Arabic

error: ISO 639 code is required ( help ) Arabic (العربية) is a Semitic language , closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic . It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century , and is the liturgical language of Islam . The expression "Arabic" may refer either to literary Arabic or to the many spoken varieties of Arabic ; Arabs consider literary Arabic as the standard language and tend to view everything else as mere dialects. Literary Arabic , al-luġatu-l-ʿarabīyatu-l-fuṣḥā (Literally: the most eloquent Arabic language —اللغة العربية الفصحى) refers both to the language of present-day media across North Africa and the Middle East (from Morocco to Iraq ) and to the language of the Qur'an . (The expression media here includes most television and radio, and all written matter, including all books, newspapers, magazines, documents of every kind, and reading primers for small children.) "Colloquial" or "dialectal" Arabic refers to the many national or regional dialects/languages derived from Classical Arabic , spoken daily across North Africa and the Middle East , which constitute the everyday spoken language. These sometimes differ enough to be mutually incomprehensible. These dialects are not frequently written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them, notably Egypt and Lebanon. They are often used to varying degrees in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and chat shows . Since the written Arabic of today differs substantially from the written Arabic of the Qur'anic era, it has become customary in western scholarship to refer to the language of the Qur'an as Classical Arabic and the modern language of the media and of formal speeches as Modern Standard Arabic . Arabs, on the other hand, often use the term Fuṣḥa to refer to both forms, thus placing greater emphasis on the similarities between the two. It is sometimes difficult to translate Islamic concepts, and concepts specific to Arab culture, without using the original Arabic terminology. The Qur'an is expressed in Arabic and traditionally Muslims deem it impossible to translate in a way that would adequately reflect its exact meaning—indeed, until recently, some schools of thought maintained that it should not be translated at all. A list of Islamic terms in Arabic covers those terms which are too specific to translate in one phrase. While Arabic is strongly associated with Islam (and is the language of salah ), it is also spoken by Arab Christians , Oriental Jews , and indeed Iraqi Mandaeans ; and, of course, the vast majority of the world's Muslims do not actually speak it; they only know some fixed phrases of Arabic, as used in Islamic prayer. Quite a few English words are ultimately derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, among them every-day vocabulary like sugar , cotton or magazine . More recognizable are words like algorithm , algebra , alchemy , alcohol , azimuth , nadir , and zenith (See List of English words of Arabic origin ). The Maltese language is the only surviving European language to derive primarily from Arabic, though it contains a large number of Italian and English borrowings.

Arabic text Arabic ( العربية al-ʿarabīyah , ( Arabic pronunciation ) or عربي ʿarabī ) is a Central Semitic language , thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages . Arabic has more speakers than any other language in the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as a first language , most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa , and by 250 million more as a second language . Arabic has many different, geographically distributed spoken varieties , some of which are mutually unintelligible . Modern Standard Arabic is widely taught in schools, universities, and used in workplaces, government and the media. Modern Standard Arabic derives from Classical Arabic , the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century. Classical Arabic has also been a literary language and the liturgical language of Islam since its inception in the 7th century. Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world, like Turkish and Persian . During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed many words from it. Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish , Portuguese , and Sicilian , owing to both the proximity of European and Arab civilizations and 700 years of Arab rule in the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus ). Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew , Persian and Syriac in early centuries, Turkish in medieval times and contemporary European languages in modern times. Like with Hebrew, the Arabic writing system is right-to-left .

