Arabic (العربية al-ʿarabīyah, ( Arabic pronunciation (help·info)) or عربي ʿarabi) is a Central Semitic language The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and the Northwest Semitic languages, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa. They constitute a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The most widely spoken Semitic language by far today is Arabic . It is followed by Amharic (2 such as Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s and the Neo-Aramaic languages Neo-Aramaic, or Modern Aramaic, languages are varieties of Aramaic that are spoken vernaculars in the medieval to modern era, evolving out of Middle Aramaic dialects around AD 1200. Arabic has more speakers than any other language in the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million[1] people as a first language A first language is the language a human being learns from birth. The term is also used for the language that the speaker speaks best. In either case, a person's first language is a basis for sociolinguistic identity, most of whom live in the Middle East The Middle East is a region that encompasses southwestern Asia and Egypt. In some contexts, the term has recently been expanded in usage to sometimes include Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and North Africa. It's often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and North Africa North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, and, and by 250 million[2] more as a second language A second language is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue (L1). Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas. Arabic has many different, geographically-distributed spoken varieties The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties that diverge widely from one another—both from country to country and within a single country. A distinction is to be made between Classical/Standard Arabic and these "colloquial" variants. In sociolinguistic terms, Arabic in its native environment typically occurs in a &, some of which are mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. It is sometimes used as one criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also.[4] Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in formal speech. It is part of the Arabic macrolanguage is widely taught in schools, universities, and used in workplaces, government and the media.

Modern Standard Arabic derives from Classical Arabic Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendent used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal, the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian Ancient North Arabian is a language known from fragmentary inscriptions in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, dating to between roughly the 6th century BC and the 6th century AD, all written in scripts derived from Epigraphic South Arabian. Pre-classical Arabic , the predecessor of Classical Arabic, seems to have coexisted with these languages dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions The history of the Arabic alphabet shows that this abjad has changed since it arose. It is thought that the Arabic alphabet is a derivative of the Nabataean variation of the Aramaic alphabet, which descended from the Phoenician alphabet, which among others gave rise to the Hebrew alphabet and the Greek alphabet, (and therefore the Cyrillic and dating back to the 4th century.[5] Classical Arabic has also been a literary language A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others. Where there is a strong divergence, the language is said to exhibit diglossia and the liturgical language A sacred language, "holy language" , or liturgical language, is a language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life of Islam Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of their one, incomparable God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad's teachings and normative example (in Arabic called since its inception in the 7th century.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic Islam (Arabic: الإسلام‎ al-’islām, pronounced [ʔislæːm] [note 1]) is the monotheistic religion articulated by the Qur’an, a text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of their one, incomparable God (Arabic: الله‎, Allāh), and by the Prophet of Islam Muhammad's teachings and normative example (in Arabic called world. During the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in, 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 The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it is usually identified as a completely languages, particularly Spanish Arabic influence on the Spanish language has been significant, due to the Islamic presence in the Iberian peninsula between 711 and 1492 A.D., Portuguese Categories: Arabic language | Arabic words and phrases | Portuguese language | Portuguese language lists | Lists of words , and Sicilian Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Italiano Meridionale-estremo language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria (where it is called Southern Calabro); in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento (where it is known as Salentino); and Campania, on the Italian, owing to both the proximity of European and Arab civilizations and 700 years of Islamic rule in the Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day states Portugal, Spain, Andorra, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas. It is bordered on the (see Al-Andalus Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to a nation in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Berbers and African Muslims (given the generic name of Moors), at various times in the period between 711 and 1492).

Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s, Persian Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq, Bahrain, and Oman. New Persian, which usually is called also by the names of Farsi, Parsi, Dari or Parsi-ye-Dari (Dari Persian), can be classified linguistically and Syriac Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared around the 1st century C.E., Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries, the classical language of Edessa, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature in early centuries, Turkish Turkish (Türkçe IPA [ˈt̪yɾktʃe] ) is spoken as a first language by over 77 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other parts of Eastern in medieval times and contemporary European languages in modern times.

Contents

Classical, Modern Standard, and colloquial Arabic

Arabic usually designates one of three main variants: Classical Arabic Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendent used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal; Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in formal speech. It is part of the Arabic macrolanguage; colloquial or dialectal Arabic The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties that diverge widely from one another—both from country to country and within a single country. A distinction is to be made between Classical/Standard Arabic and these "colloquial" variants. In sociolinguistic terms, Arabic in its native environment typically occurs in a &.

Classical Arabic Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendent used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal (فصحى fuṣḥā) is the language found in the Qur'an The Qur’an is the central religious verbal text of Islam, also sometimes transliterated as Quran, Koran, Qur’ān, or Al-Qur’ān. Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the verbal book of divine guidance and direction for mankind. Its text addresses the Arabic speaking "children of Israel". Muslims also consider the original Arabic and used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia The history of Pre-Islamic Arabia before the rise of Islam in the 630s is not known in great detail. Archaeological exploration in the Arabian Peninsula has been sparse; indigenous written sources are limited to the many inscriptions and coins from southern Arabia. Existing material consists primarily of written sources from other traditions and to that of the Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire [disambiguation needed]. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus. Classical Arabic is considered normative; modern authors attempt to follow the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh Abū Bishr ʻAmr ibn ʻUthmān ibn Qanbar Al-Bishrī (Sibuyeh in Persian, سيبويه Sībawayh in Arabic, سیبویه) was a linguist of Persian origin born ca. 760 in the town of Bayza (ancient Nesayak) in the Fars province of Iran, died in Shiraz, also in the Fars, around 180 AH (796–797)), and use the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as the Lisān al-Arab).

Based on Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic , Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standard and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in formal speech. It is part of the Arabic macrolanguage (فصحى fuṣḥā) is the literary language A literary language is a register of a language that is used in literary writing. This may also include liturgical writing. The difference between literary and non-literary forms is more marked in some languages than in others. Where there is a strong divergence, the language is said to exhibit diglossia used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by the Arabic media across North Africa North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes seven countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Western Sahara Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania, and and the Middle East The Middle East is a region that encompasses southwestern Asia and Egypt. In some contexts, the term has recently been expanded in usage to sometimes include Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and North Africa. It's often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic and/or Classical Arabic.

Colloquial or dialectal Arabic The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties that diverge widely from one another—both from country to country and within a single country. A distinction is to be made between Classical/Standard Arabic and these "colloquial" variants. In sociolinguistic terms, Arabic in its native environment typically occurs in a & refers to the many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many different regional variants; these sometimes differ enough to be mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. It is sometimes used as one criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, though sociolinguistic factors are also and some linguists consider them distinct languages.[6] The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers such as Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, and Lever Brothers as sponsors and talk shows A talk show or chat show (British) is a television or radio program where one person (or group of people) will discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host. Sometimes, talk shows feature a panel of guests, usually consisting of a group of people who are learned or who have great experience in relation to whatever issue is being discussed,[7] as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media, such as poetry and printed advertising. The only variety of modern Arabic to have acquired official language status is Maltese Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic (the Arabic dialect that developed in Malta, Sicily and the rest of Southern Italy between the, spoken in (predominately Roman Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with more than a billion members. The Church's leader is the Pope who holds supreme authority in concert with the College of Bishops of which he is the head. A communion of the Western church and 22 autonomous Eastern Catholic churches (called) Malta Malta /ˈmɔːltə/ , officially the Republic of Malta (Maltese: Repubblika ta' Malta), is a southern European country and consists of an archipelago situated centrally in the Mediterranean, 93 km south of Sicily and 288 km east of Tunisia, with the Strait of Gibraltar 1,826 km to the west and Alexandria 1,510 km to the east and written with the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was borrowed and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome, whose alphabet was then adapted and further modified by the ancient. It is descended from Classical Arabic Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the direct descendent used today throughout the Arab World in writing and in formal through Siculo-Arabic and is not mutually intelligible with other varieties of Arabic. Most linguists list it as a separate language rather than as a dialect of Arabic.

The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia, which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their local dialect and their school-taught Standard Arabic. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. Arabic speakers often improve their familiarity with other dialects via music or film.

Like other languages, Modern Standard Arabic continues to evolve.[8] Many modern terms have entered into common usage, in some cases taken from other languages (for example, فيلم film) or coined from existing lexical resources (for example, هاتف hātif "telephone" < "caller"). Structural influence from foreign languages or from the colloquial varieties has also affected Modern Standard Arabic. For example, texts in Modern Standard Arabic sometimes use the format "A, B, C, and D" when listing things, whereas Classical Arabic prefers "A and B and C and D",[citation needed] and subject-initial sentences may be more common in Modern Standard Arabic than in Classical Arabic.[8] For these reasons, Modern Standard Arabic is generally treated separately in non-Arab sources.

