On February, 18 Muhammad Abdulkarim Alzikri delivered a lecture devoted to Arabic dialect that is spoken by Bahrain citizens. This lecture was held in the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies.
Professor proposed to compare Arabic literary language and dialect and give a definition to these notions. It was discovered that the dialect is older than the literary language that is believed to emerge in the same time with the Koran. In this respect the language was formed by borrowing from other dialects in order to the Holy Book be understandable to all tribes that lived on the territory of the Arabian peninsula in the middle of 7th century.
Professor remarked that the Arabic dialect spoken by bedouins – peninsula aborigines – is very eloquent and contains a plenty of figurative comparisons and descriptions. This fact can be proved by numerous poems from that time.
By the example of TV program broadcasted by Bahrain channel, where the narrator spoke one dialect and the program guest the other, students were asked to decode the heard phrases by picking out cognates and suitable meanings from Arabic literary language.
Summing up the seminar, Professor added that even that the knowledge of Arabic literary language is important, however, it is insufficient while looking for a job in Arabic countries.