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"Arabic" redirects here. For other uses, see Arabic (disambiguation).
Arabic
العربية al-‘arabiyyah 
al-‘Arabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script):  
Pronunciation: /alˌʕa. Naskh (نسخ also known as Naskhi or by its Turkish name Nesih, from Arabic نسخ nasakha, naskh meaning "to copy" raˈbij. ja/
Spoken in: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara, Yemen as one of the official languages; Iran and Turkey by the local Arab minorities; it is also the liturgical language of Islam. Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's The Kingdom of Bahrain (in مملكة البحرين,, literally Kingdom of the Two Seas) is an Island country in the Persian Gulf Chad (Tchad تشاد Tshād) officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a Landlocked country in Central Africa. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Eritrea () ( Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritriya) officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern The State of Kuwait ( دولة الكويت IPA [dawlatt̪ alkuwajt̪]) is a sovereign Arab Emirate on the coast of the Persian Gulf, enclosed Lebanon (ˈlɛbənɒn Arabic: ar لبنان Lubnān) officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic (ar الجمهورية اللبنانية Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Mauritania (موريتانيا Mūrītāniyā officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman ( Arabic: سلطنة عُمان) is an Arab Country in Southwest Asia on the southeast Name There are differences of opinion as to what the Palestinian territories should be called Qatar ( قطر; ˈqɑtˁɑr local pronunciation giṭar officially the State of Qatar (Arabic دولة قطر transliterated The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. Western Sahara ( Arabic: الصحراء الغربية; transliterated: as-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbīyah; Sahara Occidental is a territory Yemen ( Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman officially the Republic of Yemen ( Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhuuriyya For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iran topics. Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation.
Total speakers: Estimates of native speakers between 186 and 207 million and as many as 246 million non-native speakers [1].  
Ranking: 2 [2] to 6[3] (native speakers)
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Semitic
  West Semitic
   Central Semitic
    Arabic 
Writing system: Arabic alphabet 
Official status
Official language in: Official language of 25 countries, the third most after English and French[4]
List
Regulated by: Egypt: Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo

Syria: Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest)
Iraq: Iraqi Science Academy
Sudan: Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartum
Morocco: Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat (the most active)
Jordan: Jordan Academy of Arabic
Libya: Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya
Tunisia: Beit Al-Hikma Foundation
Israel: Academy of the Arabic Language (first ever in a non-Arab country)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-1: ar
ISO 639-2: ara
ISO 639-3: ara – Arabic (generic)
see varieties of Arabic for the individual codes 
Image:Arabic speaking world.svg
Distribution of Arabic as sole official language (green) and one of several official languages (blue)
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Algeria ( ar [[Arabic]] الجزائر, Al Jaza'ir ælʤæˈzæːʔir Amazigh: ⴷⵥⴰⵢⴻⵔ Dzayer) officially the People's The Kingdom of Bahrain (in مملكة البحرين,, literally Kingdom of the Two Seas) is an Island country in the Persian Gulf The Comoros (ˈkɒməroʊz; جزر القمر Juzur al-Qumur) officially the Union of the Comoros (Union des Comores الإتّحاد القمريّ Chad (Tchad تشاد Tshād) officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a Landlocked country in Central Africa. Djibouti ( جيبوتي Jībūtī, Somali: Jabuuti) officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. Eritrea () ( Ge'ez: ኤርትራ ʾErtrā, Arabic: إرتريا Iritriya) officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern The State of Kuwait ( دولة الكويت IPA [dawlatt̪ alkuwajt̪]) is a sovereign Arab Emirate on the coast of the Persian Gulf, enclosed Lebanon (ˈlɛbənɒn Arabic: ar لبنان Lubnān) officially the Republic of Lebanon or Lebanese Republic (ar الجمهورية اللبنانية Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Mauritania (موريتانيا Mūrītāniyā officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman ( Arabic: سلطنة عُمان) is an Arab Country in Southwest Asia on the southeast Qatar ( قطر; ˈqɑtˁɑr local pronunciation giṭar officially the State of Qatar (Arabic دولة قطر transliterated The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, KSA ( المملكة العربية السعودية, al-Mamlaka al-ʻArabiyya as-Suʻūdiyya) or Suudi Somalia ( Soomaaliya; الصومال) officially the Somali Republic ( Jamhuuriyadda Soomaaliya, جمهورية الصومال) and formerly known Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. Yemen ( Arabic: اليَمَن al-Yaman officially the Republic of Yemen ( Arabic: الجمهورية اليمنية al-Jumhuuriyya Western Sahara ( Arabic: الصحراء الغربية; transliterated: as-Ṣaḥrā' al-Gharbīyah; Sahara Occidental is a territory The African Union (abbreviated AU in English, and UA in its other working languages is a Confederation consisting of 53  African The Arab League ( الجامعة العربية) officially called the League of Arab States ( جامعة الدول العربية The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC is an International organization with a permanent delegation to the United Nations. The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Academy of the Arabic Language (مجمع اللغة العربية is an academy in Cairo founded in 1934 in order to develop and regulate the Arabic language Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Arab Academy of Damascus (مجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق is the oldest academy regulating the Arabic language, established in 1918 during the reign For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. The Iraqi Science Academy ( Arabic, المجمع العلمي العراقي) is an academy in Baghdad founded in 1948 in order to develop and Sudan (officially the Republic of Sudan) ( السودان al-Sūdān is a country in northeastern Africa. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (الأردنّ al-Urdunn) is an Arab country in Southwest Asia spanning the southern The Jordan Academy of Arabic ( مجمع اللغة العربية الأردني) is one of the Arabic language regulators based in Amman, Jordan Libya ( ليبيا ar-Latn Lībiyā; Libyan vernacular: Lībya; Amazigh:) officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Arabic (الْعَرَبيّة al-ʿarabiyyah or just عَرَبيْ ʿarabī), in terms of the number of speakers, is the largest living member of the Semitic language family. The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Classified as Central Semitic, it is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic and has its roots in a Proto-Semitic common ancestor. The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite Aramaic is a Semitic language with Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical Proto-language of the Semitic languages. In ISO 639-3, modern Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage with 27 sub-languages. ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes In defining some of its language codes some are defined as macrolanguages covering either significantly See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties These varieties are spoken throughout the Arab world, and Standard Arabic is widely studied and used throughout the Islamic world. Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety The term Muslim world (or Islamic world) has several meanings

