History UsefulNotes / ArabicLanguage

The ability to comprehend the Arabic language and converse in it is considered by some to be one of many defining traits of the Arab people. Yes, this means--even if you've never lived in any Arab country, have no Arab heritage, and you're even not a Muslim--but you hold fluency in the Arabic language, you may be considered an Arab. Double points if you are a Troper. [[OneOfUs Welcome]]!

Generally speaking, English speakers will have a hard time learning Arabic. Arabic contains a lot of unfamiliar phonemes[[note]]Especially the infamous '''ayn''[[/note]] and grammaticizes features English and other Indo-European speakers (Arabic is part of the Semitic language family) aren't usually used to paying attention to.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. In fact, there are actually no native speakers of MSA. Instead, much like the [[UsefulNotes/ChineseDialects Chinese]], all Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "220 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to you (or perhaps more pertinently, the King James Bible). Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

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However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. There are actually no native speakers of MSA. Instead, much like the [[ChineseDialects Chinese]] all Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "220 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to you (or perhaps more pertinently, the King James Bible). Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. There are actually no native speakers of MSA. Instead, all Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "220 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to you (or perhaps more pertinently, the King James Bible). Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

The ability to comprehend the Arabic language and converse in it is considered by some to be one of many defining traits of the Arab people. Yes, this means--even if you've never lived in any Arab country, have no Arab heritage, and don't have a taste for the sound of an oud--but you hold fluency in the Arabic language, you may be considered an Arab. Double points if you are a Troper. [[OneOfUs Welcome]]!

One other thing to mention: learning Arabic is hard not just because of the difficulties highlighted above, but because of the comparative dearth of resources available for Arab language learners, especially compared to other "hard" languages like Chinese or Japanese. There are more resources available for learning Gaelic (spoken by around a million people in Ireland) than there are for Arabic. Most resources available are for teaching MSA, followed by Egyptian dialect, and then for anything else it quickly drops to near zero. This is partly due to the fact that even Arabs don't teach dialect in their own countries, due to their status as "street languages" compared to MSA. Any grammar or language schooling done in the Arab world is all MSA. Learning and becoming fluent in Arabic is not impossible, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. One really needs to socialize frequently with native speakers to have a good shot at success.

One other thing to mention: learning Arabic is hard not just because of the difficulties highlighted above, but because of the comparative dearth of resources available for Arab language learners. There are more resources available for learning Gaelic (spoken by around a million people in Ireland) than there are for Arabic. Most resources available are for teaching MSA, followed by Egyptian dialect, and then for anything else it quickly drops to near zero. This is partly due to the fact that even Arabs don't teach dialect in their own countries, due to their status as "street languages" compared to MSA. Any grammar or language schooling done in the Arab world is all MSA. Learning and becoming fluent in Arabic is not impossible, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. One really needs to socialize frequently with native speakers to have a good shot at success.

One other thing to mention: learning Arabic is hard not just because of the difficulties highlighted above, but because of the comparative dearth of resources available for Arab language learners. There are more resources available for learning Gaelic (spoken by around a million people in Ireland) than there are for Arabic. Most resources available are for teaching MSA, followed by Egyptian dialect, and then for anything else it quickly drops to near zero. This is partly due to the fact that even Arabs don't teach dialect in their own countries, due to their status as "street languages" compared to MSA. Any grammar or language training done in the Arab world is all MSA. Learning and becoming fluent in Arabic is not impossible, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. One really needs to socialize frequently with native speakers to have a good shot at success.

Generally speaking, English speakers will have a harder time of it learning Arabic than, say, French, but the same holds true in the opposite direction. Arabic contains a lot of unfamiliar phonemes[[note]]Especially the infamous '''ayn''[[/note]] and grammaticizes features English (and other Indo-European) speakers aren't usually used to paying attention to.

One other thing to mention: learning Arabic is hard to learn not just because of the difficulties highlighted above, but because of the comparative dearth of resources available for Arab language learners. There are more resources available for learning Gaelic (spoken by around a million people in Ireland) than there are for Arabic. Most resources available are for teaching MSA, followed by Egyptian dialect, and then for anything else it quickly drops to near zero. This is partly due to the fact that even Arabs don't teach dialect in their own countries, due to their status as "street languages" compared to MSA. Any grammar or language training done in the Arab world is all MSA. Learning and becoming fluent in Arabic is not impossible, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. One really needs to socialize frequently with native speakers to have a good shot at success.

