Bibliotheca Polyglotta

ʕĪsà ʕUbayd, Muqaddima (1921)

Complete text

III-§1.a

ويجب أنْ أعترف أنّ مسألة اللغة التي يجب أنْ تكتب بها المحادثات الثنائية "Dialogue" قد أجهدت فكري وأتعبتني كثيراً قبل أن توصّلت إلى إيجاد حلّ لها –

wa-yaǧibu ʔan ʔaʕtarif^a ʔanna masʔalaẗ al-luġaẗ allatī yaǧibu ʔan tuktab^a bi-hā al-muḥādaṯāt al-ṯunāʔiyyaẗ "dialogue" qad ʔaǧhadat fikr-ī wa-ʔatʕabat-nī kaṯīr^an qabla ʔan tawaṣṣaltu ʔilà ʔīǧād ḥallⁱⁿ la-hā –

However, I have to confess that the question of the language in which the dialogues¹ should be written has tired my mind and caused me much pain before I eventually found a solution for it.

1. ʕUbayd gives an Arabic expression and the French word here: al-muḥādaṯāt al-ṯunāʔiyyaẗ (dialogue).

AR: masʔalaẗ al-luġaẗ, muḥādaṯaẗ ṯunāʔiyyaẗ, ʔīǧād
EN: …

واللغة مشكلة عويصة تعترض الكاتب الفنّي ، لأنّ الفرق عظيم جداً بين (ع) اللغة التي نكتب بها واللغة التي نتكلمها ؛

wa’l-luġaẗ muškilaẗ^un ʕawīṣaẗ^un taʕtariḍ^u ’l-kātib al-fannī, li-ʔanna ’l-farq^a ʕaẓīm^un ǧidd^an bayna ’l-luġaẗ allatī naktub^u bi-hā wa’l-luġaẗ allatī natakallamu-hā;

Language, that is to say, is a tricky problem that any serious writer has to face, because there is such a big difference between [p. xvi] the language we write in and the language we speak.

AR: luġaẗ, kātib, fannī (fann)
EN: …

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