically [and culturally] constrained origins to a wider society and idiom” (Tonkin, 2001, p. 6).

The Language of Prayer and Devotion

All over the world, people express their spiritual and religious beliefs in prayer. In many places, the language of prayer is also the language of everyday life. Other locations may have religious traditions so aged or from a source so distant that the language of prayer may no longer be in standard use. Formerly, Catholic masses in Latin were one example of this, as were Hindu services in Sanskrit. Whichever circumstance prevails, the act of applying an ancient linguistic instrument to direct communication with the deity provides a compelling connection. While writing on this topic for a US newspaper, Stephens (2000) observed that “speaking to God in an ancient tongue puts faith on a higher plane.”

Talking on that theme, we will not debate the brilliance of the Arabic language, nor argue the intrinsic cultural elements that may disappear if Arabic becomes, as it seems to be, a language in decline. Our focus will be on a single gem from Arabic’s linguistic fount. It is the language feature fostered by the Prophet Muhammad, nourished by a devout people, and one now being allowed to wane in the face of English as the world’s lingua franca. Arabic has, at the center of its religious heart, the Allah Lexicon, a panorama of verbiage that extols the deity, comforts the suffering, warns the incautious, and, in short, communicates the supremacy of Allah in every area of life. These phrases, plus the original transmission of the Qur’an in Arabic, put this linguistic affectation into a sublime realm.

Arabs have historically considered themselves blessed that their communication with Allah occurs in the language He Himself used to deliver divine revelation to the Prophet Muhammad. This reality has led Arabic to be considered a holy language, one that, as Fishman (1996) articulated, is a “direct and presumably unmediated transmission [from God] or something very close thereto” (p. 11). For Muslim Arabs, unlike the followers of many religions, there is no intermediating language between themselves and their prayers or their culture and God.

As a result of the Allah-centric nature of the Islamic faith, the Arabic language has become saturated with Allah expressions. Some of the most common expressions from the Allah Lexicon include, Bismillah [In the name of Allah]; Alhamdulillah [Praise be to Allah]; La ilaha illa Allah [There is no god but Allah]; insha’ Allah [If Allah wills it], Wa Allah [By Allah!]; Allah yakhlif [May Allah replace all you have used]; Allah yi’awn [Allah will help him]; Allah yijib [Allah will bring]; Allah yasahhal [May Allah make it easy]; Allah yafarraj [May Allah take the burden]; Fi amanillah [Go with Allah]; shukralillah [Thanks be to Allah]; Baraka Allahu fik [May Allah bless you]; Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest]; and Subhana Allah [Glory be to Allah], among many others, which vary nationally and regionally.

Thus, in addition to the name, Allah, the Prophet Muhammad himself actively campaigned to incorporate a vast collection of Allah-focused phrases into Arabic, thereby replacing a network of pre-Islamic pagan words and idioms. It must be stated that the Allah Lexicon is not a set of words and phrases used within the framework of formal religious devotions, but rather, they are multi-componential and bridge an array of every day speech, acts and situations. Our research has demonstrated that features of this Allah Lexicon are traditionally used by Arabic-speaking Muslims frequently each day to remember their Lord (Castleton, 2006). In 1999, we surveyed native-Arabic speakers about their use of this lexicon and found a level of daily use of select phrases to number in the dozens.

Many professions and particular groups employ specialized vocabulary. For example, you simply cannot interpret literature without employing literary terminology. The ability to use precise technical terms are a linguistic form of determining whether or not one belongs to a specific segment of society. That is the nature of key words; they are essential to the communication of an idea. So, we believe, are elements of the Allah Lexicon, arising out of divine dictum and tradition. The frequency and near infinite occasions for their use constitute a body of “key words,” the lifeblood of any culture or belief system (Wierzbicka, 1997).

These Allah-centric expressions, the heart and soul of millions of Muslims’ interactions and communications, are now at risk as the parent tongue faces a powerful competitor. Just as Modern Standard Arabic gave way in many locations to local dialects of Arabic, so have both more recently seen the encroachment of another language altogether, English, which now boasts fluent and semi-fluent speakers of over a billion, making it the Walmart® of the language universe. And, like Walmart®, the language serves, supplies, and provides the basics in an array of situations. The drawbacks of this spreading lingua franca, however, should not be overlooked, nor its impact ignored.

In this chapter, we ask a series of questions in relation to this transition and its impact on the use of the Allah Lexicon: 1) What is happening to Arabic? 2) Are native-Arabic speakers aware of the religious history and intent of Allah Lexicon phrases in their language? 3) Are native-Arabic speakers concerned about the diminishment of the use of these phrases when they begin to communicate more regularly in English? 4) What is lost in terms of religious connection when the words that bolster that connection do not translate into the new language? And 5) What might it mean in terms of long-term religious attachment to children growing up in an English-speaking educational system?

Dorian (1998) posits that languages are “seldom admired to death” (p. 3) as she explores the various reasons for the growing frailty and ultimate death of any language. Admiration would seem to offer a guarantee of constancy, at least among the speakers of the language if not with the broader population of the planet. At the same time, “it’s fairly common for a language to become so exclusively associated with low-prestige people and their socially disfavored identity that its own potential speakers prefer to distance themselves from it and adopt some other language” (Dorian, 1998, p. 3). For our purposes, this issue relates to the question, “What is happening to Arabic?”

The Problem

A language that arose in deserts, conquered lands, inscribed monumental literatures, revealed scientific truths, and the tongue that gave voice and form to the Holy Qur’an is fading in its use among the very people for whom it was long both a source of religious expression and beloved language. What is now occurring in Arabic-speaking societies and the realms beyond is a linguistic anomaly. Arabic, that near-sacred tool of poets and prophets, is being rendered an also-ran in favor of English, a language which neither supports the poetic traditions of Arabic, nor the devotional phrases that have added luster and spirit to its utterances and Muslim traditions. A Syrian Arabic instructor, working in the Middle East, offers, “There is a decline in learning Arabic in public schools now, especially in grammar and dictation. There is no love to the language and there is nothing interesting in the curriculums for students anymore” (Kuwait Times, 2008).

Certainly, this trend, of Arabs opting to use another language, has become more evident since 9/11, when American and Western hostility to all things Arab and/or Muslim resulted in thousands of hate crime incidents and a high level of suspicion toward anyone who spoke the language, all swarthy men who cultivated facial hair, or women who wore scarves. Annan (2005) diagnosed this bias and offered that, “in too many circles, disparaging remarks about Muslims are allowed to pass without censure, with the result that prejudice acquires a veneer of acceptability” (p. 4).

So rife is the American bias against those of Middle Eastern, Arab, or visibly Muslim background that many are changing their names to mask an unpopular heritage. Thus, two defining attributes, being or looking Arab or following Islam lead to discriminatory behavior on the part of functionaries, the legal system, and the airlines. In our own experience, many native-Arabic speakers stopped using the language in airports, out of fear that someone might believe they were plotting a terrorist act, a wise choice given the experience of Arabic speaking travelers (Williams, 2007). In short, many Arabic-speakers, even Westerners who have learned the language, refrain from its use in airports for fear of being profiled. Even written Arabic has become an anathema for some, as with the hubbub that arose when a passenger was barred from boarding because he was wearing a tee shirt with Arabic script. The Transportation Safety Authority (TSA) official who approached the passenger “equated Jarrar’s [wearing] an Arabic shirt to an airport with “wearing a T-shirt at a bank stating, ‘I am a robber,’” the complaint said (Hazell, 2007). Reported as recently as February 10, 2010, though the incident occurred in the summer of 2009, an American, Nicholas George, was detained, handcuffed, jailed and subjected to five hours of interrogation because he went through an airport screening post with Arabic-English flashcards in tandem with a politically controversial book. “Among the questions the TSA supervisor asked George, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, were: “You know who did 9/11?” When he replied, “Osama bin Laden,” the supervisor allegedly said to him: “You know what language he spoke?” before she held up the Arabic flashcards and asked if George understood why they were “suspicious” (Agence France Presse, 2010). In both these cases and many others documented over the past nine years, the indictment was not against a threat, an action, or a movement. It was against a language, a language that is increasingly being seen as a detriment by those who were born to speak it. “Flying while Muslim” or “Arab while flying” has suddenly become criminalized.

Languages are said to be, “safe, endangered, or extinct” in addition to “moribund” when a language is no longer taught to the young in a manner that will leave them fluent in all skill areas (Crystal, 2000, p. 20). The stages of language loss are known, and, if looking at the first instance, that is, a diminishing number of speakers based on a decrease in population, we will find Arabic failing to measure up. The populations of traditionally Arabic-speaking countries are thriving. The regions of the Mediterranean, North Africa, northern sub-Saharan Africa, and the Gulf boast a combined Arabic-speaking population of 280 million people (Arab News Network, 2006).

Yet, Arabic in the lands of Arabs is going the way of Latin, at least among the urban and educated. The language is now in those telling initial stages wherein Arabic is losing young tongues to speak it. “Schools aren’t teaching Arabic as they are supposed to and most of what’s being presented to our children is in English,” mourned a vice-committee woman in Bahrain, as she and others attempted to push for a resurgence of Arabic in one of its homelands (Gulf Daily News, 2008). Across the Arab world, concerns are being voiced. Arab researchers and intellectuals have warned that the Arabic language is facing numerous challenges and threats, and that only the united efforts of Arab nations can help protect it (Kuwait Times, 2008). Another article from Bahrain gives further evidence of this reality. The Shura Council of Bahrain, one of the wealthiest Gulf nations, recently legislated that Arabic was the first language of the island nation. Henceforth, all legal documents must be submitted in Arabic, with another language as a secondary option. “In reality Arabic is second to English, which shouldn’t be the case,” said one representative. “We have nothing against other languages,” he explained, “but they should be secondary, with Arabic being the country’s main language, whether in official letters or signs” (Gulf News, 2010).

The fact that English took precedence over Arabic in an Arab nation calls to the looming nature of the issue. The declining importance of the Arabic language among the Arabs themselves is ironic considering that language has always been the primary art form of Arabic culture. Other areas of the world had art or architecture, but for the Arab world, it was the grandiloquent configuration of words off a facile tongue that drew awe and attention. Hitti (1996) quoted a time-weathered ode to Arabic, when he wrote, “Wisdom has alighted on three things, the brain of the Frank, the hands of the Chinese, and the tongue of the Arabs” (p. 26). By honoring the Arabic language, Muslim Arabs honored the Word of God. Turning away from the Arabic language and script marks a major cultural shift.

As Fishman (1996) suggested before us, we will look at the insider’s view of the Allah Lexicon and these issues first, and offer up the outsider’s opinions and findings last (p. xviii). It is not without irony that this work is written and delivered in American English, a linguistic manifestation that owes its entirety to so many other languages and cultural influences that it evinces only a small measure of ethnic attachment, except insofar as “English Only” might be concerned. As such, native-speakers of American English have “no first-hand experience with the phenomena under discussion,” namely the loss of anything worthy in the face of language erosion (Fishman, p. xviii). The fact that most studies on the subject of Arabic linguistics are published in English, as opposed to Arabic, speaks volumes regarding the declining importance of Arabic as an academic language.

On two separate occasions, the fall of 1999 and the winter of 2009-2010, we surveyed groups of native-Arabic-speakers with regard to their use of the Allah Lexicon and their attitudes about English, Arabic, and their traditional culture. In both situations, for reasons ranging from access to the internet in order to send a response, to an ability to speak English in order to reply to the survey, our respondents were generally of the following demographic: 1) Predominantly male; 2) Urban dwelling if living in the Arab world; 3) Educated; 4) At least bilingual but often fluent in three or more languages; 5) Professionally employed or soon to graduate; 6) Interested in Arabic, English, and their relationship as well as the issues arising out of the diverse cultures involved; 7) Predominantly Muslim, though not exclusively; 8) Most living in the Arab world while a few lived in Europe or the United States.

Naturally, a somewhat narrow band of participants poses some problems. However, since the results of this study largely mirrored those of the previous study, and since many participants are professionally involved in observing language use, the validity of the results seems all the more sound. With 54 participants in the 1999 study, we proved conclusively that the Allah Lexicon is in daily and moment to moment use among Arabic speakers, even those who, by virtue of a higher level of education, have had more opportunity to travel, engage with people from other cultures, and be influenced by the broader print, film, and internet media (Castleton, 2006). It is not our goal to regurgitate those findings, but rather to explore whether the continued use of the Allah Lexicon has been impacted by the greater scope of the English language.

The Study

Fourteen countries from the Arab world were represented in this study, in which we added data from ten representative participants from the 1999 survey and forty responding to the 2009-10 survey. Our participants ranged from 19 to 62 years of age, with an average of 30 years of age, and came from across the Arab world, including Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, Palestine, and Lebanon, as well as Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq. While most of our respondents resided in the Arab world, several of them were French and American citizens of Arab ancestry. Whether they lived in the Arab world or abroad, all participants unanimously described themselves as native-speakers of Arabic with advanced proficiency in the language.

First, we desired to establish English fluency among the participants. Over 83% of our volunteers described themselves as having advanced proficiency in the English language, 14% had basic proficiency, while 3% had no knowledge of the language. 90% of participants had studied the language for 7 or more years, 3% had studied it for 5-6 years, and 7% had studied it for 3 to 4 years.

