ABSTRACT
The learning of sacred language has been understudied, although millions learn at least the rudiments of a sacred language, and sacred language learning is deeply meaningful for many. A sacred language is one the learner or user believes to have a special religious or spiritual value and learns and uses exclusively for religious or spiritual purposes. Examples include Biblical Hebrew and Pali. Empirical research on sacred language learning is scarce, scattered, and dominated by sociolinguistic approaches. Evidence shows that sacred language learning differs from non-sacred languages: Comprehension is often not required, the aim is not interpersonal communication, and there are differences in identity, attitudes, emotion and motivation, among others. The chapter reports a comparison of the learning of sounds and spoken forms in learners of Quranic Arabic and Sanskrit. Three themes are discussed: the importance of language sounds, the importance of accurate pronunciation, and the emotionality of the language sounds. Within each theme, commonalities and differences between the two languages, and differences with second language phonology research are discussed. It is argued that including sacred languages can extend and diversify theories and evidence in L2 research.