One other thing to mention: learning Arabic is hard to learn not just because of the difficulties highlighted above, but because of the comparative dearth of resources available for Arab language learners. There are more resources available for learning Gaelic (spoken by around a million people in Ireland) than there are for Arabic. Most resources available are for teaching MSA, followed by Egyptian dialect, and then for anything else it quickly drops to near zero. Learning and becoming fluent in Arabic is not impossible, but it's definitely not for the faint of heart. One really needs to socialize frequently with native speakers to have a good shot at success.

If you want to learn Arabic, you must take these things into account before deciding whether to learn MSA or one of the dialects (of course if you ''really'' want to become fluent, eventually you'll have to learn both). Learning Modern Standard Arabic is a good start, as it ''is'' a language which all Arabs will understand, is the only written form, is spoken on the news, and lays a good foundation which makes picking up multiple dialects much easier. However, you will ''not'' be able to hold a conversation with an Arab on the street. Also important: while Arab news is in MSA, Arab ''movies'' are not. Therefore if you plan to learn a lot from watching Arabic TV shows or films, MSA is not the way to go.

On the other hand, diving straight into a dialect lets you converse with regular Arabs immediately - at least, the ones who speak that or mutually intelligible dialects, and of course now you can watch films. However going straight for a dialect makes learning ''other'' dialects harder, and you won't be able to understand the news. Furthermore, you'll be functionally ''illiterate'' because all the writing will be in MSA.

There are pros and cons to both choices, and it all depends on what you want. If your goal is to integrate into casual Arab society, a dialect is definitely the way to go. In other situations, MSA might be better.

* '''Classical''' or ''Quranic Arabic''' is (three guesses) the language of the Koran. It is also used in most documents and writings of the Islamic Golden Age; much like Latin in medieval Europe, it was the standard "codified" language of writing for most of the Middle East and North Africa until the Ottomans began to spread Turkish in its place. This stage of the language is very important for historians, as several groundbreaking scientific and mathematical documents are written in Classical Arabic, and there are some Ancient Greek works known only from their Arabic translations.

[[folder:'''Arabic Dialects''']]* '''Classical''' or ''Quranic Arabic''' is (three guesses) the language of the Koran. It is also used in most documents and writings of the Islamic Golden Age; much like Latin in medieval Europe, it was the standard "codified" language of writing for most of the Middle East and North Africa until the Ottomans began to spread Turkish in its place. This stage of the language is very important for historians, as several groundbreaking scientific and mathematical documents are written in Classical Arabic, and there are some Ancient Greek works known only from their Arabic translations.

An interesting point that's being discovered as people start to write down dialects (for things like the Internet) is that if you use etymological spellings (''à la'' English and French) rather than phonetic ones, even dialect ends up looking remarkably like Standard.

* '''Levantine Arabic''' is spoken in the Levant: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. As the Levant was and is home to many other Semitic languages besides Arabic, many loanwords from those languages have entered it. Unusual in the fact that, while the variety varies considerably among rural populations, most cities throughout the entire region from Damascus to Beirut to Amman speak virtually the same. This urban Levantine dialect, especially the form spoken in Beirut, is famously sing-songy and is often considered a bit {{camp}} by other Arabs; it is also largely mutually intelligible with Nile Valley (Egyptian and Sudanese) varieties if the speakers try to avoid slang and keep their speech in the somewhat more MSA-influenced "high" colloquial.

* '''Levantine Arabic''' is spoken in the Levant: Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, and Palestine. As the Levant was and is home to many other Semitic languages besides Arabic, many loanwords from those languages have entered it. Unusual in the fact that, while the variety varies considerably among rural populations, most cities throughout the entire region from Damascus to Beirut to Amman speak virtually the same. This urban Levantine dialect, especially the form spoken in Beirut, is famously sing-songy and is often considered a bit {{camp}} by other Arabs.

With 22sf0 million speakers, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is the official or a co-official language in 22 countries. It further holds prestige among the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, who revere it as the language of the holy text of Islam, the Koran. Linguistically speaking, it belongs to the Semitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages; Hebrew, Aramaic, and Maltese are also Semitic languages (though those three and Arabic each use a different alphabet), while other non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages include Amharic[[note]]The official language of Ethiopia.[[/note]] Berber,[[note]]Spoken by pre-Arab North Africans (other than Egyptians), also called Tamazight[[/note]] and Ancient Egyptian.[[note]]whose daughter language Coptic (which in modern times uses a Greek-derived alphabet) survives as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church[[/note]] Historically, Arabic was even more widespread than it is now, reaching into parts of Europe; Maltese, the language of Malta in the Mediterranean, is descended from the variety of Arabic (Siculo-Arabic) that was spoken there and in Sicily at the time.