Morocco and Jordan produced the most responses for the more current survey. This is not surprising, as both these countries are considered more liberal in their outlook and their national leadership has responded more strongly to any encroachment on the government’s power to legislate and define the parameters of society. Morocco and Jordan have both had long-standing ties to the West, and thus to the languages of Europe and the Americas. Perhaps as a result of these circumstances, respondents from those countries are less likely to be concerned about the “motives” for this research and instead, be open to sharing their personal experiences with both Arabic and English. By far, the most markedly concerned prospective respondents were Arab students at the Shi’ite Seminary in Qum, Iran, who, with a sole exception, believed our study might be a Zionist plot to destroy Arabic and Islam. The Arab seminary students in Qum, most of whom are Iraqis and Lebanese, with whom we communicated by email and through our representative in the sacred city, manifested a sort of siege mentality, which made them particularly suspicious of studies being conducted by strangers.

The one question we did not ask any of the participants was “How religious are you?” since that is a question that has tenuous value in terms of this language feature. While we are interested in any erosion in the use of the Allah Lexicon as Arabic collides and gives ground to English, we discovered years ago, though it will not surprise anyone who has lived in an Arabic-speaking country, that the Allah Lexicon is regularly used without regard to religion in specific. Christians in the Arab world use the lexicon, though, as one stated, “Christian Lebanese do not say many of the phrases…especially the ones such as La ilaha illa Allah as they are distinctly Muslim in nature” (Wajdi, 1999). Visitors to the Middle East, Gulf, or the Maghreb, if they stay more than a few days may find themselves, like a willow tree bending to the wind, beginning to pepper their conversation with insha’Allah [If it be God’s will], wa Allah [By God!], or Alhamdulillah [Praise be to God] (Langewiesche, 1991). Though created as a body of language to be used for the reasons stated earlier, the Allah Lexicon has become so embedded in the Arabic language that it attracts all speakers.

Findings

One of the first issues we analyzed was the frequency of use of 24 Allah Lexicon phrases. The results of our two surveys on nearly identical populations, as defined above, demonstrate marked similarities in terms of usage. The group from 1999 declared a use of 69% percent of the 24 different Allah Lexicon phrases in the survey. That is, they professed to use at least 69% of them on a regular basis. A caveat must be offered here, due to the fact that some phrases, such as insha’ Allah, are used far more frequently than others, such as La ilaha illa Allah, which are more situationally specific. Despite 9/11, the negative press from some countries about Islam and Arabs, and the spread of global English, the results from 2010 were remarkably close, at 70% of the phrases in general usage. This demonstrates that, among those who still rely on Arabic as a form of communicative address, the Allah Lexicon is holding its own. Although all forms of the Allah Lexicon are employed, the ten most commonly used Allah expressions in Arabic include: Insha’ Allah (100%); Allah yakhlif (97%); Alhamdulillah (97%); Bismillah (93%); Allah yahfadh (93%); Allah yafarraj (90%); Sir ‘ala Allah (90%); Allah yarham al-walidin (89%), Allah yikhallik (79%); and Afak Allah (75%).

Although Allah expressions remain an integral part of the Arabic language, our survey clearly showed that the overwhelming majority of these expressions were not transferrable into the English language. More specifically, the phrases can be translated, but the lexical environment where they may be used does not arise. If the use of Allah expressions ranged from 40 to 90% in Arabic, the use of Allah expressions in English dropped to as little as 4% among our participants. While some subjects insisted on inserting calqued Arabic expressions such as “God-willing” and “Thank God” into their English, virtually all Arabic speakers suppressed these sayings when speaking English to non-Muslims. In fact, 82.5% of our respondents insisted that the English language does not provide space and acceptance for Allah expressions. The existence of core cultural concepts that do not translate, clearly confirms the scholarly stance of Thorndike, Evans-Pritchard, Williams, Parkin, Moeran, Sapir, and Wierzbicka in opposition to the academic arguments made by Chomsky and Pinker regarding the universality of human thought (Morrow, 2006, p. 8). In addition, nearly 60% of the participants felt uncomfortable integrating Bismillah, insha’ Allah, and Alhamdulillah into their English language speech, whether in their Arabic original, or an English equivalent.

Respondents noted, however, that while they generally suppressed Allah expressions when speaking with non-Muslims, they integrated them into their English when speaking to Muslims, which suggests the existence of a double discourse, a standard secular English used with non-Muslims and an Islamic English used with members of their own community. This could be likened to the formalized Japanese speech based on a cultural belief of the sanctity and respect due to elders and those of higher rank. The Japanese language forged these beliefs in an intricate social design that, even today, reinforces this attitude at every level of interaction and follows it up with respectful movement, eye contact (or lack of), and so forth. Yet, the Japanese are prepared to forego these linguistic and physical demands when engaged with people from another culture, precisely because those people are from a different culture, and the Japanese want to honor their foreign counterparts’ distinct set of beliefs. Nevertheless, religious honorifics are not presented in the Qur’an as choices, but as requirements, perhaps not quite as elevated as the pillars of Islam, but certainly with an implication of importance.

