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Sharjah Ruler launches first 17 volumes of 'Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language'

The dictionary will be available on a dedicated website and app.

Published: Wed 3 Nov 2021, 8:28 AM

Updated: Wed 3 Nov 2021, 4:56 PM

By
Afkar Ali Ahmed

His Highness Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member, Ruler of Sharjah and President of the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah, launched today the first 17 volumes of the ''Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language'', during the opening of the 40th edition of Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), organised by the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) at Expo Centre Sharjah.

Sheikh Sultan bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Deputy Ruler of Sharjah, was also present at the launch ceremony of the dictionary, the biggest Arabic linguistic knowledge and information project that documents the history of Arabic language lexicons and their usage transformations over the last 17 centuries (Pre-Islamic to current times).

The dictionary not only provides history, origins, meanings, and explanations of words, but also documents the history of the nation, preserves its civilisation, and celebrates the achievements of Arabs. It describes the words, the definition of the semantics of words according to their historical contexts and their etymology.

Sheikh Sultan also announced that the dictionary will be available on a dedicated website and app.

Arabic Language Historical Dictionary introduces to the new generation the history of their grandparents, their regions and historical events in which it may pave to carry out larger and deeper historical and linguistic studies. The dictionary connects the new generation with the history of the nation through the precious language, which preserves the tradition, values and the history of the nation.

In a keynote address, the Sharjah Ruler noted: “Arabic is one of the longest living languages. We are here to celebrate Arabic language experts who gathered to work for years to document the roots and meanings of the Arabic language alphabet. We have started to work hard and bridge the gaps that were existing in the documentation of the language. Finally, the sun has risen on this beautiful Corpus, which is the fruit of the efforts of a number of Arabic language institutions across the region.

“The role this detailed corpus will play in informing and educating students, researchers, and linguists and even the everyday language enthusiasts will be immense. I am not exaggerating when I say that there has been no other project that has attracted my attention or the attention of the Arab linguist community in our region to the extent that this project has. I am following up on the development of the efforts of everyone involved in this project, and I assure you that in the coming years we will be publishing several more volumes. I thank each and everyone involved in making this project a success”, His Highness added.

Sheikh Sultan also signed the first edition of the Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language at the SIBF 2021 opening ceremony.

The first volumes of the corpus are dedicated to the first five Arabic letters: the hamza (ء), ba (ب), ta (ت) tha (ث) and jeem (ج) and outline their evolution throughout the pre-Islamic period, the Islamic era from 1 AH to 132 AH, the Abbasid Caliphate from 133 AH to 656 AH, and the modern-day era from 1214 AH to date.

Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language website

The website will offer scholars, linguists, researchers and language enthusiasts access to the 17 volumes of the corpus from anywhere in the world. The website also features a section that hosts a bibliography of books that were consulted to write the first volumes of the Historical Corpus, and lists the names of the editors, linguists and experts from the 10 Arabic language academies across the Arab world. who collaborated on the project.

The digital platform that was created to access the online Historical Corpus of the Arabic Language is easy to use and it can rapidly filter the search results in historical contexts. Moreover, it has an optical recognition software (OCR) that converts written texts into spoken words.

Champions of Arabic language bring the historic project to fruition

The corpus has seen the collaboration of hundreds of senior researchers and linguists, editors and experts from 10 Arabic language academies across the Arab world, under the supervision of the Union of Arab Scientific Language Academies in Cairo, Egypt, and with the Arabic Language Academy in Sharjah managing the project’s executive committee. The corpus relies on a database of sources collected and digitised over the last four years, comprising 20,000 Arabic books, manuscripts, sources, and historical documents, including old inscriptions and archaeological finds, dating back to the third century before Islam.

It traces the history of a given word and identifies the first user and evolution of that word from pre-Islamic Arabia all the way to the modern time. In this respect, it is different from any other dictionary because it cites vibrant quotes from the Holy Quran and Hadith as well as from poems, speeches, letters and other sources.

It also reveals the development of Arabic idioms and expressions through the centuries, and documents the entry of new words into Arabic language, lists words that are no longer used, and explains the reasons why. Besides, the corpus reviews the development of arts and sciences that directly relate to linguistics including grammar, morphology, philology, phonetics, rhetoric, rhyme, and so on.

The corpus also offers comparative lexical reviews on Arabic and the influence it had on other Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Akkadian, Syriac, Abyssinian, and Amharic. An expert committee outlined the similarities and differences between Arabic words and the equivalent words in those languages, citing examples and documenting the bibliography and reference books that were used in the project.