Modern Standard Arabic derives from Classical Arabic, the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested epigraphically since the 6th century. Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Ancient North Arabian is known from fragmentary inscriptions in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, dating to between roughly the 6th century The history of the Arabic alphabet shows that this Abjad has changed since it arose It has been a literary language and the liturgical language of Islam since the 7th century. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world, as Latin has contributed to most European languages. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It has also borrowed from those languages, as well as Persian and Sanskrit from early contacts with their affiliated regions. During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of culture, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy, with the result that many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it. Arabic influence is especially strong in Spanish and Portuguese due to both the proximity of European and Arab civilization and 700 years of caliphate government in the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus). Arabic influence on the Spanish language has been significant due to the Islamic presence in the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492 A A Açafate ( assafat) Açafrão ( azzafaran) Acéquia ( assekyah) A caliphate (from the Arabic خلافة or khilāfa) is the political leadership of the Muslim community in classical and medieval Islamic history The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra Al-Andalus (الأندلس was the Arabic name given to those parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims or

Contents

Literary and Modern Standard Arabic

Main article: Literary Arabic

The term "Arabic" may refer to either literary Arabic ((al-)fuṣḥā الفصحى) or the many localized varieties of Arabic commonly called "colloquial Arabic. Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties " Arabs consider literary Arabic as the standard language and tend to view everything else as mere dialects. Literary Arabic (اللغة العربية الفصحى translit: al-luġatu l-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā "the most eloquent Arabic language"), refers both to the language of present-day media across North Africa and the Middle East and to the language of the Qur'an. DIN 31635 is a DIN standard for the Transliteration of the Arabic alphabet adopted in 1982 North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran (The expression media here includes most television and radio, and practically all written matter, including books, newspapers, magazines, documents of every kind, and reading primers for small children. ) "Colloquial" or "dialectal" Arabic refers to the many national or regional varieties derived from Classical Arabic, spoken across North Africa and the Middle East, which constitute the everyday spoken language. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. These sometimes differ enough to be mutually incomprehensible. These dialects are typically unwritten, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them. They are often used to varying degrees in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows. A soap opera is an ongoing episodic work of Fiction, usually broadcast on Television or Radio. A talk show ( American) or chat show ( Global) is a Television or Radio program where one person or group of people come together to Literary Arabic or classical Arabic is the official language of all Arab countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages.

The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia, which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. In Linguistics, diglossia is a situation where in a given society there are two (often closely-related languages one of high prestige, which is generally used In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their local dialect and their school-taught literary Arabic. When speaking with someone from the same country, many speakers switch back and forth between the two varieties of the language (code switching), sometimes even within the same sentence. Code-switching is a term in Linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety in conversation When educated Arabs of different nationalities engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan or Saudi speaking with a Lebanese), both switch into Literary Arabic for the sake of communication.

Like other languages, literary Arabic continues to evolve. Classical Arabic (especially from the pre-Islamic to the Abbasid period, including Qur'anic Arabic) can be distinguished from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as used today. Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety Classical Arabic is considered normative; modern authors attempt (with varying degrees of success) to follow the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by Classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh), and to use the vocabulary defined in Classical dictionaries (such as the Lisān al-Arab. Sibawayh ( Sibuyeh in Persian, سيبويه Sîbawayh in Arabic, سیبویه was a linguist of Persian origin born ) However, many modern terms would have been mysterious to a Classical author, whether taken from other languages (for example, فيلم film) or coined from existing lexical resources (for example, هاتف hātif "telephone" = "caller"). Structural influence from foreign languages or from the colloquial varieties has also affected Modern Standard Arabic. For example, MSA texts sometimes use the format "A, B, C, and D" when listing things, whereas Classical Arabic prefers "A and B and C and D," and subject-initial sentences may be more common in MSA than in Classical Arabic. For these reasons, Modern Standard Arabic is generally treated separately in non-Arab sources.

