Arabic language

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This article contains Arabic text, written from right to left in a cursive style with some letters joined. Without proper rendering support, you may see unjoined Arabic letters written left-to-right instead of right-to-left or other symbols instead of Arabic script.
Arabic
العربية al-ʿarabīyah
al-ʿArabīyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script)
Pronunciation /alˌʕaraˈbiːja/
Spoken in Primarily in the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa;
liturgical language of Islam.
Total speakers Approx. 280 million native speakers[1] and 250 million non-native speakers[2]
Ranking 5 (native speakers, Ethnologue estimate)
Language family Afro-Asiatic

• Semitic
  • West Semitic
    • Central Semitic
      • Arabic
        • Arabic

Writing system Arabic alphabet, Syriac alphabet (Garshuni), Bengali script [1] [2]
Official status
Official language in Official language of 25 countries, the third most after English and French[3]
Regulated by Algeria: Supreme Council of the Arabic language in Algeria

Egypt: Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo
Iraq: Iraqi Academy of Sciences
Jordan: Jordan Academy of Arabic
Libya: Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya
Morocco: Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat
Sudan: Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartum
Syria: Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest)
Tunisia: Beit Al-Hikma Foundation

Language codes
ISO 639-1 ar
ISO 639-2 ara
ISO 639-3 ara – Arabic (generic)
(see varieties of Arabic for the individual codes)
Map of majority Arabic speakers (green) and minority Arabic speakers (light green)

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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.

Arabic (العربية al-ʿarabīyah, ( Arabic pronunciation (help·info)) or عربي ʿarabi) is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, Arabic is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million[1] people as a first language, most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa, and by 250 million[2] more as a second language. Arabic has many different, geographically-distributed spoken varieties, some of which are mutually unintelligible.[4] 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.[5] 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. 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 Islamic rule in the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus).