Arabic Language Day (Arabic). اليوم العالمي للاة العربية ) has been celebrated at the UN since 2010. Then, on the eve of International Mother Language Day, the UN Department of Public Relations proposed establishing its own holiday for each of the six official languages of the organization: English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French. It is envisaged that this initiative will serve to strengthen intercultural dialogue and promote a multilingual world.
For Arabic Language Day, the date chosen in the international calendar was December 18th. On this day in 1973, the UN General Assembly included Arabic among the official and working languages of the United Nations.
Arabic language — treasury of ancient Islamic wisdom. Poets, philosophers and scientists, drawing on the power and beauty of language, have made an invaluable contribution to the development of humanity.
Currently, the number of people who speak Arabic and its varieties is more than 400 million. For religious purposes, the classical Arabic — language of the Koran — is used by adherents of Islam around the world (the number of Muslims exceeds 1.5 billion people).
Over the centuries, Arabic has been constantly changing — mainly concerned the pronunciation of vowel sounds. However, these changes were almost not reflected in the letter, because short vowel sounds are usually not written in the text (the exception is the Koran).
Currently, classical, or as it is commonly called, high Arabic cannot be called the language of communication — is not used colloquially. But it is used on — writing when publishing books and even modern newspapers. In scientific and technical literature, if there is a lack of terms, French is used (in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria) or English (in other Arab countries). It is known that the first printed book with Arabic script was published in 1729 in Turkey.
Arabic is among the official and working languages of the General Assembly and some other UN bodies. It is the official language of all Arab countries, as well as one of the official languages in Israel, Eritrea, Chad, Somalia and Djibouti.
On December 18, various events are being held at the UN Secretariat to allow everyone to get acquainted with the Arabic language and Arabic culture.