Influence of Arabic on other languages

Main article: Influence of Arabic on other languages

The influence of Arabic has been most important in Islamic countries. Arabic has had a great influence on other languages especially in Vocabulary. Arabic is a major source of vocabulary for languages as diverse as Berber, Kurdish, Pashto, Persian, Swahili, Hindustani (especially the spoken variety), Turkish, Malay and Indonesian, as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. Nomenclature The term Berber has been used in Europe since at least the 17th century and is still used today The Kurdish language (Kurdish Kurdî or کوردی is a term used for the language spoken by Kurds. Pashto ( Naskh: پښتو‎ pəʂ'to also rendered as Pakhto, Pushto, Pukhto, Pashtu, Pushtu, also known as Swahili (called Kiswahili in the language itself is the First language of the Swahili people (Waswahili who inhabit several large stretches Hindustani (हिन्दुस्तानी ہندوستانی Hindustānī, hɪn̪d̪ʊst̪aːniː also known as " Hindi-Urdu," is a term covering Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. The Malay language ( ISO 639-1 code MS is an Austronesian language spoken by the Malay people and people of other ethnic groups who reside in the Indonesian or Bahasa Indonesia, based on the Riau version of Malay language, was declared the official language with the declaration of For example, the Arabic word for book (/kitāb/) has been borrowed in all the languages listed. In addition, Spanish and Portuguese both have large numbers of Arabic loan words, and English has quite a few, some directly but most through the medium of other Mediterranean languages. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Other languages such as Maltese[5] and Kinubi derive from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or grammar rules. Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, The Nubi language (also called Ki-Nubi) is a Sudanese Arabic -based Creole language spoken in Uganda around Bombo, and in

The terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like Berber taẓallit "prayer" < salat), academic terms (like Uyghur mentiq "logic"), economic items (like English "sugar") to placeholders (like Spanish fulano "so-and-so") and everyday conjunctions (like Hindustani lekin "but". Ṣalāt ( Arabic: صلاة‎, pl ṣalawāt, Qur'anic Arabic: صلوة ṣalawah) (also munz in Pashto and Uyghur (/ ug-Latn Uyƣurqə/ug-Cyrl Уйғурчә, or / ug-Latn Uyƣur tili/ug-Cyrl Уйғур ) Most Berber varieties (such as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow some numbers from Arabic. Kabyle is a Berber language (Kabyle Ṯaqbayliṯ,, ˌθæqβæjˈlɪθ spoken by the Kabyle people Most Islamic religious terms are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as salat 'prayer' and imam 'prayer leader. ' In languages not directly in contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are often transferred indirectly via other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic. For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani entered through Persian, and many older Arabic loanwords in Hausa were borrowed from Kanuri. Hausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers spoken as a first Language by about 24 million people and as a second language by about 15 Kanuri is a dialect continuum spoken by approximately 4 million people in Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as small minorities Some words in English and other European languages are derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish and Italian. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Among them are commonly-used words like "sugar" (sukkar), "cotton" (quṭn) and "magazine" (maḫāzin). Sugar is a class of edible Crystalline substances mainly Sucrose, Lactose, and Fructose. Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp Makhzen (مخزِن is a Moroccan Arabic term for the governing Elite in Morocco, centered around the king and consisting of royal notables businessmen English words more recognizably of Arabic origin include "algebra", "alcohol", "alchemy", "alkali" and "zenith. Algebra is a branch of Mathematics concerning the study of structure, relation, and Quantity. In Chemistry, an alcohol is any Organic compound in which a Hydroxyl group ( - O[[hydrogen H]]) is bound to a Carbon Alchemy a part of the Occult Tradition is both a philosophy and a practice with an ultimately unknown aim involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of In Chemistry, an alkali (from Arabic: Al-Qaly القلي القالي) is a basic, ionic salt of an Alkali metal In broad terms the zenith is the direction pointing directly above a particular location ( Perpendicular, Orthogonal) " Some words in common use, such as "intention" and "information", were originally calques of Arabic philosophical terms. In Linguistics, a calque (kælk or loan translation is a Word or Phrase borrowed from another Language by Literal, word-for-word

Arabic was also influenced by other languages including Persian, Berber language and Egyptian. Nomenclature The term Berber has been used in Europe since at least the 17th century and is still used today The influences from Berber and Egyptian on Arabic happened mainly before Islam, making these influences not directly noticeable by non-linguists. Also many Arab writers make the mistake of identifying most of loan words in Arabic as being of Persian origin.

See also: list of Arabic loanwords in English. Star names are not included in this article For star names please see List of Arabic star names, List of traditional star names, and other articles listed

Arabic and Islam

Arabic is the language of the Qur'an. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran Traditionally, Muslims deem it impossible to translate the Qur'an in a way that would reflect its exact meaning. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion Some schools of thought maintain that it should not be translated at all. Arabic is often associated with Islam, but it is also spoken by Arab Christians, Arab Druze, Mizrahi Jews and Iraqi Mandaeans. For other meanings including people named 'Islam' see Islam (disambiguation. The Druze ( Arabic: درزي derzī or durzī, plural دروز durūz) are a religious community found primarily in Syria, Lebanon Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim, ( also referred to as Edot HaMizrach (Communities of the East are Jews descended Mandaeism or Mandaeanism ( Mandaic: Mandaiuta, مندائية Mandā'iyya) is a Monotheistic Religion with a strongly

Most of the world's Muslims do not speak Arabic as their native language but can read the script and recite the words of religious texts. A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion

History

Modern Arabic is considered to be part of the Arabo-Canaanite sub-branch of the central group of West Semitic languages. The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. [6] While Arabic is not the oldest of the Semitic languages, it shares many features with the common ancestor for all Semitic languages in the Afro-Asiatic group of languages, Proto-Semitic whose phonological, morphological, and syntactic features have been determined by linguists. Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical Proto-language of the Semitic languages. [7] Many linguists consider Arabic to be the most conservative of the modern Semitic languages because of how completely it preserves the features of Proto-Semitic. [7]

The earliest texts in Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, are the Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, from the 8th century BC, written not in the modern Arabic alphabet, nor in its Nabataean ancestor, but in variants of the epigraphic South Arabian musnad. A proto-language is a Language which was the common ancestor of related languages that form a Language family. Ancient North Arabian is known from fragmentary inscriptions in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, dating to between roughly the 6th century This article refers to the traditional region of Al-Hasa For the current Saudi Arabian administrative unit sometimes called Al-Hasa see Al-Ahsa (governorate. The Nabataeans ( Arabic: الأنباط, Al-Anbāṭ) were an ancient Semitic people Arabs of southern Jordan, Canaan Epigraphy (ἐπιγραφολογία from Greek ἐπιγραφή — "inscription" is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs engraved The ancient South Arabian alphabet (also known as musnad المُسند branched from the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet in about the 9th century BC. These are followed by 6th-century BC Lihyanite texts from southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the Sinai, and not actually connected with Thamud. Lihyan ( Arabic: لحيان) was an ancient Arab kingdom It was located northwestern Arabia and it is known for its Old North Arabian inscriptions Thamudic is an Old North Arabian dialect known from pre-Islamic inscriptions scattered across the Arabian desert and the Sinai. The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai ( Coptic: sina; Egyptian Arabic: sina سينا Arabic, sina'a سيناء The Thamud ( Arabic: ar ثمود were a people of ancient Arabia who were known from the 1st millennium BC to near the time of Muhammad. Later come the Safaitic inscriptions beginning in the 1st century BC, and the many Arabic personal names attested in Nabataean inscriptions (which are, however, written in Aramaic). Safaitic is the name given to an Old North Arabian dialect preserved in the form of inscriptions which are written in a type of South Semitic script. The Nabataeans ( Arabic: الأنباط, Al-Anbāṭ) were an ancient Semitic people Arabs of southern Jordan, Canaan From about the 2nd century BC, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw (near Sulayyil) reveal a dialect which is no longer considered "Proto-Arabic", but Pre-Classical Arabic. As Sulayyil (السليل is a city in Ar Riyad Province, Saudi Arabia.

By the fourth century AD, the Arab kingdoms of the Lakhmids in southern Iraq, the Ghassanids in southern Syria the Kindite Kingdom emerged in Central Arabia. The Lakhmids ( Arabic:) Banu Lakhm ( Arabic:) Muntherids ( Arabic:) were a group of Arab Christians who lived in For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Iraq topics. Syria ( سوريّة or) officially the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic ar الجمهورية العربية السورية Their courts were responsible for some notable examples of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, and for some of the few surviving pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic alphabet. The history of the Arabic alphabet shows that this Abjad has changed since it arose

Dialects and descendants

Main article: Varieties of Arabic

"Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken varieties of Arabic used throughout the Arab world, which differ radically from the literary language. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. The main dialectal division is between the North African dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Maghrebi Arabic is a cover term for the varieties of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, The Bedouin, (from the Arabic (ar بدوي pl badū) are a desert-dwelling Arab Nomadic pastoralist, or previously Speakers of some of these dialects are unable to converse with speakers of another dialect of Arabic. In particular, while Middle Easterners can generally understand one another, they often have trouble understanding North Africans (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern—especially Egyptian—films and other media).

One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided a significant number of new words, and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order; however, a much more significant factor for most dialects is, as among Romance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fīh, and North African kayən all mean "there is", and all come from classical Arabic forms (yakūn, fīhi, kā'in respectively), but now sound very different.

The major dialect groups are:

Other varieties include:

Sounds

Main article: Arabic phonology

The phonemes below reflect the pronunciation of Standard Arabic. While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in pronunciation, the Arabic language is more properly described as a collection of different Literary Arabic (ar اللغة العربية الفصحى "the Eloquent Arabic language" or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety There are minor variations from country to country.

Vowels

Arabic has three vowels, with long and short forms of /a/, /i/, and /u/. There are also two diphthongs: /aj/ and /aw/. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with

Consonants

Standard Arabic consonant phonemes
  Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Inter-dental Dental (incl. alveolar) Post-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn-
geal		 Glottal
 plain  emphatic
Plosive voiceless       ت ‎ t̪ ط‎ t̪ˁ     ك‎ k ق ‎ q   ء ʔ
voiced ب‎ b     د‎ d̪ ض‎ d̪ˁ ج‎ dʒ¹          
Fricative voiceless   ف f ث θ س‎ s ص‎ sˁ ش‎ ʃ   خ‎ x   ح‎ ħ ه‎ h
voiced     ذ ð ز z ظ ðˁ     غ ɣ   ع ʕ  
Nasal م m     ن n              
Lateral       ل l ²          
Trill       ر r              
Approximant و w           ي j        

