instead of Arabic?
Coptic etc… were at one time adopted, and today constitute an integral part of Lebanon’s rich linguistic and cultural heritage; they are a component of our identity as much as Arabic, if not more. Furthermore, membership in a certain nation is a self-defined (and not an ‘other-defined’) perception; it is not what people think I am, it is what I think I am which makes me member of a given culture, nation, or community. Nevertheless, should the Maronites regret the adoption of the new tongue from the desert? “Nonsense” answers Henri Lammens, “those are regrets of archeologists, and pointless Jeremiads”, and just as the French do not lament the loss of Celtic (the ancient tongue of their Gaelic ancestors) the Lebanese should draw solace from having chosen a noble instrument such as the Arabic language (among many other, and equally important, languages) for the perpetuation of their ancient civilization. “For man, the past never dies our completely” wrote the French historian Fustel de
