Vernacularism and the Arab Human Paradigm: An Epistemological Framework Linking Language, Identity, and Literary Inquiry

Abstract

For more than a century, Arab linguists and intellectuals have recognized the absence of a comprehensive scientific methodology capable of studying their language as a living system rather than as a sacred relic. Scholars such as Ṭāhā Ḥusayn (1938) and Tammām Ḥassan (1980) called for an objective and empirical approach to language — one that liberates Arabic studies from emotional reverence and dogmatic ideology. Their call parallels that of the Prague Linguistic Circle, whose members, including Roman Jakobson and Vilém Mathesius, envisioned a functional and interdisciplinary model that unites language, literature, culture, and psychology.

Vernacularism (Maḥallaniyah) emerges as the long-awaited methodology that fulfills these aspirations. It bridges literary theory, discourse analysis, and linguistic anthropology by grounding all inquiry in the living tongue (al-lisān al-ḥayy). Through Vernacularism, Arab scholars can now conduct field research into spoken dialects and linguistic practices without fear of judgment, politicization, or accusations of “fragmenting unity.” It redefines Lisān al-‘Arab (Arabi) as a plural, dynamic ecology of expression—rather than a static standard imposed by prescriptive grammarians — and restores scholarly freedom to investigate language as a social and psychological phenomenon.

By reconnecting linguistic study to lived human experience, Vernacularism revives what the Prague School initiated: a holistic epistemology of language as both structure and life. It offers Arab linguistics an emancipatory framework that resists symbolic violence, dismantles hegemonic hierarchies of “high” and “low” speech, and empowers researchers to engage their cultural realities with scientific integrity. Ultimately, Vernacularism invites a new generation of Arab scholars to study language scientifically, not sentimentally; culturally, not ideologically — reclaiming through the vernacular the full spectrum of human creativity, expression, and knowledge.