Arabic language

**Arabic** (اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ, _al-ʿarabiyyah_) is a Central Semitic language that first appeared in the mid-ninth century BCE in Northern Arabia and Sahara southern Levant. It is related to other Semitic languages like Hebrew and Aramaic. Unlike the latter two, where the former derives from the other, however, Arabic is itself a root language, like Latin. Unlike Latin, it is still widely used and spoken today. Around 292 million people speak it as their first language. Many more people can also understand it as a second language in the Maghreb. The Arabic language is written from right to left in a consonant alphabet, which is also called an abjad. Since it is so widely spoken throughout the world, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The other official languages of the UN are: English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.

Many countries speak Arabic as an official language, but not all of them speak it the same way. The language has many dialects, or varieties, such as Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic , Levantine Arabic and many others. Some of the dialects are spoken so differently from one another that some speakers have a hard time understanding the other. Many dialectic words however are nonetheless still rooted in the original, or classical language.

Most of the countries that use Arabic as their official language are in the Middle East. They are part of the Arab world, the largest religion in the region is Islam. The Arabic language is considered to be the language of Islam as the Quran was revealed in the Arabic language and it was also the native language of and spoken by Muhammad, the religion's prophet.

Arabic is very important in Islam because Muslims believe that Allah (God) used it to talk to Muhammad through the Archangel Gabriel (Jibril), giving him the Quran in the language. Many but not all Arabic-speakers are Muslims. The miracle of the Quran is believed to be in its language.

Arabic is also becoming a popular language to learn in the Western world even though its grammar is sometimes very hard to learn for native speakers of Indo-European languages. Many other languages have borrowed words from Arabic because of its importance in history. Some English words that can be traced to Arabic are sugar, cotton, magazine, algebra, alcohol and emir.

## List of places

Arabic is an official language of these countries:

- Algeria
- Bahrain
- Comoros
- Chad
- Djibouti
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Iraq
- Israel
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Lebanon
- Libya
- Mauritania
- Morocco
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestine
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Somaliland
- Sudan
- Syria
- Tunisia
- United Arab Emirates
- Yemen

It is also a national language of:
- Mali
- Somalia
- Senegal

## Abjad

The Arabic alphabet is a consonant alphabet with 28 letters, as listed below:

- ا (_ʾalif_, sometimes pronounced like ‘aa’)
- ب (_bāʾ/bīth_, pronounced like ‘b’ or ‘p’)
- ت (_tāʾ/tāw_, pronounced like ‘t’)
- ث (_thāʾ/thāw_, pronounced like ‘th’ in ‘bath’)
- ج (_gīm/gīmil_, pronounced like ‘j’ or ‘ch’ in ‘cheap’)
- ح (_ḥāʾ/ḥīth_, pronounced like a heavy ‘h’) [ħ]
- خ (_khāʾ/khīth_, pronounced like ‘ch’ in ‘loch’) [χ]
- د (_dāl/dālith_, pronounced like ‘d’)
- ذ (_dhāl/dhālith_, pronounced like the ‘th’ in ‘the’)
- ر (_rāʾ/rīsh’_, pronounced like ‘r’ or ‘rr’ in Spanish)
- ز (_zayn/zāy/zāʾ_, pronounced like ‘z’ or ‘zh’)
- س (_sīn/sāmikh_, pronounced like ‘s’)
- ش (_shīn_, pronounced like ‘sh’)
- ص (_ṣād/ṣādhī_, pronounced like a heavy ‘s’) [sˤ]
- ض (_ḍād/ḍādhī_, pronounced like a heavy ‘d’) [dˤ]
- ط (_ṭāʾ/ṭīth_, pronounced like a heavy ‘t’) [tˤ]
- ظ (_ḍhāʾ/ḍhīth_, pronounced like a heavy ‘th’) [ðˤ]
- ع (_ʿayn_, sometimes pronounced like ‘euu’) [ʕ]
- غ (_ghayn_, pronounced like gargling water) [ɣ]
- ف (_fāʾ/fī_, pronounced like ‘f’ or ‘v’)
- ق (_qāf/qūf_, like the sound made in comical cartoons when the characters gulp down a drink) [q]
- ك (_kāf_, pronounced like ‘k’ or ‘g’)
- ل (_lāmidh/lām_, pronounced like ‘l’ or ‘ly’)
- م (_mīm_, pronounced like ‘m’)
- ن (_nūn_, pronounced like ‘n’ or ‘ny’)
- ه (_hāʾ/hī_, pronounced like ‘h’)
- و (_wāw_, pronounced like ‘w’ or ‘oo’)
- ي (_yāʾ/yūdh_, pronounced like ‘y’ or ‘ee’)

## Infobox (language)

- **name**: Arabic
- **nativename**:
**'
- **pronunciation**:

