Arabic language

Arabic (العربية al-'arabiyyah, or less formally 'arabi) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. It is spoken throughout the Arab world and is widely studied and known throughout the Islamic world. Arabic has been a literary language since at least the 6th century and is the liturgical language of Islam.

Dialects

See Varieties of Arabic for a fuller overview.

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"Colloquial Arabic" is a collective term for the spoken languages or dialects of people throughout the Arab world, which, as mentioned, differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the Maghreb dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. Maltese, though descended from Arabic, is considered a separate language. 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 Maghrebis (although the converse is not true, due to the popularity of Middle Eastern—especially Egyptian—films and other media).

Related Topics:
Literary language - Maghreb - Middle East - Bedouin - Maltese

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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. Thus Iraqi aku, Levantine fiih, and North African kayen all mean "there is", and all come from Arabic (yakuun, fiihi, kaa'in respectively), but now sound very different.

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The major groups are:

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• Egyptian Arabic (Egypt) Considered the most widely understood and used "second dialect"
• Maghreb Arabic (Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic and western Libyan)
• Levantine Arabic (Western Syrian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and western Jordanian, Cypriot Maronite Arabic)
• Iraqi Arabic or Gulf Arabic (Iraqi, Eastern Syrian, Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabian, Gulf coast from Iraq to Oman including much of Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, and minorities on the other side)

Other varieties include:

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• ?ass?n?ya (in Mauritania and Western Sahara)
• Andalusi Arabic (extinct, but important role in literary history)
• Maltese
• Sudanese Arabic (with a dialect continuum into Chad)
• Hijazi Arabic (West Cost of Saudi Arabia, Northern Saudi Arabia, eastern Jordan, Western Iraq)
• Najdi Arabic (Najd region of central Saudi Arabia)
• Yemeni Arabic (Yemen to southern Saudi Arabia)