Okay, the Arabic language is beautiful. It can sound musical and poetic, or exacting and fierce. It’s got metaphors that have lived through empires and colonialism, and ancient texts to boot.
But let’s admit it. By (almost) 2015, it’s also got some vocabulary that’s better off scratched clear out of the dictionary.
Politics, culture and a bit of good old fashioned ignorance have all played a big part in the way Arabic speakers refer to certain things. And some old dubious words seem like they’re harder to get rid of than your chatty next door neighbor.
The ugly
An Arabic speaker might, for example, refer to someone who is cunning as “Yahudi,” which is Arabic for Jewish. *Sigh* Maybe we haven’t found peace for Palestine and Israel, but perpetuating racist terms like that one sure isn’t helping. And, unfortunately, there are many more like it.
This isn’t only an Arabic problem, though. Plenty of words in Latin and Germanic languages have been revamped to take on more enlightened connotations, or booted out altogether in the last 30 years or so. And Arabs have already made inroads in the mission to make linguistic progress!
Yalla, let’s get it right!
The good news is that the Middle East is on a clean-up operation with campaigns advocating for positive or trendier substitutes to promote tolerance and attitude shifts.
We’ve got enough problems in the region without these ignorant phrases giving Arabic a bad rap. So get yourself together, and be careful the next time you open your mouth!
Un-PC words for the trash can!
Here are some words and phrases we wish we could smoke out the Arab vocabulary. Some tired terms need to be rehabilitated with 'nicer' versions or binned altogether and consigned to the scrap heap. Inshallah our deck of dodgy Arabic words becomes history so that we can bust into 2015 with dignity!