- **states**: Egypt
United Arab Emirates
Saudi Arabia
Cyprus
Morocco
Western Sahara
Senegal
Israel
Mali
Niger
Philippines
Palestine
Algeria
Zanzibar
Chad
Mauritania
Tunisia
Libya
Sudan
South Sudan
Qatar
Kuwait
Bahrain
Iraq
Lebanon
Syria
Somalia
Eritrea
Djibouti
Malta
Comoros
Iran
Pakistan
Malaysia
Turkey
Indonesia
Guinea
Nigeria
Cameroon
Gabon
Central African Republic
- **ethnicity**: Arabs and several other peoples of the Middle East and North Africa
- **speakers**: million native speakers of all Varieties of Arabic, varieties
- **date**: 2024
- **speakers2**: million L2 speakers, L2 users of Modern Standard Arabic (2023)
- **speakers label**: Speakers
- **familycolor**: Afro-Asiatic
- **fam2**: Semitic languages, Semitic
- **fam3**: West Semitic languages, West Semitic
- **fam4**: Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic
- **dia1**: Egyptian Arabic, Egyptian
- **dia2**: Sudanese Arabic, Sudanese
- **dia3**: Levantine Arabic, Levantine
- **dia4**: Maghrebi Arabic, Maghrebi
- **dia5**: Mesopotamian Arabic, Mesopotamian
- **dia6**: Peninsular Arabic, Peninsular
- **dia7**: Central Asian Arabic, Central Asian
- **dia8**: Chadian Arabic, Chadian
- **dia9**: Shirvani Arabic, Shirvani
- **dia10**: Siculo-Arabic
- **dia11**: Andalusi Arabic, Andalusi
- **dia12**: Cypriot Arabic, Cypriot
- **dia13**: Saʽidi Arabic, Saʽidi
- **dia14**: Judeo-Arabic dialects, Judeo-Arabic
Canadian-Arabic, Canadian
- **stand1**: Modern Standard Arabic
- **script**: Arabic alphabet
- **iso1**: ar
- **iso2**: ara
- **iso3**: ara
- **lc1**: arq
- **ld1**: Algerian Arabic
- **lc2**: xaa
- **ld2**: Andalusi Arabic
- **lc3**: abv
- **ld3**: Bahrani Arabic
- **lc4**: avl
- **ld4**: Bedawi Arabic
- **lc5**: shu
- **ld5**: Chadian Arabic
- **lc6**: acy
- **ld6**: Cypriot Arabic
- **lc7**: adf
- **ld7**: Dhofari Arabic
- **lc8**: arz
- **ld8**: Egyptian Arabic
- **lc9**: acm
- **ld9**: Gelet Arabic, Gelet Iraqi Arabic
- **lc10**: afb
- **ld10**: Gulf Arabic
- **lc11**: ayh
- **ld11**: Hadhrami Arabic
- **lc12**: mey
- **ld12**: Hassaniya Arabic
- **lc13**: acw
- **ld13**: Hejazi Arabic
- **lc14**: apc
- **ld14**: Levantine Arabic
- **lc15**: ayl
- **ld15**: Libyan Arabic
- **lc16**: ary
- **ld16**: Moroccan Arabic
- **lc17**: ars
- **ld17**: Najdi Arabic
- **lc18**: acx
- **ld18**: Omani Arabic
- **lc19**: ayp
- **ld19**: Moslawi Arabic, Qeltu Iraqi Arabic
- **lc20**: aao
- **ld20**: Saharan Arabic
- **lc21**: aec
- **ld21**: Saʽidi Arabic
- **lc22**: ayn
- **ld22**: Sanʽani Arabic
- **lc23**: ssh
- **ld23**: Shihhi Arabic
- **lc24**: sqr
- **ld24**: Siculo-Arabic
- **lc25**: arb
- **ld25**: Standard Arabic
- **lc26**: apd
- **ld26**: Sudanese Arabic
- **lc27**: acq
- **ld27**: Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic
- **lc28**: abh
- **ld28**: Tajiki Arabic
- **lc29**: aeb
- **ld29**: Tunisian Arabic
- **lc30**: auz
- **ld30**: Uzbeki Arabic
- **lingua**: 12-AAC
- **image**: Arabic albayancalligraphy.svg
- **imagescale**: 0.7
- **imagecaption**: **''' in written Arabic (Naskh (script), Naskh script)
- **notice**: IPA
- **ancestor**: Proto-Afroasiatic
- **ancestor2**: Proto-Semitic
- **ancestor3**: Proto-Arabic
- **ancestor4**: Old Arabic
- **ancestor5**: Pre-classical Arabic
- **ancestor6**: Classical Arabic
- **sign**: Signed Arabic Arab sign-language family, (different national forms)
- **glotto**: arab1395
- **glottorefname**: Arabic
- **map**: Arabic speaking world.svg