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1. The following article deals with a question which, considering its importance has attracted too little attention on the part of the numerous writers who have dealt with the problems of Modern Egypt. The phenomenon of a nation possessing two different idioms, the one for conversation and the other for literary purpose, is one by no means confined to Egypt, and for that very reason possesses a more general interest, because this duality of language not improbably accounts for the intellectual unproductiveness which characterizes so many Oriental and some European nations. Those who have wondered at the sterile results of Vernacular education in those countries will, perhaps, not be surprised when they realize the handicap imposed by a traditional written idiom which is no longer the spoken language of the country.

2. In Egypt there are two languages, one the language of conversation (Arabi darig), the other that of literature and oratory (Arabifasih). The first is a Neo-Arabic language, bearing the same relation to classical Arabic that Italian bears to Latin, or Modern to Ancient Greek. The use of this vernacular is absolutely banned in literature, it being regarded as a base and vulgar idiom, incapable of literary expression, much as Italian was before Dante wrote his ‘Inferno’ and justified its use in his ‘Convito’. Every Egyptain who would be considered educated must acquire the written language, a semi-classical idiom which differs very considerably from the vernacular, both as regards grammar and vocabulary.

3. The practical disadvantages of thus having two languages are very great. Further, it is hard for us to understand 1385 Minute of Dissent