The Egyptian language survived the arrival of the Greeks, the Romans and Christianity, but not that of Arabic and Islam in the seventh century AD. No one quite knows why.
Because the Arabs were settler colonialists intent on genocide of the civilisation they conquered.
‘S obvious, innit?
Nothing changes…
Egypt pre Islam was largely Coptic Christian with a smattering of Jews and some Old Believers.
Attitudes to other religions depended on who was in charge. Some rulers chopped all the infidels they could find and some were content just to tax them instead. Hence both Coptic and Jewish commnities survived and became protected by the Ottomans, becasue these groups controlled most of the trade in the province.
“English could come under pressure as a global lingua franca if China replaces the US as the world’s dominant superpower.
Such a statement cries out for the ancient laconic reply….If.
The rise of Islam coincided with the domestication of camels. Coincidence or causation? Anyway, Islam and camels still overlap geographically.
Boganboy should be worried. Lots of camels in Oz.
Yeah Philip. As I understand it, the first Moslems were imported into Oz to mind the camels!!
‘The big idea: could the English language die?’
Only if or when all the English language speakers die. It’s a moot point as to whether this is more likely to be facilitated by us and our governments or by incoming persons.
Greek and Roman were Indo-European languages, Arabic is semitic and Egyptian is (or used to be called) Hamo-Semitic.
So just as the not-very-different Anglo-Saxon absorbed Danish in these islands, perhaps Arabic absorbed Egyptian. It was sufficiently similar to do so. Plus, of course, yer violence and all that.
Maybe the soldiers they recruited were obliged to learn Arabic just as Roman legionnaires were obliged to learn military Latin. Come to think of it, this might be one of those language transitions that’s pretty well recorded. What do the historians say?
The Arabs didn’t force Arabic on the Iranians (Indo-European language) nor on what’s now Pakistan and Bangladesh (ditto). Nor on the Turks they defeated (Turkic).
To what extent did they force it on the conquered populations of Spain and Portugal?
Related:
Demanding a public apology from the PM, Care4Calais CEO, Steve Smith said, “This is dangerous language for any prime minister to use. Has Starmer forgotten last year’s far-right riots?”
“Shameful language like this will only inflame the fire of the far-right and risks further race riots that endanger survivors of horrors such as war, torture and modern slavery. Starmer must apologise,” he added.
Do we need Steve Smith, or should he be banished from our society for working to destroy it?
I’m thinking he should be deported to Dogger Bank.
Has Starmer forgotten last year’s far-right riots?”
The recently released report in to the riots said they weren’t ‘far-right’.
Will Steve Smith retract his lies before the enflame something?
Jimmers – would you know it, he’s another confident bluffer from our “world class” tiny model army that hasn’t won a war since 1982 and just got its arse felt in the failed proxy war with Russia*:
Steve Smith MBE is a former British Army officer. He served on operations in Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Iraq.
On leaving the Army, Steve became involved in international aid and development. As CEO/board member of several charities, he has overseen programmes to reduce armed violence, support refugees, and safeguard children in conflict zones, in Africa and the Middle East.
He was appointed MBE for his work in Northern Ireland.
The MBE is just the cherry on top of the dog egg, these 105 IQ fuckwits are a public menace. All the idiocy of a window licker, but with all the confident braying of an army orifice posh nob.
Abolish the British Army, sack all the chinless losers in scrambled egg, New Model Army now.
*Don’t worry, they like it
Even if China becomes the world’s greatest power, it’s hard to see Chinese replacing English. It’s just too damn hard to learn as a foreign language – just the spoken form of Mandarin is tough if you grew up speaking a non-tonal language, and the written form (even the ‘simplified’ version) is essentially impossible. Note that most Chinese would be considered functionally illiterate in a western country (much the same is true of Japanese, which explains the popularity of Manga).
For a very readable (and only slightly tongue-in-cheek) explanation of the problems see:
https://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html
@ Jimmers
“far-right” is Newspeak for anyone of whom the Party disapproves. So of course the riots were “far-right” even though 90+% of those involved were working-class locals who habitually vote Labour.
@Steve, in better times a former Army officer who relocated to France to assist the invasion of Britain would be in line for a firing squad.
I wonder what rank Steve Smith was, when he ‘left’ the Army? Quite a few officers, who fail the Junior Staff Promotion Exam, realise that promotion above Major will be very difficult, so they go on to non-military pastures new. Charities, especially those with military connections are quite popular, but they are usually headed by retired Brigadiers or Generals, so a recently retired Captain would hardly get a look in. Perhaps his involvement in Care4Calais, and trying to flood the UK with small boat invaders, is one way of getting back at the system that stopped him becoming a Field Marshall?
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