Arabic Language and Power Identity in Lebanon

Arabic Language and Power Identity in Lebanon
Name
Institution
Course
Date of submission

Introduction
Over 200 million people speak the Arabic language in the modern world as their sole mother
tongue language with great dominance in the Middle East as well as North Africa. The Arabic
language has been officially adopted in these countries as the principal language in all operations
of the nation such as in education and administration1. After the Islamic conquests and
resettlement of the Arab tribes during the 7th Century, the Arabic language was established. The
Arabic language does not only serve as a symbol of national identity but also as a revered
language in the Christianity and Islamic religion. Therefore, it has become a unifying
denominator of the religious, cultural, and political identity. Lebanon commonly known as the
Lebanese Republic is a state in Western Asia whereby the influence of Arabic shaped their
history, cultural identity, political, ethnic, and religious diversity2. This paper, therefore,
discusses the linguistic construction of national identity in Lebanon and the political, social-
cultural, and religious conflicts regarding Arabic language in Lebanon. The issue of politics of
identity in Lebanon has been influenced greatly by Arabic and the introduction of other
languages such as French and English.
Religious ideologies, struggle for identity, and the Arabic language in Lebanon
The debate on Arabic language and the identity for the Lebanon people has been going on for
many years now. The issue has been going on from mid-19th Century to date especially in the
Middle East region. The Christians, for instance, in mid-19th Century, played a significant role in
1 A. Simpson, Language and national identity in Asia, Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 13.
2 F. Traboulsi, A history of modern Lebanon, Pluto Press, 2018, p. 33.

bringing out what is now known as the Arab renaissance (nahda). Majorly, nahda was cultural
and literary, but it influenced the development of Arabic greatly as a bond of national identity
over any religion3. At the time, Arabic was linked exclusively to Islam and, therefore, it resulted
into a lot of political unrest between the different groups. As such, the concept of nahda was able
to bring this contention into a rest.
Arabic is the mother tongue of Lebanese and, therefore, it was supposed to bring unity rather
than conflicts. Due to such issues and power for identity, these groups went ahead in resisting the
Turkification policies introduced by the Ottoman authorities in the administration and education
sector. The bone of contention was the power of identity and self-definition between religion and
Arabic language. Some elite Christians discovered that for unity to be brought forth, then, the
Arabic had to loosen ties with Islam and thereby allow Christians more association with the
language. By doing so, the Arabic became a marker or a sign of identity for both of the groups4.
It is important to note that there were other languages besides Arabic before the modern era. For
instance, there was Turkish, English, Russian, and French especially in the education systems
that was expanding mainly at the time. But there was segregation between these languages and
various groups of people5. Linguistic identity battle ensued between these groups where they
fought for the Arabic language to be the marker of their identity since it was their native
language from the beginning. Arabic acted as an identity for the Muslims where they took pride
3 A. Kaufman, A Reviving Phoenicia: The Search for Identity in Lebanon, IB Tauris, 2014, p. 19.
4 M. Al Batal, 'Identity and language tension in Lebanon: The Arabic of local news at LBCI. In
Language contact and language conflict in Arabic', Routledge, 2013, p. 115.
5 A. Hager, ‘Lebanon is more than a nation, more than a country. It is a message. Lebanon as a
model of Christian–Muslim relations', Journal of Beliefs & Values vol. 38, no. 3, 2017, p. 289.

in the fulfillment of their religious duties. Language acts as a strong symbol of ethnicity and,
therefore, it represents people’s identity especially for those that are politically separated.
Politics of identity and the Arabic language in Lebanon
When French assumed power in Lebanon, it announced that Arabic was the official language for
the Lebanese people but, in the year 1926, it amended the constitution declaring French to be an
additional official language alongside Arabic. It was implemented in the public and private
schools especially in the teaching of science subjects, social studies, and mathematics. On the
other hand, English could be used in the field of technology, business, and science and could not
be used to give a particular group identity nor was it a culture language6. The French mandate
ended in the year 1943 after Lebanon achieved its independence. However, up-to-date, the
French language competes with the Arabic language in the determination of cultural identity for
the Lebanese people. The competition is pronounced in the education sector and the arena of the
national self-definition. The political and civil war in Lebanon during the period between 1975-
1989, was as a result of Lebanon’s split identity that was known as bilingualism7. The hostility
intensified especially regards linguistic and cultural terms. The war ended in 1989 when the
various political parties and Lebanese parties came to an agreement that Lebanon was Arabic in
identity. The struggle in Lebanon continues over the national and language identity8. The
Lebanese linguistic politics, therefore, fight for the realignment of power regarding French and
6 R. Diab, 'University students’ beliefs about learning English and French in Lebanon', System,
vol. 34, no. 1, 2006, p. 86.
7 K. Shaaban and G. Ghaith, 'Lebanon's language-in-education policies: From bilingualism to
trilingualis', Language Problems and Language Planning, vol. 23, no. 1, 1999, p. 2.
8 Y. Suleiman, The Arabic language and national identity. Edinburgh University Press, 2003, p.
57.