Still, when we examine the Allah expressions that these Arabs use when speaking English to Muslims, we find that they are not unique Arabic expressions being integrated into English: they are simply parallel expressions which are shared by both languages. According to our statistics, the cognitive suppression of Allah expressions ranges from 57% to 93.5% of those used. The only Allah expressions that Arabs integrate into English, at a rate of 66.5% of the time, are “God willing,” “God help you,” “God bless you,” “May God reward you,” and “May God give you good health,” all expressions that already exist in English. While these expressions are not nearly as common in English as they are in Arabic, they are standard phrases, and can be integrated without sounding too strange or alien. Idiomatically untranslatable and awkward Allah expressions like “May God fix,” “May God have mercy on your parents,” “Go with God,” “May God heal,” “May God remove your burden,” “God will bring you what you need,” “May God replace,” are consequently rarely used in English.

One of the ironies that came to light in this research is that, although most of our respondents repress Allah expressions when they speak English, 80% of them viewed the phrases as essential to their Arab/Muslim persona. This presents something of a paradox. Why is it that what is considered essential in Arabic is so easy to release in English? While we did not ask volunteers for information regarding their degree of religiosity, it can be assumed that the 20% of Arabs who did not view Allah expressions as essential were more secular-minded. Despite the fact that 80% of our respondents regarded the Allah Lexicon as essential to their Arabic-Islamic identity, only 50% of them reported that their children employed these expressions as often as the parents did, suggesting a generational decline in the use of religious expressions. Children will not embed linguistic patterns if they are not encouraged to and/or if they stop hearing the phrases at the same level previous generations may have due to the distractions and immediacy of alternate media. Considering the fact that 85% of the volunteer participants believed that the use of Allah expressions increases God-consciousness, and then find the youth not as attached to these words, seems to indicate the degree of devotion to the Islamic faith, as evidenced by verbal expression, may be in decline among young Arab Muslims. Conversely, only 37.5% of our respondents believed that a reduced use of the Allah Lexicon indicated less religious devotion. Although these responses may seem contradictory, they may be reconciled to a certain extent. It would appear that for many Arabic-speaking Muslims, the use of Allah expressions is a type of dhikr or mantra, one which helps bring people closer to God. Merely because one does not invoke God perpetually, however, does not necessarily mean that one is less devoted to Islam. One may still be a pious Muslim. After all, most Muslims do not speak Arabic, and may use few, if any, examples from the lexicon. Without a doubt, we are focusing on Arabic-speaking Muslims, who, historically, have had the double bond of language and religion.

The attitude of our respondents towards the Arabic language was unanimously positive and optimistic. Over 93% of participants felt that Arabic played a valuable role in their lives. As many expressed, they viewed the Arabic language as central to their identity, be it Arab or Islamic. Approximately 80% of our volunteers were optimistic about the future of the Arabic language, while the other 20% was pessimistic. Even the more encouraged among the respondents admitted that the Arabic language was facing problems. Still, they believed it had a bright future, that it was spreading throughout the world, and that it would live forever. They considered that the increased attention that the Arab culture and Islam were receiving would bode well for Arabic as a viable language of the future. Some especially enthusiastic respondents believed that Arabic was making a come-back worldwide, and would remain the language of not only the Arab world, but of the Muslim world as whole. Others insisted that the future of Arabic was firmly linked to the future of Islam. Many others commented that Arabic would continue to prosper and flourish in the future.

Pessimistic contributors pointed out that the Arabic language was declining in countries like the UAE, which is subject to strong Western influence. They feared that the language was endangered by both the hegemony of other languages and the negative attitude of some of its own speakers. Some believed that Modern Standard Arabic would continue to lose ground at home, while spreading globally for religious and economic reasons; whereas, the colloquial dialects would continue to becoming increasingly contaminated by French and English borrowings. Several volunteers described the Arabic language as “threatened,” and “endangered.” Others believed that Modern Standard Arabic will go the way of Latin, and become merely a language of limited use relegated to religious and literary realms.

The attitude of our respondents towards the English language was almost entirely positive. For every one, it was merely another means of communication, one that was becoming increasingly important in a globalized world. While many Arabs may be averse to the negative aspects of globalization, they have no problem with the English language per se. In short, nationalistic attempts to outlaw or limit the use of the English language, as have taken place in Quebec, would probably find little support in the Arab world.

