Arabic Language Day: Kuwait Highlights Efforts To Preserve, Promote Arabic

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) News report by Amna Al-Shammari
KUWAIT, Dec 18 (KUNA) -- Kuwait is participating on Wednesday, in celebrating the International Arabic Language Day, honoring a language spoken across 22 countries and by hundreds of millions worldwide.
Arabic is distinguished for its unique features and holds the status of one of the oldest languages in the world.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is dedicating the celebration to highlight the valuable contributions of the Arabic language under the theme: Arabic Language and AI: Advancing Innovation while Preserving Cultural Heritage.
The event gathers top scholars, industry experts, and cultural leaders to explore how AI can bridge this digital gap, enhancing Arabic representation online and fostering both innovation and heritage preservation.
The event starts with opening remarks from distinguished speakers, leading into sessions on Arabic AI innovation, cultural and linguistic preservation, and digital empowerment, and concludes with a captivating light calligraphy show.
The UN recognizes Arabic as a gateway to a world rich in cultural diversity, reflecting varied origins, beliefs, and traditions, and it has inspired extraordinary creations in art, literature, poetry, philosophy, architecture, and music.
For centuries, Arabic served as the primary language of politics, science, and literature, leaving an indelible mark on human history.
Arabic helped in promoting the dissemination of Greek and Roman sciences and philosophies to Renaissance Europe, and it has enabled a dialogue of cultures along the silk roads, from the coast of India to the Horn of Africa.
UNESCO aims to highlight Arabic's role in fostering intellectual growth, expanding human understanding, and advancing knowledge, and how the language's grammar and phonetics have also played a critical role in broadening linguistic capabilities and enabling the articulation of new sounds.
Kuwait plays an active role in supporting and preserving the Arabic language, as enshrined in its Constitution, Arabic is the country's official language, used in government correspondence and widely promoted through academic institutions, cultural organizations, and public initiatives.
Kuwait's contributions to Arabic are evident through various cultural and literary publications, events, and institutions, notably, Al-Arabi magazine, a Kuwaiti initiative, stands as a cultural gift to the world, alongside renowned works by Kuwait's National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters.
The Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS) has also contributed significantly to Arabic through encyclopedias, educational books, and magazines.
The groundbreaking efforts of Sakhr Software, founded in Kuwait, introduced pioneering Arabic-language computer systems and tools for language analysis, writing correction, and more.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs published books on the Arabic language, while Alwaei Al-Islami magazine has issued an array of educational materials.
The Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation actively promotes Arabic and Arabic poetry through specialized training courses and international conferences in collaboration with over 50 universities worldwide.
Various public and private organizations in Kuwait also host events to encourage learning and reading in Arabic, and associations such as the Kuwaiti Writers Association and Joud Charity work tirelessly to enhance cultural identity, promote the Arabic language.
International Arabic Language Day is celebrated annually since December 18, 2012, coinciding with the day the UN adopted Arabic as one of its official languages in 1973 and recognizing its status as one of the most widely spoken and influential languages globally. (end)
as

MENAFN18122024000071011013ID1109006413