ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a detailed description of both the internal and the external challenges facing the Arabic language. Two major internal challenges facing the Arabic language are diglossia and modernization. Arabic is considered an archetype of the linguistic circumstance known as diglossia, signifying that two linguistic systems – a written language and a spoken language – exist simultaneously and manifest great differences both in form and in symbolic values. The challenges facing the Arabic language in Arab countries in general and in Israel in particular are enormous. Challenges to the Arabic language did not arise only through cultural contact, colonialism and later imperialism, but also through globalization, which brought with it new challenges. The opponents of globalization claim that English is a 'killer language', spreading like a cultural epidemic in various parts of the world and erasing unique voices and cultural identities.