See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. Interdental consonants are produced by placing the blade of the Tongue against the upper Incisors This differs from a Dental consonant in that the In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth Uvulars are Consonants articulated with the back of the Tongue against or near the uvula, that is further back in the mouth than Velar consonants A pharyngeal consonant is a type of Consonant which is articulated with the root of the Tongue against the Pharynx. Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. Emphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic Linguistics to describe one of a series of Obstruent Consonants which originally contrasted A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Hamza ( Arabic: ar الهَمْزة ʼal-hamzah) (ar [[wiktء ء]] is a letter in the Arabic alphabet, representing the Glottal stop. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

  1. [dʒ] is pronounced as [ɡ] by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects. In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced as [ʒ]. See also Names of the Levant The Levant (lə'vænt is a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia, roughly bounded on the north by the
  2. /l/ is pronounced [lˁ] only in /ʔalːaːh/, the name of God, i. e. Allah, when the word follows a, ā, u or ū (after i or ī it is unvelarized: bismi l-lāh /bismilːaːh/). Allah ( Arabic: الله, ʔalˤːɑːh) is the standard Arabic word for '
  3. /ʕ/ is usually a phonetic approximant. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants
  4. In many varieties, /ħ, ʕ/ are actually epiglottal [ʜ, ʢ] (despite what is reported in many earlier works). An epiglottal consonant is a Consonant that is articulated with the Aryepiglottic folds (see Larynx) against the Epiglottis.
  5. /x/ is considered to be a uvular sound (/χ/) by some linguists.

Arabic has consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" /tˁ, dˁ, sˁ, ðˁ/ are both velarized [tˠ, dˠ, sˠ, ðˠ] and pharyngealised [tˁ, dˁ, sˁ, ðˁ]. Velarization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants by which the back of the Tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation This simultaneous velarization and pharyngealization is deemed "Retracted Tongue Root" by phonologists. [8] In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter, for example, /dˁ/ is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it, for example, ‹ḍ›.

Vowels and consonants can be phonologically short or long. Long (geminate) consonants are normally written doubled in Latin transcription (i. e. bb, dd, etc. ), reflecting the presence of the Arabic diacritic mark shaddah, which indicates doubled consonants. In actual pronunciation, doubled consonants are held twice as long as short consonants. This consonant lengthening is phonemically contrastive: qabala "he accepted" vs. qabbala "he kissed. "

Syllable structure

Arabic has two kinds of syllables: open syllables (CV) and (CVV) - and closed syllables (CVC). Every syllable begins with a consonant, except in the case where the phrase begins with the definite article, for example, "the director" would be pronounced [al mudiːr]. When a word ends in a vowel and the following word is the definite article, then the initial vowel of the article is elided and the consonant closes the final syllable of the preceding word, for example, baytu –l mudiir “house (of) the director”, which becomes [baytul mudi:r].

Stress

Although word stress is not phonemically contrastive in Standard Arabic, it does bear a strong relationship to vowel length. The basic rules are:

For example: ki-TAA-bun "book", KAA-ti-bun "writer", MAK-ta-bun "desk", ma-KAA-ti-bu "desks", mak-TA-ba-tun "library", KA-ta-buu (MSA) "they wrote" = KA-ta-bu (dialect), ka-ta-BUU-hu (MSA) "they wrote it" = ka-ta-BUU (dialect), ka-TA-ba-taa (MSA) "they (dual, fem) wrote", ka-TAB-tu (MSA) "I wrote" = ka-TABT (dialect). Doubled consonants count as two consonants: ma-JAL-la "magazine", ma-HALL "place".

Some dialects have different stress rules. In the Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect, for example, a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, hence mad-RA-sa "school", qaa-HI-ra "Cairo". In the Arabic of Sana, stress is often retracted: BAY-tayn "two houses", MAA-sat-hum "their table", ma-KAA-tiib "desks", ZAA-rat-hiin "sometimes", mad-RA-sat-hum "their school". SANA may refer to Syrian Arab News Agency Navigazione Aerea (SANA a former Italian state airline See also (In this dialect, only syllables with long vowels or diphthongs are considered heavy; in a two-syllable word, the final syllable can be stressed only if the preceding syllable is light; and in longer words, the final syllable cannot be stressed. )

Dialectal variations

Main article: Varieties of Arabic

In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties For example, non-Arabic [v] is used in the Maghrebi dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic [p] became [f] extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian and Turkish) distinguish between [p] and [b]. Turkish ( tr Türkçe IPA) is a language spoken by over 63 million people worldwide making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages.

Interdental fricatives ([θ] and [ð]) are rendered as stops [t] and [d] in some dialects (such as Levantine, Egyptian, and much of the Maghreb); some of these dialects render them as [s] and [z] in "learned" words from the Standard language. Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes [dˁ] and [ðˁ] coallesced into a single phoneme, becoming one or the other. Predictably, dialects without interdental fricatives use [dˁ] exclusively, while those with such fricatives use [ðˁ]. Again, in "learned" words from the Standard language, [ðˁ] is rendered as [zˁ] (in the Middle East) or [dˁ] (in North Africa) in dialects without interdental fricatives.

Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render the original velar and uvular stops /q/, /ʤ/ (Proto-Semitic /g/), and /k/:

Grammar

Main article: Arabic grammar

Nouns in Literary Arabic have three grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also used when the noun is governed by a preposition]); three numbers (singular, dual and plural); two genders (masculine and feminine); and three "states" (indefinite, definite, and construct). Arabic is a Semitic language See Arabic language for more information on the language in general In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another In linguistics grammatical number is a Grammatical category of nouns pronouns and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one" In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong The status constructus or construct state is a Noun form occurring in Afro-Asiatic languages. The cases of singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) are indicated by suffixed short vowels (/-u/ for nominative, /-a/ for accusative, /-i/ for genitive). In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word The feminine singular is often marked by /-at/, which is reduced to /-ah/ or /-a/ before a pause. Plural is indicated either through endings (the sound plural) or internal modification (the broken plural). In Linguistics, broken plurals are a grammatical phenomenon typical in many Semitic languages of the Middle East and Ethiopia in which a singular Definite nouns include all proper nouns, all nouns in "construct state" and all nouns which are prefixed by the definite article /al-/. A prefix is a type of Affix attached to a stem which modifies the meaning of that stem Indefinite singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) add a final /-n/ to the case-marking vowels, giving /-un/, /-an/ or /-in/ (which is also referred to as nunation or tanwīn). In some Semitic languages, notably Arabic, nunation (the Arabic term is tanwīn) is the addition of a final -n to a Noun In some Semitic languages, notably Arabic, nunation (the Arabic term is tanwīn) is the addition of a final -n to a Noun

Verbs in Literary Arabic are marked for person (first, second, or third), gender, and number. They are conjugated in two major paradigms (termed perfective and imperfective, or past and non-past); two voices (active and passive); and five moods in the imperfective (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic). In Grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal PAST (short for Polska Akcyjna Spółka Telefoniczna, Polish Telephone Joint-stock Company) was a Polish telephone operator in the period between World War I In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. In Grammar, the subjunctive mood (sometimes referred to as the conjunctive mood) is a Verb mood that exists in many languages Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. There are also two participles (active and passive) and a verbal noun, but no infinitive. In Linguistics, a participle (from Latin participium, a Calque of Greek μετοχη "partaking" is a derivative of a non-finite A verbal noun is a Noun formed directly as an Inflexion of a Verb or a verb stem, sharing at least in part its constructions In Grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages As indicated by the differing terms for the two tense systems, there is some disagreement over whether the distinction between the two systems should be most accurately characterized as tense, aspect or a combination of the two. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state The perfective aspect is constructed using fused suffixes that combine person, number and gender in a single morpheme, while the imperfective aspect is constructed using a combination of prefixes (primarily encoding person) and suffixes (primarily encoding gender and number). In Grammar, the perfective aspect is an aspect that exists in many languages The imperfective aspect is a Grammatical aspect. It refers to an action that is viewed from a particular viewpoint as ongoing habitual repeated or generally containing internal A prefix is a type of Affix attached to a stem which modifies the meaning of that stem In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word The moods other than imperative are primarily marked by suffixes (/u/ for indicative, /a/ for subjunctive, no ending for jussive, /an/ for energetic). The imperative has the endings of the jussive but lacks any prefixes. The passive is marked through internal vowel changes. Plural forms for the verb are only used when the subject is not mentioned, or is preceding it, and the feminine singular is used for all non-human plurals.

Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state, as for nouns. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the However, the plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective, which takes the /-ah/ or /-at/ suffix.

Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number and gender. In Linguistics and Grammar, a pronoun is a Pro-form that substitutes for a (including a noun phrase consisting of a single Noun) with or There are two varieties, independent pronouns and enclitics. In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word. Enclitic pronouns are attached to the end of a verb, noun or preposition and indicate verbal and prepositional objects or possession of nouns. The first-person singular pronoun has a different enclitic form used for verbs (/-ni/) and for nouns or prepositions (/-ī/ after consonants, /-ya/ after vowels).

Nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives agree with each other in all respects. However, non-human plural nouns are grammatically considered to be feminine singular. Furthermore, a verb in a verb-initial sentence is marked as singular regardless of its semantic number when the subject of the verb is explicitly mentioned as a noun. Numerals between three and ten show "chiasmic" agreement, in that grammatically masculine numerals have feminine marking and vice-versa.

The spoken dialects have lost the case distinctions and make only limited use of the dual (it occurs only on nouns and its use is no longer required in all circumstances). They have lost the mood distinctions other than imperative, but many have since gained new moods through the use of prefixes (most often /bi-/ for indicative vs. unmarked subjunctive). They have also mostly lost the indefinite "nunation" and the internal passive. Modern Standard Arabic maintains the grammatical distinctions of Literary Arabic except that the energetic mood is almost never used; in addition, Modern Standard Arabic sometimes drop the final short vowels that indicate case and mood.

As in many other Semitic languages, Arabic verb formation is based on a (usually) triconsonantal root, which is not a word in itself but contains the semantic core. In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages and some other Afro-Asiatic languages, a triliteral ( Arabic: جذر ثلاثي The root is the primary lexical unit of a Word, which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents The consonants k-t-b, for example, indicate 'write', q-r-ʾ indicate 'read', ʾ-k-l indicate 'eat', etc. Words are formed by supplying the root with a vowel structure and with affixes. (Traditionally, Arabic grammarians have used the root f-ʿ-l 'do' as a template to discuss word formation. ) From any particular root, up to fifteen different verbs can be formed, each with its own template; these are referred to by Western scholars as "form I", "form II", . . . up through "form XV". These forms, and their associated participles and verbal nouns, are the primary means of forming vocabulary in Arabic. Forms XI to XV are extremely rare.

Writing system

Main article: Arabic alphabet
An example of a text written in Arabic calligraphy.
An example of a text written in Arabic calligraphy. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script (through Syriac and then Nabatean), to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. The Aramaic alphabet is an Abjad, a Consonantal Alphabet, used for writing Aramaic. The Syriac alphabet is a Writing system used to write the Syriac language from around the 2nd century BC. The Coptic alphabet is the script used for writing the Coptic language. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by The Greek alphabet (Ελληνικό αλφάβητο is a set of twenty-four letters that has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the fa and qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals). The Maghreb (المغرب العربي al-Maġrib al-ʿArabī) also rendered Maghrib (or rarely Moghreb) meaning "place of Sunset However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Zaouia (Arabic زاوية "corner" also spelled zawiya, zawiyah, zaouiya, zaouïa zwaya, etc is a Maghrebi Arabic, like all other Semitic languages (except for the Latin-written Maltese, and the languages with the Ge'ez script), is written from right to left. The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, Ge'ez (gez ግዕዝ) also called Ethiopic, is an Abugida script that was originally developed to write Ge'ez, a Semitic language There are several styles of script, notably Naskh which is used in print and by computers, and Ruq'ah which is commonly used in handwriting. Naskh (نسخ also known as Naskhi or by its Turkish name Nesih, from Arabic نسخ nasakha, naskh meaning "to copy" Ruq'ah or Riq'a ( Arabic: الرقعة) is a calligraphic variety of Arabic script. "Handwriting" redirects here For scripts for writing down notes by hand see " Cursive " [9]

Calligraphy

Main article: Arabic calligraphy

After the definitive fixing of the Arabic script around 786, by Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration. Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking Khalīl ibn Ahmad Al Farāhīdi (أبو عبد الرحمن ، الخليل بن أحمد الفراهيدي (More commonly known as Al Farāhīdi (c

Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as calligraphy has in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition. Ayah (ar آية, plural Ayat ar آيات) is the Arabic word for sign or Miracle, cognate with Hebrew ot, Hadith ( ar الحديث, pl aḥadīth; lit. "narrative" are oral Traditions relating to the words and deeds of the Islamic A proverb (from the Latin proverbium) also called a byword or nayword, is a simple and concrete Saying popularly known and repeated The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. Two of the current masters of the genre are Hassan Massoudy and Khaled Al Saa’i. Hassan Massoudy (حسن المسعود الخطاط is an Iraqi calligrapher who has published many collections of his work

Transliteration

Further information: Arabic transliteration, Arabic Chat Alphabet

There are a number of different standards of Arabic transliteration: methods of accurately and efficiently representing Arabic with the Latin alphabet. Different approaches and methods for the Romanization of Arabic exist The Arabic chat alphabet or Arabish (عربيزي ‘Arabīzī) is used to communicate in the Arabic language over the Internet or for Different approaches and methods for the Romanization of Arabic exist There are multiple conflicting motivations for transliteration. Scholarly systems are intended to accurately and unambiguously represent the phonemes of Arabic, generally supplying making the phonetics more explicit than the original word in the Arabic alphabet. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. These systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks such as "š" for sound equivalently written sh in English. A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation In some cases, the sh or kh sounds can be represented by italicizing or underlining them -- that way, they can be distinguished from separate s and h sounds or k and h sounds, respectively. (Compare gashouse to gash. ) At first sight, this may be difficult to recognize. Less scientific systems often use digraphs (like sh and kh), which are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems. A digraph, bigraph, or digram is a pair of characters used to write one Phoneme (distinct sound or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond Such systems may be intended to help readers who are neither Arabic speakers nor linguists to intuitively pronounce Arabic names and phrases. An example of such a system is the Bahá'í orthography. Bahá'í orthography refers to the standardized system of Orthography when rendering Persian or Arabic words into English in the literature of the A third type of transliteration seeks to represent an equivalent of the Arabic spelling with Latin letters, for use by Arabic speakers when Arabic writing is not available (for example, when using an ASCII communication device). An example is the system used by the US military, Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System or SATTS, which represents each Arabic letter with a unique symbol in the ASCII range to provide a one-to-one mapping from Arabic to ASCII and back. The Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System, commonly referred to by its acronym SATTS is a system for writing and transmitting Arabic language text using the one-for-one substitution This system, while facilitating typing on English keyboards, presents its own ambiguities and disadvantages. During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated The World Wide Web (commonly shortened to the Web) is a system of interlinked Hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. Electronic mail, often abbreviated to e-mail, email, or originally eMail, is a Store-and-forward method of writing sending receiving A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a Computer system running software that allows users to connect and login to Text messaging, or texting is the common term for the sending of "short" (160 characters or fewer including spaces text messages from Mobile phones Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet as an optional feature. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script, sometime known as IM Arabic. The Arabic chat alphabet or Arabish (عربيزي ‘Arabīzī) is used to communicate in the Arabic language over the Internet or for

To handle those Arabic letters that cannot be accurately represented using the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. For example, the numeral "3" may be used to represent the Arabic letter "ع", ayn. There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet. The Arabic chat alphabet or Arabish (عربيزي ‘Arabīzī) is used to communicate in the Arabic language over the Internet or for Other systems of transliteration exist, such as using dots or capitalization to represent the "emphatic" counterparts of certain consonants. For instance, using capitalization, the letter "د", or daal, may be represented by d. Its emphatic counterpart, "ض", may be written as D.