With 290 million speakers, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is the official or a co-official language in 22 countries. It further holds prestige among the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, who revere it as the language of the holy text of Islam, the Koran. Linguistically speaking, it belongs to the Semitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages; Hebrew, Aramaic, and Maltese are also Semitic languages (though those three and Arabic each use a different alphabet), while other non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages include Amharic[[note]]The official language of Ethiopia.[[/note]] Berber,[[note]]Spoken by pre-Arab North Africans (other than Egyptians), also called Tamazight[[/note]] and Ancient Egyptian.[[note]]whose daughter language Coptic (which in modern times uses a Greek-derived alphabet) survives as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church[[/note]] Historically, Arabic was even more widespread than it is now, reaching into parts of Europe; Maltese, the language of Malta in the Mediterranean, is descended from the variety of Arabic (Siculo-Arabic) that was spoken there and in Sicily at the time.

There are a few important to things to know about Arabic before we begin. First, the Arabic that people claim is spoken by "290 million people" is called "Modern Standard Arabic," which from here on out will be called "MSA." This is Classical Arabic taken straight from the Quran updated for modern times. It is the only written form of Arabic, and is the form of Arabic spoken on the news, in academic circles, and in politics.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. There are actually no native speakers of MSA. Instead, all Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "290 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to you (or perhaps more pertinently, the King James Bible). Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. All Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "290 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to you (or perhaps more pertinently, the King James Bible). Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

There are pros and cons to both choices, and it all depends on what you want. If you're going to be spending a lot of time in Egypt or with Egyptians, it would probably be better to go straight for Egyptian rather than MSA. In other situations, MSA might be better.

So why is Modern Standard Arabic taught? Firstly, it is the only written form of Arabic. Dialects have no official written forms. In this sense, Arabs may be said to read in one language and speak in another. Secondly, because of its association with the Quran, it remains the language of high society and the media. Someone who understands only dialect will not be able to listen to the news, or indeed read any printed media like newspapers or books.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. All Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "290 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to yours (or perhaps more pertinently, the King James Bible). Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. All Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "290 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who speak different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to yours. Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. All Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arabic would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "290 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who spoken different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to yours. Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

However, this is not the Arabic that Arabs speak most of the time. They understand it, but they don't speak it. All Arabs speak a wide variety of "dialects," some of which are only partially mutually intelligible with each other, and some not at all. Though they are grouped together for political and cultural reasons, the so-called "dialects" of Arab would be better thought of as separate languages altogether. Many language learning courses advertise MSA as the "lingua franca" of the Arab world spoken by "290 million people." This is not true. If two Arabs meet who spoken different dialects, almost always they will try to simply muddle through with their own dialects. MSA sounds as "modern" to contemporary Arabs as Shakespearean English sounds to yours. Even if you speak to a regular Arab in MSA, he will not respond in it - meaning you probably won't understand him.

With 220 million speakers, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is the official or a co-official language in 22 countries. It further holds prestige among the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, who revere it as the language of the holy text of Islam, the Koran. Linguistically speaking, it belongs to the Semitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages; Hebrew, Aramaic, and Maltese are also Semitic languages (though those three and Arabic each use a different alphabet), while other non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages include Amharic[[note]]The official language of Ethiopia.[[/note]] Berber,[[note]]Spoken by pre-Arab North Africans (other than Egyptians), also called Tamazight[[/note]] and Ancient Egyptian.[[note]]whose daughter language Coptic (which in modern times uses a Greek-derived alphabet) survives as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church[[/note]] Historically, Arabic was even more widespread than it is now, reaching into parts of Europe; Maltese, the language of Malta in the Mediterranean, is descended from the variety of Arabic (Siculo-Arabic) that was spoken there and in Sicily at the time.

Although usually considered a single language for political and cultural reasons, under typical linguistic analysis, "Arabic" is in fact not exactly a single language; depending on how you see it, it could also be seen as a language family consisting of many different languages, in a situation mirroring Chinese. Like Chinese, the Arabic dialects are quite different from each other and from the standard, though, unlike Chinese, dialects are somewhat more likely to be mutually intelligible (e.g. Egyptians and Lebanese, especially ones from the cities, can usually understand each other quite well as long as they don't go into street slang--and of course, you could say the same about a New Yorker and a Glaswegian). The Arabic typically learned by foreigners is specifically Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), generally very similar to the Arabic of the Koran but with modifications to accommodate things like loanwords and technical terminology. However, while MSA is used in formal writing, politics, and diplomacy, no one speaks it as a native language, even if "Arabic" is the general native language of their country. After 1500 years of language change, spoken varieties of Arabic are now different languages entirely from the language of the Koran or MSA.

