Arwi

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Arwi (لسان الأروي  Lisān-ul-Arwī ; அரபு-தமிழ் Arabu-Tamil ; Arabic-Tamil) is a Tamil dialect that was used extensively by the Muslim minority of Tamil Nadu state of India and Sri Lanka. As a spoken language its is extinct now. It is the result of the fusion of Semitic Arabic and the Dravidian Tamil. The Arwi script utilises the Arabic alphabet togather with the addition of 13 letters unique to Arwi.

Arwi is an outcome of the cultural synthesis between the Arabs on the one hand and the Tamil speaking Muslims of Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu. Perhaps, no other aspect of the Sarandib-Arab and Indo-Arab cultural heritage is as important as this outcome of the historic meeting of these two different and distinct linguistic cultures.

There are significant historical records of the prevalance of Arwi in Far Eastern countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, etc up until the 1970s. Even today, there are Arwi schools functioning in Malaysia, Myanmar and Pakistan.

The strength of the foundation of a language can be judged by the literature that has been produced in jurisprudence, belief, sufism, law, medicine, sexology and others. There was even a translation of the Bible into Arwi in 1926. Arwi language contributed immensely to the education and progression of Muslim women in South India and Sri Lanka. They were active participants in the social fabric of society playing vital roles in education, medicine and even politics. The decline of Arwi in the later half of the 20th century has also seen the steady decline of the education of Muslim women in that region.

A large proportion of Arwi works have been lost in two periods of time:

16th century – The arrival of the Portuguese. This is the most tragic period in the history Arwi language. Amongst other atrocities, their destruction of Arwi literature meant that an entire corpus of knowledge was lost.

20th century – The arrival of mainstream printing press. Using the Arabic script meant that Arwi could not jump onto the printed easily. A slow but sure demise of Arwi began. Presently, there are invaluable manuscripts being eaten away by termites in private, public and institutional libraries. Efforts are underway to halt the decline and revive the language.

References

Shu’ayb, Tayka. Arabic, Arwi and Persian in Sarandib and Tamil Nadu. Madras: Imāmul 'Arūs Trust, 1993.
Tschacher, Torsten. [Arwi (Arabic-Tamil) — A Brief Report . newKOLAM, 5&6, 2000.]

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