Today, Iraq faces a real threat to its linguistic diversity, as many of its authentic dialects approach the edge of extinction, despite the main pillars it represents in its rich cultural and historical identity.
On June 8, the Strategic Center for Human Rights launched an urgent invitation to protect about 500 local – major and suburbs – threatening to disappear, stressing the importance of preserving local dialects as an integral part of the popular heritage and cultural identity of Iraqi society, which reflects the “deep” civilizational and linguistic diversity.
Current challenges indicate a noticeable decline in the use of these dialects and their inheritance between generations, as well as the risk of actual extinction, due to a set of social, political, and demographic factors, according to the heritage expert Junaid Amer of the Iraqi Antiquities and Heritage Authority.
Amer indicated during his talk to Al -Jazeera Net to several threatened dialects, the degree of its exposure varies, the most prominent of which is:
- Mandaean dialect: It is spoken by the children of the Sabian sect spread in Maysan and Dhi Qar Banghaad. This dialect was influenced by Aramaic, and it is severely threatened by the small number of speakers, the migration of many, and its inheritance between new generations.
- Modern Syriac dialect: The Assyrians, Syriac and Chaldeans are used in areas such as the Nineveh and Dohuk Plain. Although it is still relatively alive, it is threatened by displacement and wars, especially after the invasion of ISIS, which led to a mass displacement of its speakers.
- Network dialect: Especially the Shibak group in the Nineveh Plain, and is affected by Turkmen and Kurdish languages. It faces linguistic pressure from Arabic and Kurdish, which threatens its specificity, especially with the mixing of the population after displacement.
- Fili dialect (Faili Kurds): A distinctive Kurdish accent partially threatened, given the displacement of many forcibly the Kurds, and the dependence of a large percentage of them on the Arabic language in their daily lives.
- Zanzibar dialect: A very rare and very threatened tone, which some families of African descent speak in southern Iraq, especially Basra And Zubair. Most of its speakers merged into the surrounding Arab community, which led to its gradual disappearance.
- The original Bedouin dialects: In Anbar, Muthanna, Najaf and South Baghdad (such as the Shammar, Al -Dulaim and Al -Mazzah dialects), it faces a gradual threat due to the urbanization and the transition of the population of cities, which leads to abandoning them in favor of the prevailing civil dialects.
In total, Amer estimates that between 6 to 8 accents in Iraq is threatened with permanently and hundreds of other hundreds that began to gradually weaken, and the degree of threat from almost extinction ranges to a possible danger if it does not take close steps to preserve it.
Education is an angle stone to preserve linguistic heritage
To confront this challenge, Amer stressed the importance of including these threatened dialects in educational curricula, in a strategic step to preserve the various cultural and linguistic identity of Iraq, suggesting that this be done within the curricula of cultural and social studies, and not within mandatory linguistic courses, to enhance pride in the linguistic pluralism instead of feeling superior or deficient.
Amer stressed the importance of interactive educational methods, such as pictorial stories, the school theater, and the production of auditory and visual content (popular songs, folkloric tales, and animation) in local dialects. He also stressed the need to train teachers to present these dialects with respect and balance.
The role of the government is pivotal and necessary
Amer stressed that the Iraqi government has a pivotal and essential role in supporting this initiative, considering dialects as part of the informal heritage of Iraq, calling for:
- Official recognition of these dialects as part of Iraq’s linguistic wealth and a component of cultural diversity, through constitutional legislation or special laws.
- Establishing specialized centers for archiving and registering these dialects scientifically with sound and image, in cooperation with universities.
- Allocating financial budgets to support activities related to dialects.
- Supporting the official media to broadcast programs in local dialects and enhance their position in public awareness.
- Protecting speakers by enacting laws prohibiting discrimination or ridicule from any local accent.
The absence of comprehensive official studies
Amer revealed the absence of an official government study or a comprehensive national survey in Iraq It classifies dialects according to the criteria of the risk of extinction, indicating that most of the information available comes from individual academic research, the contributions of cultural and religious organizations, and limited reports from UNESCO, as well as personal initiatives.
He pointed to the urgent need for a comprehensive institutional national project that includes a comprehensive linguistic survey, a scientific classification of dialects, the creation of a digital database, and the determination of risk levels to link them to awareness, education and protection programs.
Iraqi dialects in light of digital globalization
For his part, the academic and researcher in Iraqi heritage, Qasim Balchan, warned against the great and effective influence of social media and modern technology on the role and originality of Iraqi dialects.
Balshan told Al -Jazeera Net that the absence of a real culture to preserve these dialects threatens an integral part of the Iraqi identity, explaining that Iraq, its ancient history and its cultural diversity, abounds with hundreds of dialects, especially with the presence of more than 18 governorates, and every city – and even within one city – includes dozens of sub -dialects.
He added that these dialects, whether major or sub -, did not receive adequate attention that is commensurate with their importance as a mirror that reflects the history of grandparents over thousands of years, but some of them may be “dead dialects” that penetrate the depth of history.
He affirmed the pivotal role that the cultural centers and various state institutions should play in protecting this linguistic heritage, stressing the need to organize festivals and hold workshops to introduce these various dialects.
He also warned that what he called “hybrid dialects”, which are accents affected by vocabulary from Arab and non -Arab countries, may lead to poor control of the authentic and ancient Iraqi dialect in light of global openness through social media, calling for serious interest in deeper studies in this field to preserve the purity of these dialects.
Balshan stressed that protecting the Iraqi dialects is at the heart of promoting the Iraqi national identity and the cultural diversity of the Iraqi individual, describing the Iraqi accent as a “abstaining easy”, characterized by its lightness and rhetoric, which contributed to its recent spread recently in many countries, especially Arabic, whether in humor or songs, which makes it a popular and acceptable tone of various societies.
An invitation to document the dialects threatened with extinction
For his part, the researcher in literature and folklore, Adel Hassouni Al -Ardawi, called for the establishment of specialized research centers. They perform reconnaissance tours in various regions of Iraq, to document dialects that almost became extinct from the mouths of people, before it is too late.
Al -Ardawi – Al Jazeera Net – stressed the importance of these steps. With his conviction of the need for such initiatives, he expressed his belief that “there is currently no ground available for that,” noting that “there is no understanding of the importance of these popular dialects, whether in urban areas or villages and countryside.”