Arabic as a scholarly language? Pitfalls of multilingualism in scholarship

Abstract

Virtually all Arabists at some point ask themselves whether they should take into account specialized literature in Arabic, whether to take part in conferences held in Arabic countries, and which language they should choose for publishing their work. In this paper, we try to review this question in a broader context of the language of scholarship. By adducing historical and typological parallels, we reflect on the role of language in conducting research and exchanging ideas. The authors of this article are both linguists specialized in Semitic languages; therefore, they concentrate on the problems of their field, although these should be relevant to some extent also for the adjacent fields in the humanities.