Numerals

Main article: Arabic numerals

In most of present-day North Africa, the Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used. The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system The arabic numerals (often capitalized are the ten Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 which—along with the system However in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries to the east of it, the Eastern Arabic numerals (٠. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. The Eastern Arabic numerals (also called Arabic-Indic numerals and Arabic Eastern Numerals) are the symbols used to represent the Hindu-Arabic numeral system ١. ٢. ٣. ٤. ٥. ٦. ٧. ٨. ٩) are in use. The lowest-valued digit appears on the right, so the order of digits on the page is the same as in Latin script; this reflects the way in which Arabic numbers are traditionally read (i. e. increasing order, so 1234 is "four and thirty and two hundred and one thousand"), though this reading has declined of late. Also sequences of digits such as telephone numbers are read from left to right.

Language-standards regulators

Academy of the Arabic Language is the name of a number of language-regulation bodies formed in Arab countries. The most active are in Damascus and Cairo. Damascus ( دمشق,, also commonly known as الشام ash-Shām) is the capital and largest city of Syria. Cairo () which means "the Vanquisher" or "the Triumphant" is the capital and largest city of Egypt. They review language development, monitor new words and approve inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts.

Studying Arabic

Arabic language interests millions of non-Arab Muslims, who do not speak it as a native language, to learn it to different levels, mainly because it is the language of their holy book, the Quran, and all Islamic terms are Arabic. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran The following list consists of Concepts that are derived from both Islamic and Arab tradition which are expressed as words in the Arabic language. Arabic has been taught in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools, worldwide. See also Primary education An elementary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of Compulsory education known as elementary Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational Institution where the final stage of compulsory schooling known as Secondary education, takes Many universities in the world today have classes for studying Arabic as a foreign language, as part of their foreign languages, Middle Eastern studies, religious studies, area studies departments, and even stand-alone Arabic language departments. A foreign language is a Language not spoken by the people of a certain place for example English is a foreign language in Japan. Middle Eastern studies, a subset of Asian studies, is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the Culture, Politics, Religious studies, or Religious education, is the academic field of multi-disciplinary Secular study of religious beliefs behaviors and institutions In the Humanities and Social sciences, area studies are Interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to a particular geographical Many Arabic language schools exist today to assist students in gaining Arabic language skills outside academic education. Arabic language schools are Language schools specialized in teaching Arabic as a foreign language to speakers of other languages An academic department is a division of a University or School faculty devoted to a particular Academic discipline. Most of the Arabic language schools are located in the Arab world and some Muslim world countries. A language school is a School where one studies a Foreign language. The term Muslim world (or Islamic world) has several meanings Software and books with tapes are also important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Arabic language schools are Language schools specialized in teaching Arabic as a foreign language to speakers of other languages Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education. The Internet is a global system of interconnected Computer networks

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Three lists, Ethnologue, Encarta, Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties Arabic literature ( Arabic: الأدب العربي Al-Adab Al-Arabi) is the writing produced both Prose and Poetry, by speakers The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. Islamic calligraphy, equally known as Arabic calligraphy, is the art of writing and by extension of bookmaking The following list consists of Concepts that are derived from both Islamic and Arab tradition which are expressed as words in the Arabic language. Star names are not included in this article For star names please see List of Arabic star names, List of traditional star names, and other articles listed This selective list of replaced loanwords in Turkish includes Ottoman Turkish Loanwords mostly of Arabic and Persian, but also French Words of Arabic origin have entered the French language and many European languages A Açafate ( assafat) Açafrão ( azzafaran) Acéquia ( assekyah) Arabic influence on the Spanish language has been significant due to the Islamic presence in the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492 A Greeting (also called accosting) is a way for human beings (as well as other members of the animal kingdom to intentionally communicate awareness of each other's The Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic is an Arabic - English Dictionary compiled by Hans Wehr and edited by J Milton Cowan This is an article about the western scholars known as Arabists, not the political movement Pan-Arabism. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-18. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 3102 BC - Epoch (origin of the Kali Yuga. 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II Holy
  2. ^ Languages Spoken by More Than 10 Million People. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. Retrieved on 2007-02-18. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 3102 BC - Epoch (origin of the Kali Yuga. 1229 - The Sixth Crusade: Frederick II Holy
  3. ^ Most Widely Spoken Languages
  4. ^ John W. Wright (2001). The New York Times Almanac 2002. Routledge. ISBN 1579583482.  
  5. ^ Maltese language - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  6. ^ Brian Bishop (April 1998). [? A History of the Arabic Language]. The Center for Arabic Culture.
  7. ^ a b Brian Bishop (April 1998). [? A History of the Arabic Language]. The Center for Arabic Culture.
  8. ^ Thelwall, 52
  9. ^ Hanna, Sami A. , Naguib Greis (1972). Writing Arabic: A Linguistic Approach, from Sounds to Script. Brill Archive, p. 2.  

References

External links

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