Overall, the impact of the English language on Arabic speakers can be clearly gauged by these results. A full 50% of participants indicated that they used English extensively on a daily basis, while another 14% used it sporadically on a daily basis. In fact, respondents living in Arab countries reported that they listened to English-language media nearly as much as they listened to Arabic-language media. For many participants, opting for English as opposed to Arabic was related to issues of content and comprehension. Many turned to English language media in an attempt to obtain a more balanced perspective on world events. For others, following the news in English was far more facile than following it in Modern Standard Arabic, the choice of the Arabic audio media. Such comments are curious since our respondents were almost exclusively university students and professors, all of whom were perfectly proficient in MSA. If even educated speakers of Arabic found it tiring to listen to al-lughah al-‘arabiyyah al-fushah, it makes us wonder the degree of difficulty and even despair the uneducated ‘amiyyah or dialect speakers must face when trying to follow the news on television.

Thus, while Arabic remains strongly-rooted in much of the Arab world, 65% of our respondents explained that English has taken precedence over Arabic in the realm of commerce, while 47.5% remarked that English has taken precedence over Arabic in their national educational systems. In his study on the spread of global English in Singapore, Viniti (2008) found that English dominated Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil in the public and educational domains, that it competed with them in the domain of family, friends, and the media, and that the native languages dominated English only in the domain of religion. According to his findings, religion now plays a major role in retaining native languages and acquiring knowledge of sacred languages such as Arabic. One can only wonder if English will become the global language of business and education in the Arab world, relegating colloquial Arabic to the family kitchen and classical Arabic to the mosque.

Rather than resent the spread of English, 100% of respondents believed that English played a valuable role in their lives. This is a remarkable finding considering that 93% of them believed that Arabic also played a valuable role in their lives. It seems that, for at least 7% of respondents, the English language is of more value to them than their mother tongue, due to the fact that they depend on English for their sustenance and career advancement. As numerous volunteers explained, they did not view English as a British or American language: they view it as an international language of communication. Some 37.5% of respondents believed that the spread of English in the Arabic world would lead to an Arabization and Islamization of the English language. This aspiration may appear to be misplaced optimism given the state of international politics. Yet, there is a courageous hope in this response, one that speaks to the belief in the power of one language to influence another. Certainly, English has adopted thousands of words from other languages over the last 1000 years. While half of Arabic speaking Muslims believed that English could be Islamized, 70% believed that the Arabic language could not be secularized.

The idea that Arabic is a sacred language seems to be deeply ingrained in the Arabic-Islamic mindset. As was demonstrated in “The Omnipresence of Allah in the Arabic Language,” Muslim languages like Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and Malaysian have only been superficially Islamized when compared to Arabic (Morrow, 2006, p. 7-70). Attempts by Muslim converts from the West to “Islamize” English have thus-far failed. The Allah expressions and Arabic terms they include in their English use are only marginally significant when compared to the whole. The sole exception to this fact seems to be the Aljamiado Spanish of the Moriscos which is so saturated with Arabic Allah expressions and religious terminology that several scholars describe it as “an Islamic variant of Spanish” (Gómez Renau, 2000; Hegyi, 1985; Sánchez Álvarez, 1988).

In our most recent survey, it was equally important to determine the extent to which the Arabic language was being passed down to the next generation, thereby providing a platform for speculating on the many upcoming generations. As we have already noted, 50% of Arab speaking parents have observed that their children use fewer Allah expressions than they do. In fact, only 60% of our respondents said their children could speak Arabic, 47% could write Arabic, and 53% could read it. In contrast, 50% of our respondents reported that their children could speak English, and 57% reported that they could read and write it. It would advance our understanding of the younger generation’s attachment to Arabic if we knew whether they were being taught in Arabic at school or in English. This last issue is shown to be a proliferating pattern based on the current media evidence we gathered and discussed earlier. The data from our survey indicates that our respondents, all adults, did not themselves belong to the English-educated Arab elite. The vast majority of them had been schooled in Arabic at the elementary, secondary, and university levels. If these parents are already noting a decline in the use of Arabic Allah expressions, and even cases of Arabic attrition among their children, one can only wonder the extent of language loss occurring among the children of the English-educated products of the private schools that are well nigh ubiquitous in some parts of the Arab world. If our results are indicative, Arab parents are presently producing the first fully bilingual generation of Arabic/English speakers. However, with the dominance of English, Arab children may be entirely and exclusively Anglicized in generations to come.