Arabic text Arabic / ˈ æ r ə b ɪ k / ( al-ʻarabiyyah or ʻarabī ) is the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century and its modern descendants excluding Maltese . Arabic is spoken in a wide arc stretching across Western Asia , North Africa , and the Horn of Africa . Arabic belongs to the Afroasiatic family. The literary language, called Modern Standard Arabic or Literary Arabic, is the only official form of Arabic. It is used in most written documents as well as in formal spoken occasions, such as lectures and news broadcasts. Arabic is a Central Semitic language , closely related to Aramaic , Hebrew , Ugaritic and Phoenician . Standard Arabic is distinct from and more conservative than all of the spoken varieties, and the two exist in a state known as diglossia , used side-by-side for different societal functions. Some of the spoken varieties are mutually unintelligible , both written and orally, and the varieties as a whole constitute a sociolinguistic language . This means that on purely linguistic grounds they would likely be considered to constitute more than one language, but are commonly grouped together as a single language for political and/or religious reasons ( see below ). If considered multiple languages, it is unclear how many languages there would be, as the spoken varieties form a dialect chain with no clear boundaries . If Arabic is considered a single language, it is perhaps spoken by as many as 420 million speakers (native) in the Arab world, making it one of the six most-spoken languages in the world. If considered separate languages, the most-spoken variety would most likely be Egyptian Arabic , with 69 million native speakers —still greater than any other Afroasiatic language. Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslims . It is one of six official languages of the United Nations . The modern written language ( Modern Standard Arabic ) is derived from the language of the Quran (known as Classical Arabic or Quranic Arabic). It is widely taught in schools, universities and used to varying degrees in workplaces, government and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the official language of 26 states and the liturgical language of Islam . Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the grammatical standards of Quranic Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, especially in modern times. Arabic is the only surviving member of the Ancient North Arabian dialect group attested in pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, which is an abjad script and is written from right-to-left although the spoken varieties are sometimes written in ASCII Latin from left-to-right with no standardized forms. Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history; some of the most influenced languages are Urdu , Persian , Kurdish , Turkish , Somali , Swahili , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Hindi , Malay , Indonesian , Tigrinya , Pashto , Punjabi , Tagalog , Sindhi and Hausa . During the Middle Ages , Literary Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are also found in ancient languages like Latin and Greek. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in Romance languages , particularly Spanish , Catalan , Galician , Portuguese , and Sicilian , owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and 800 years of Arabic culture and language in the Iberian Peninsula , referred to in Arabic as al-Andalus . Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew , Aramaic , Greek , Persian and Syriac in early centuries, Turkish in medieval times and contemporary European languages in modern times, mostly English and French. "Världens 100 största språk 2010" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2010), in Nationalencyklopedin Wright (2001 :492) "Arabic language." Encyclopædia Britannica . 2009. Egyptian Arabic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required) "Executive Summary" . The Future of the Global Muslim Population . Versteegh (1997 :33) harvcoltxt error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFVersteegh1997 ( help )

Semitic language Arabic ([اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |links= ( help ) , al-ʿarabiyyah , or , ʿarabīy , or ) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. It is now the lingua franca of the Arab world . It is named after the Arabs , a term initially used to describe peoples living in the area bounded by Mesopotamia in the east and the Anti-Lebanon mountains in the west, in Northwestern Arabia and in the Sinai Peninsula . The ISO assigns language codes to thirty varieties of Arabic , including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic , also referred to as Literary Arabic, which is modernized Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ , "the purest Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government and the media. Arabic, in its standard form , is the official language of 26 states, as well as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam , since the Quran and Hadith were written in Arabic. During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed many words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages —mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese and Catalan —owing to both the proximity of Christian European and Muslim Arab civilizations and the long-lasting Arabic culture and language presence mainly in Southern Iberia during the Al-Andalus era. Sicilian has about 500 Arabic words, many of which relate to agriculture and related activities, as a legacy of the Emirate of Sicily from the mid-9th to mid-10th centuries, while Maltese language is a Semitic language developed from a dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Greek and Bulgarian , have also acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced many other languages around the globe throughout its history. Some of the most influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian , Spanish , Greek , Bulgarian , Tagalog , Assamese , Sindhi , Odia and Hausa and some languages in parts of Africa. Conversely, Arabic has borrowed words from other languages, including Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Persian in medieval times and languages such as English and French in modern times. Arabic is the liturgical language of 1.8 billion Muslims , and Arabic is one of six official languages of the United Nations . All varieties of Arabic combined are spoken by perhaps as many as 422 million speakers (native and non-native) in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world . Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet, which is an abjad script and is written from right to left , although the spoken varieties are sometimes written in ASCII Latin from left to right with no standardized orthography. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 21st edition. Wright (2001 :492) Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. The earliest stages of Arabic and its linguistic classification (Routledge Handbook of Arabic Linguistics, forthcoming)" . "Arabians, Arabias, and the Greeks_Contact and Perceptions" . : Cite journal requires |journal= ( help ) "Documentation for ISO 639 identifier: ara" . Hull and Ruffino "Maltese language" . Future of the Global Muslim Population .

Semitic language spoken in the Arab world This article is about the general language (macrolanguage). Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] ) is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from a dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to a lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic the fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Classical Arabic (and Modern Standard Arabic) is considered a conservative language among Semitic languages, it preserved the complete Proto-Semitic three grammatical cases and declension (ʾIʿrab) , and it was used in the reconstruction of Proto-Semitic since it preserves as contrastive 28 out of the evident 29 consonantal phonemes. Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Constitution of the Philippines, Article XIV, Sec 7: For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English. The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein. Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).