ADDRESSING MULTILINGUAL MINORITIES: A CALL FOR A BATTLE-SPECIAL WEAPON IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 IN THE ARABIAN GULF COUNTRIES

European Scientific Journal, ESJ

Health is a common issue for all human beings. As a consequence, everyone in the world has in some way to cope with the language of medicine. This is true now more than ever due to the global health crisis caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has introduced a great amount of terms, previously mostly used by epidemiologists and statisticians, but which now have entered the daily lexicon of many languages. As the medium of international scientific communication, English is the language of worldwide information about the pandemic, and the main source of terms and expressions for other languages. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on English lexicon has been so deep that the Oxford English Dictionary Online (OED) released special updates in 2020 to fulfil the need to document the phenomenon. However, previous studies (Khan et al. 2020; Deang and Salazar 2021) have highlighted the important question concerning the existence of several ethnic minorities who have Limited English...

MedEdPublish

Background: Studies show that the introduction of early public health interventions correlates with decreased rates of transmission and reductions in mortality resulting from epidemic or pandemic events. Methods: Medical educators and students from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso created the El Paso-Health Education and Awareness Team (EP-HEAT) to educate at-risk populations in the border region. The English and Spanish material created by EP-HEAT included information about disease symptoms, transmission, preventive measures and mental health resources. An online, anonymous survey was distributed to attendees to obtain feedback on the provided coronavirus disease (COVID-19) educational material. Results: The results showed that over 90% of participants agreed that the informational pamphlets increased their awareness and knowledge of COVID-19. Conclusions: In this study, educators and students created COVID-19-related material in virtual workshops and pamphlets,...

Multilingua, 2020

This study examines the communication strategies employed by Qatar's government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The study contributes to a growing body of work on the sociolinguistics of crisis communication. We focus on the use of South and Southeast Asian languages, spoken largely by blue-collar migrant workers, which are often seen as peripheral even though they are spoken by a large segment of the population. The deployment of these languages during Qatar's COVID-19 awareness campaign assumes further significance against the backdrop of a series of measures taken by the government in the last few years to strengthen the status and use of Arabic. We analyze multilingual printed pamphlets , multilingual audiovisual communication through radio and social media, as well as interviews conducted with key figures who were part of the awareness campaign. Our examination of the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability of the multilingual awareness materials reveals that while the different languages and modes of communication were important in spreading awareness, equally critical, if not more, was who carried the information and in what forms. We show the significant roles community and religious leaders and social media influencers played in disseminating the awareness information to the diverse migrant language communities.

World Journal of English Language, 2023

The outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 brought a crucial need for clear instructions to control and prevent the virus"s spread. In the context of the Arabic language, the demand for medical translators soared and the public needed clear health guidance more than ever before. This study aims to investigate the challenges of the English-Arabic translation of COVID-19 prevention and control terminology using a domesticating approach (Venuti, 1995) to overcome any challenges. A set of criteria, "conciseness, precision and appropriateness" (Giaber and Sharkas, 2021) is used for the assessment of the quality of the translation. Additionally, a questionnaire of English-Arabic translation samples is answered by 32 participants (26 males and 6 females), to evaluate the quality of these translations based on "clarity and naturalness" (Halimah, 2015). The results indicate that linguistic and cultural challenges are found in the English-Arabic translation of COVID-19 prevention and control terminology. They also indicate that the application of a domesticating approach improves their quality and helps to overcome linguistic and cultural challenges in translation.

International Journal of Arabic-English Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact not only on public health but also on language dynamics, including the Arabic language. Arabic has witnessed a rapid expansion of its vocabulary in relation to COVID-19. The objective of this research is to demonstrate the newly added vocabulary and examine how these terms have been assimilated from English into Arabic. The study employs a qualitative approach, utilizing the “Dictionary of COVID-19 Terms (English-French-Arabic)” as its primary resource. The data analysed in this study consist of entries pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic found within the aforementioned dictionary. The analysis incorporates content analysis, as well as phonological and morphological analysis. The findings of this investigation reveal the presence of four distinct absorption strategies employed in the dictionary: adoption, adaptation, translation, and creation. Among these strategies, the translation strategy is found to dominate the process of absor...

Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2023

The paper discusses providing (or not) information about coronavirus during the pandemics of COVID-19 in minority languages in Russia. It explores different minority languages, indigenous, and migrant, in the announcements and doctorpatient communications. The study is based on the observation of the linguistic landscape in 4 Russian cities (N=150) and on materials from semi-structured interviews. According to the data, Russian has been the preferred language for communicating official information about COVID-19. Doctor-patient communication in the multilingual regions was also predominantly in Russian, but there is a tendency to use another, minority native language in communication with mid-level medical staff and with all other actors in the rural area. The paper discusses creation of a more trusting relationship between a doctor and a patient by using the native language.

European Journal of Multilingualism and Translation Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a plethora of new words and terminology in various languages, including Arabic. This linguistic phenomenon stems from the need to describe and discuss the unique circumstances and developments surrounding the pandemic. This study aims to find out the challenges faced by Arabic translators when incorporating these newly coined terms into the Arabic language and culture. The localization of COVID-19 terminology is a complex and challenging task, but it is essential to ensure that Arabic speakers have access to accurate and up-to-date information about the pandemic. The results indicate that there are linguistic and cultural challenges in the English-Arabic translation of COVID-19 prevention and control terminology. By using a variety of linguistic techniques, Arabic translators can help ensure that these new terms are accurately and effectively localized into Arabic. Article visualizations:

International Review of Humanities Studies, 2021

This research was motivated by the emergence of a virus called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-cOv-2) or also called Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) which has been the cause of the global pandemic. It is obvious that science will continue to evolve as there are problems existing in this world. New terms or vocabulary in health sciences has begun to emerge along with the presence of this virus, either in control of the virus or in the prevention of the virus. This study discusses the Arabic vocabulary in the health register that has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of morphology and semantics. This analysis uses the qualitative descriptive method. The main purpose of this study is to expose to the readers on the forms and meanings in the health register of Arabic vocabulary that has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data obtained in this study are outlined from the almasdar online newspaper from Yemen and assisted with an Arabic dictiona...

IASET, 2020

Like all other outbreak of pandemics in the history of the world, one of the challenges posed by Corona Virus otherwise known as COVID-19 is that it is very strange to the medical world, with little or no available record for it. In combatting it, especially as precautionary moves, governments of many nations had to embark on sensitization of their citizens using language. However, in Nigeria's context there is a challenge arising from the fact that Nigeria has about 450 languages used distinctly by those that have the languages as their mother tongues. In view of this reality, this study focuses on the role of English language in combating COVID-19 in Nigeria, which is a multiethnic and multilingualcountry. It aims at evaluating how English broke through the linguistic barrier that would have ordinarily been posed by litany of tens of hundreds of ethnically based languages scattered all over the nation. The work adoptedqualitative methods as secondary data were reviewed to form opinion. Hence, the study identifies several important issues regarding the positive influence of English in fighting COVID-19 in Nigeria multiethnic context. The findings are expected to be a useful tool for policy makers in Nigeria and other multilingual countries in forming opinion on why English should be the lingua franca in multi-ethnic nations.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS, 2022

In Zambia, COVID- 19 and other health lifesaving information is not adequately disseminated in the indigenous languages understood by the majority citizens. In cases where this information is written in local languages, the terminologies are inexact due to wrong methods and approaches to translation. This study sought to establish the appropriate methods and approaches to translation and it has also attempted to come up with the most appropriate and correct Tonga terminologies for COVID-19. The study also recommended that African languages should be taught in medical tertiary institutions so as to equip health practitioners with African linguistic knowledge.