While exposure to English varies greatly throughout the Arab world, there has been an increase in the spread of English-language schools and English-language instruction in North Africa and the Middle East. Despite the French government’s paternalistic attitude towards its ex-colonies and its fears about a decline in the use of French, many countries in the Maghreb are now focusing on English as opposed to French. Algeria, in a foresighted move, left the francophonie, dropped French as an official language, removed it from the school system, and replaced it with Arabic and English. Although the relationship between Morocco and France has often been sour, Morocco has always had excellent relations with the US. Like Algeria, Morocco is determined to drop the use of French and replace it with English instruction. However, because it receives “French language support” funds from the French government, it may be a while before the change is fully implemented. Tunisia, like Algeria and Morocco, has moved away from the ambitious Arabization plans of the past, and is, instead, embracing a policy of Anglicization through education. The Arabization plans have been dropped in most Arab countries for a long host of reasons, including, the political failure of Pan-Arabism, the discouragingly deep divide between Arabic dialects and MSA, and the ever increasing need to communicate in English, the current language of political and economic power.

In Egypt, a former British colony, knowledge of English has always been encouraged. In Lebanon, where French was once the language of prestige, English has become the “cool,” contemporary, and most modern language for today’s youth. In countries like Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, English has become the unofficial second language. In fact, English is so dominant in Dubai that lawmakers felt obliged to declare Arabic as the official language in the UAE in 2008. As Kitbi, Professor of Political Science at Al-Ain University noted, “To my knowledge, there is no nation that allows an invasion of foreign languages in government institutions the way we did in the UAE. The move [naming Arabic as the official language] will correct the imbalance” (Tristam, 2008, p.1). Despite this symbolic gesture, English remains the overwhelmingly dominant language in the UAE Although Arabic is the language of public education, English is strongly stressed.

The primary language in most private schools throughout the Arab world is English, a fact that is, year after year, producing new generations of Arabs who, while they speak colloquial Arabic, have little or no comprehension of MSA, and cannot even read or write the language (Gawab, 2010). One generation back, and thence ages and ages past, the ancestors of these young people could all read the Qur’an, even if they read nothing else. In Islamic Spain, for example, there was scarcely a boy or girl over the age of twelve who could not read or write Arabic (Morrow, 2008). Becoming proficient was considered a duty as well as a privilege. While it is not unusual for language attrition to occur among emigrants, it is highly unusual for a situation like this to develop, where individuals lose a language while still living in the birthplace of that language. Rather than attempt to communicate in Arabic, many young Arabs have succumbed to the easy appeal of the English language.

One manifestation that we have noted personally among children raised in the US of Arabic speaking parents is that when the children are very young and Arabic is the language of the home, they come to understand and respond automatically to communications verbalized by their parents or other Arabic-speaking family members. When they are older, however, and have begun attending a preschool or kindergarten, where the spoken language is English, the easy fluency of their first years dissipates somewhat as English, or any other language in its place, comes to be seen as “dominant” and “more useful.” It is then that a linguistic tug of war begins. It is not a war in which there will necessarily be one victor. In bilinguals, what will happen is that the speaker will begin “code switching.” Code switching is a process in which, while speaking one language, the speaker will insert a word from his or her second language, in effect substituting one language for another (Heredia & Altarriba, 2001 p. 164). Language dominance would then be determined by which language is the language of “flow” and which one is the language of “insertion.”

The results we have received from our respondents clearly confirm the growing influence of the English language in the educational system throughout the Arab world. A question about the language of instruction employed at the elementary, secondary, and university levels in their respective home countries provided the following picture:
LanguageElementary SecondaryUniversity

Arabic 343012
English 81221
French 434

It is evident that, in many Arab countries, elementary, secondary, and university education is bilingual, either Arabic-French or Arabic-English. What is interesting is the exponential increase of English, as opposed to French, usage, from the time many Arabs are children to the time they are university students, and the significant decrease in Arabic language instruction. The use of Arabic declines from one third, while the use of English increases nearly three-fold. As numerous participants pointed out, while Arabic may remain the language of instruction in public schools, English is the language of instruction in private schools. Increasingly, English is a language of privilege in the Arab world, one which may contribute to a more profoundly disparate class system than mere money might allow. Since many specialized fields of study are taught exclusively in English in Arab universities, Arab children who completed their studies in private English-language schools, find themselves at a distinct advantage over their poorer peers from the public school system. These elite, English-speaking Arab students, may well enter engineering and medical programs, while their economically disadvantaged monolingual peers, end up in economically unprofitable fields, such as Islamic Studies or Arabic literature.