Arabic is usually grouped into these varieties:

* '''Classical''' or '''Koranic Arabic''' is (three guesses) the language of the Koran. It is also used in most documents and writings of the Islamic Golden Age; much like Latin in medieval Europe, it was the standard "codified" language of writing for most of the Middle East and North Africa until the Ottomans began to spread Turkish in its place. This stage of the language is very important for historians, as several groundbreaking scientific and mathematical documents are written in Classical Arabic, and there are some Ancient Greek works known only from their Arabic translations.

With 220 million speakers, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is the official or a co-official language in 22 countries. It further holds prestige among the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, who revere it as the language of the holy text of Islam, the Koran. Linguistically speaking, it belongs to the Semitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages; Hebrew and Aramaic are also Semitic languages, while other non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages include Amharic[[note]]The official language of Ethiopia.[[/note]] Berber,[[note]]Spoken by pre-Arab North Africans, also called Tamazight[[/note]] and Ancient Egyptian.[[note]]whose daughter language Coptic survives as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church[[/note]] Historically, Arabic was even more widespread than it is now, reaching into parts of Europe; Maltese, the language of Malta in the Mediterranean, is descended from the variety of Arabic (Siculo-Arabic) that was spoken there and in Sicily at the time.

Although usually considered a single language for political and cultural reasons, under typical linguistic analysis, "Arabic" is in fact not exactly a single language; depending on how you see it, it could also be seen as a language family consisting of many different languages, in a situation mirroring Chinese. Like Chinese, the Arabic dialects are quite different from each other and from the standard, though, unlike Chinese, several dialects are somewhat more likely to be mutually intelligible (e.g. Egyptians and Lebanese, especially ones from the cities, can usually understand each other quite well as long as they don't go into street slang--and of course, you could say the same about a New Yorker and a Glaswegian). The Arabic typically learned by foreigners is specifically Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), generally very similar to the Arabic of the Koran but with modifications to accommodate things like loanwords and technical terminology. However, while MSA is used in formal writing, politics, and diplomacy, no one speaks it as a native language, even if "Arabic" is the general native language of their country. After 1500 years of language change, spoken varieties of Arabic are now different languages entirely from the language of the Koran or MSA.

With 220 million speakers, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It is the official or a co-official language in 22 countries. It further holds prestige among the world's 1.6 billion Muslims, who revere it as the language of the holy text of Islam, the Koran. Linguistically speaking, it belongs to the Semitic subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic languages; Hebrew and Aramaic are also Semitic languages, while other non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic languages include Amharic[[note]]The official language of Ethiopia.[[/note]] Berber,[[note]]Spoken by pre-Arab North Africans, also called Tamazight[[/note]] and Ancient Egyptian.[[note]]whose daughter language Coptic survives as the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church[[/note]] Historically, Arabic was even more widespread than it is now, reaching into parts of Europe; Maltese, the language of Malta in the Mediterranean, is descended from the Arabic that was spoken there.

Although usually considered a single language for political and cultural reasons, under typical linguistic analysis, "Arabic" is in fact not exactly a single language; depending on how you see it, it could also be seen as a language family consisting of many different languages, in a situation mirroring Latin and its Romance language derivatives. The annoying part, however, is that although the Arabic dialects are quite different from each other and from the standard, they are not nearly as heavily derived as the Romance languages, and many remain mutually intelligible (e.g.: Egyptians and Lebanese, especially ones from the cities, can usually understand each other quite well as long as they don't go into street slang--and of course, you could say the same about a New Yorker and a Glaswegian). The Arabic typically learned by foreigners is specifically Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), generally very similar to the Arabic of the Koran but with modifications to accommodate things like loanwords and technical terminology. However, while MSA is used in formal writing, politics, and diplomacy, no one speaks it as a native language, even if "Arabic" is the general native language of their country. After 1500 years of language change, spoken varieties of Arabic are now different languages entirely from the language of the Koran or MSA.

The kind of Arabic used in the Qur'an is known today as Classical Arabic and bears extreme resemblance to--and may even be considered identical to--the Formal Arabic of today. Only in religious texts or the Qur'an itself will one find diacritics being written. They are merely implied in text written for mundane things like a letter to a friend or a newspaper. This poses a problem for people who have learned how to read diacritics but don't have much vocabulary down, as the pronunciation will have to be inferred by the context of the word.

The Arabic alphabet consists of 29 letters (or 28, [[BrokenBase as Arab grammarians are divided as to whether not ''hamza'' should be considered it's own letter or some kind of auxiliary symbol for an ''alif'']]). Each letter can connect to other letters in the same word in one of two ways: