THE LANGUAGE OF NABATI POETRY OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: EVOLUTION IN A THOUSAND YEARS

Back to Page Authors: Kamila Panek

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Keywords: linguistics, United Arab Emirates, Nabati, poetry

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Abstract: This paper aims to submit evidence that contemporary Nabati poetry derives from the traditional Bedouin experience, lifestyle, and mentality. At the same time, it attempts to show how the Nabati language used in the Khaleeji famous kind of poetry has been evolving during centuries. In order to obtain diligent knowledge regarding the Nabati poetry, the paper relies on publications of His Excellency Jamal bin Howaireb, Saad Abdullah Al-Sowayan, and Ibrahim Hamid Al-Chalidi. That enables us to distinguish some crucial characteristics of Bedouin heritage. To show some dependencies between culture and language I will use the publication of cognitive linguist Daniel Everett. In the presentation, there is applied a descriptive approach to the continuously vivid Nabati poetry of the Gulf. The results of this paper might shed some light on the Nabati poetry in general, as well as explain the uniqueness of the literary heritage of the Gulf in comparison with the Western literature. The research on Nabati poetry can widely contribute to understanding its phenomenon in the United Arab Emirates. More accurately, the paper tries to denounce the reasons behind such a big popularity of this poetry in Emirati society.

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