The question of how this situation has arisen remains a conundrum. Although we assumed that the decline in MSA usage was attributed to poor pedagogical approaches, we were surprised to find that 45% of respondents believed the materials and resources used to teach Arabic to Arabs were good. Another 31% found them to be excellent, and 21% considered the books, media, and instruction to be of fair quality. Only 3.5% of respondents viewed the material as pedagogically poor. Coincidentally, 63% of respondents rejected the notion that studying MSA was both boring and difficult. Those who did find it dull blamed the textbooks used to teach it, in addition to great difficulty due to the difference between their colloquial dialects spoken at home and MSA. Still, when asked to compare the method used to teach English and the method used to teach Arabic, 60% of respondents described English as being more appealing. This response may point to the more modern approach used to teach English. It relies more on communicative methods and less repetition than the traditional method used to teach MSA. As far as our participants were concerned in relation to the materials used to teach English in the Arab world, 47.5% viewed them as good while 25% viewed them as excellent. Another 20% opined that the English textbooks were poor and 7.5% found them fair. When asked whether Modern Standard Arabic should be the main language of instruction in the Arabic speaking world, 80% of respondents responded affirmatively, while 20% argued that the language of instruction should be colloquial Arabic. When asked whether English should be the main language of instruction, 95% of participants rejected the idea.

The results from our survey stand in sharp contrast from those presented by al-Abed and Oqlah (1996). Their survey of 1,176 undergraduate students in Saudi Arabia concluded that English does not spread Westernization, does not weaken national identity, and does not corrupt religious commitment. If we are to believe their results, most university students in Saudi Arabia believe that learning English is both a religious and national duty. As a result of their findings, the researchers recommended that a rigid English language policy be implemented in the Kingdom. Objectively, given the responses we have received from a wide range of Arabic speakers, it is difficult to believe that Saudis view learning English as a religious obligation versus an economic or cultural advantage. The Prophet taught Muslims to “seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave,” yet, not all knowledge leads to wisdom. Thus, to take on a language like English, one that is profoundly secular and brings with it a world of controversial ideas, overt sexuality being the least of them, as a religious obligation, begs intense reflection and understanding. We have pointed out that even those who are briefly in an Arabic speaking country will find themselves, without conscious thought, utilizing the more common Allah phrases. Who, then, can learn English without learning all that comes along with it?

When we embarked on this socio-linguistic mission, we sought to determine whether the spread of global English would lead to the de-Islamization of the Arabic language. As evidence of the decline of Allah expressions observed in previous studies by Ferguson (1983) and Morrow (2006), 52.5% of respondents believe that global English is eroding Arabic-Islamic identity and culture and that globalization spreads secularism. These results seem to suggest that the issue of globalization and its impact on culture remains a contentious, or perhaps little understood, issue. Interestingly, most respondents distinguished between the spread of English, which they did not view as a threat towards their religion, and globalization, about which they had more qualms. While they may disagree on the damage caused by global English, 70% of our respondents assert that the Arabic language was critical to understanding Islam. A loss of Arabic, then, would inevitably weaken the influence of Islam in the world.

It might be that modern life and its myriad adjustments, this time in the form of global English, has resulted in a new schema that cannot always support the specific terms and exchanges comprising this matchless feature of the Arabic language. What then, can take their place where Arab Muslims gather and English is spoken? It may be that, in the way of any relic whose time is past or whose survival is not a priority, the Arabic language will evolve as many of its dialects have, into a language only spoken by a few and written less and less. In that case, what becomes of Arab identity? These are the questions that all Muslims and Arabs who traditionally speak Arabic but may now be moving away from it, need to ask themselves. How will Muslims support, layer, and enhance their devotions through the spoken word, a task Prophet Muhammad saw as so vital? In Arabic, it is said that “the strength of a person is in his intelligence and tongue” (quwatu al-insani fi ‘aqlihi wa lisanihi). The Allah Lexicon has been an inseparable part of the language and the culture for fifteen centuries.

Perhaps the first step is this one, to assure that as many as possible are made aware of the history of these phrases and the reasons they became such a verbal force in all areas of life. Those who may be releasing this body of connection should be reminded of the frequency and diversity of these phrases and become conscious of what will be sacrificed solely in aid of modernity or sophistication or professional advancement. Perhaps the willing sacrifice of such a linguistic boon should be approached with due caution and some consideration of the societal, cultural, and religious ramifications. Yet, even we cannot propose the optimal response to the possible demise of this feature, and certainly we cannot presume know what it should be for others. Nevertheless, each of us has drawn a line in the sand at one time or another, saying, “This far and no further,” with regard to the retention of something we cherish. Perhaps, that moment is now, even as secular society tries to encroach on what we hold dear.

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• 1. This article, which was co-authored by my friend and colleague, Barbara Castleton, was originally published in Global English and Arabic: Issues of Language, Culture, and Identity (New York: Peter Lang, 2011), edited by Ahmad al-Issa and Laila Dahan.