Lebanese language

The Lebanese language belongs to the Semitic family of languages that includes Phoenician, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Related forms of this spoken language include the Palestinian Arabic dialects, the Coastal and Central Syrian Arabic dialects and some dialects of Jordanian Arabic to a lesser extent. The Lebanese language is an amalgamation of various languages that passed over Lebanon. It is a result of centuries of cumulative linguistic assimilations, thus is the state of every living language today.
In addition to daily conversations, Lebanese is used in an extensive body of popular poetry, play production, popular music, television shows, and much more. Due to the huge media production in Lebanese, the language became instrumental in understanding the rest of the languages and dialects spoken in Palestine, Syria and Jordan.
First pioneers
Saiid Akl was one of the first pioneers of the Lebanese language. In one of his interviews, he claimed that the Arabic language is a dead language and that the natural linguistic development will eventually lead to the institutionalization of the Lebanese language. His views were based in a nationalistic ideological approach towards language. Even though his theory carries much weight, it was part of a larger political agenda for various groups, mainly Christian, who were seeking to distance themselves from the larger part of the Arab world. This association proved to be a drawback to the development of the Lebanese language for decades, since a sense of resentment was boiling between opposing political and militant groups in Lebanon during the period of the civil war. The subject became highly sensitive, and was attacked at every occasion as being a "Christian phalangist" agenda directed towards the Lebanese Muslim communities that view themselves as part of the larger Arab world. Two early pioneers of the Lebanese language were Muslims, Kamal Charabi and Nagib Jamalleddine. Yet this fact was not sufficient enough to overcome political rivalry between the Christian and the Muslim militants.

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