Copyright © 2005 Ali Darwish. All Rights Reserved.

A peculiar translation-induced phenomenon in Arabic today is the all-pervasive adoption of the English language perspective of verticality in the daily parlance, idiomatic expressions and specialized terminologies of modern Arabs. Wholesale borrowing of English expressions, such as highly appreciate, high quality, high competence, high performance, high skills, high professionalism, high definition, deep concern, deep doubts, deep regret, deep crisis, deep conflict, under the circumstances, under construction, under siege, raise awareness, etc, are being used willy-nilly everywhere in the Arab world, by laypersons and specialists alike, in every quarter of human thought and action - in stark violation of Arabic norms, standards and rules. Yet the whole Arab mass seems to be oblivious of this alien usage. Teachers, doctors, engineers, politicians, journalists, translators, thinkers and tinkers are daily parroting these expressions in such a bizarre fashion.

The verbatim translation of such expressions into Arabic diminishes their original idiomatic meanings, weakens the metaphor they convey and produces stilted Arabic expressions.

This paper examines the notion of verticality in English to express intensity, profundity, and extreme degree, contrasted with the Arabic notion of horizontality and amplitude to express the same.