Influence of Arabic on other languages

Main article: Influence of Arabic on other languages

The influence of Arabic has been most important in Islamic countries. Arabic is a major source of vocabulary for languages such as Amharic, Baluchi, Bengali, Berber, Catalan, Cypriot Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew , Hindustani , Indonesian, Kurdish, Malay, Marathi, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Rohingya, Sindhi, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Turkish and Urdu as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. For example, the Arabic word for book (/kitāb/) has been borrowed in all the languages listed, with the exception of Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese which use the Latin-derived words "libro","llibre" and "livro", respectively, and Tagalog which uses "aklat", and Hebrew which uses "sefer". In addition, English has many Arabic loan words, some directly but most through the medium of other Mediterranean languages. Examples of such words include admiral, adobe, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, almanac, amber, arsenal, assassin, banana, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, hazard, jar, jasmine, lemon, loofah, magazine, mattress, sherbet, sofa, sugar, sumac, tariff and many other words. Other languages such as Maltese[9] and Kinubi derive from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or grammar rules.

The terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like Berber taẓallit "prayer" < salat), academic terms (like Uyghur mentiq "logic"), economic items (like English sugar) to placeholders (like Spanish fulano "so-and-so") and everyday conjunctions (like Hindustani lekin "but", or Spanish hasta "until"). Most Berber varieties (such as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow some numbers from Arabic. Most Islamic religious terms are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as salat 'prayer' and imam 'prayer leader.' In languages not directly in contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are often transferred indirectly via other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic. For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani entered through Persian, and many older Arabic loanwords in Hausa were borrowed from Kanuri. Some words in English and other European languages are derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish and Italian. Among them are commonly-used words like "sugar" (sukkar), "cotton" (quṭn) and "magazine" (maḫāzin). English words more recognizably of Arabic origin include "algebra", "alcohol", "alchemy", "alkali", "zenith" and "nadir". Some words in common use, such as "intention" and "information", were originally calques of Arabic philosophical terms.

Arabic words also made their way into several West African languages as Islam spread across the Sahara. Variants of Arabic words such as kitaab (book) have spread to the languages of African groups who had no direct contact with Arab traders.[10]

Arabic was influenced by other languages as well. The most important sources of borrowings into (pre-Islamic) Arabic are Aramaic, which used to be the principal, international language of communication throughout the ancient Near and Middle East, Ethiopic, and to a lesser degree Hebrew (mainly religious concepts).

See also: list of Arabic loanwords in English

As Arabic occupied a position similar to Latin (in Europe) throughout the Islamic world many of the Arabic concepts in the field of science, philosophy, commerce etc., were often coined by non-native Arabic speakers, notably by Aramaic and Persian translators. This process of using Arabic roots in notably Turkish and Persian, to translate foreign concepts continued right until the 18th and 19th century, when large swaths of Arab-inhabited lands were under Ottoman rule.

Arabic and Islam

Arabic is the language of the Qur'an. Arabic is often associated with Islam, but it is also spoken by Arab Christians, Mizrahi Jews and Iraqi Mandaeans.

Most of the world's Muslims do not speak Arabic as their native language but many can read the script and recite the words of religious texts. Some Muslims consider the Arabic language to be "the language chosen by God to speak to mankind" and the original revealed language spoken by man from which all other languages were derived having been corrupted.[11][12] It is most notably understood by Muslims as being the lingua franca of the afterlife.[citation needed]

History

The earliest surviving texts in Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, are the Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, from the 8th century BC, written not in the modern Arabic alphabet, nor in its Nabataean ancestor, but in variants of the epigraphic South Arabian musnad. These are followed by 6th-century BC Lihyanite texts from southeastern Saudi Arabia and the Thamudic texts found throughout Arabia and the Sinai, and not actually connected with Thamud. Later come the Safaitic inscriptions beginning in the 1st century BC, and the many Arabic personal names attested in Nabataean inscriptions (which are, however, written in Aramaic). From about the 2nd century BC, a few inscriptions from Qaryat al-Fāw (near Sulayyil) reveal a dialect which is no longer considered "Proto-Arabic", but Pre-Classical Arabic. By the fourth century AD, the Arab kingdoms of the Lakhmids in southern Iraq, the Ghassanids in southern Syria the Kindite Kingdom emerged in Central Arabia. Their courts were responsible for some notable examples of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, and for some of the few surviving pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic alphabet.[13]

Dialects and descendants

Main article: Varieties of Arabic

Colloquial Arabic is a collective term for the spoken varieties of Arabic used throughout the Arab world, which differ radically from the literary language. The main dialectal division is between the North African dialects and those of the Middle East, followed by that between sedentary dialects and the much more conservative Bedouin dialects. 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 North Africans (although the converse is not true, in part due to the popularity of Middle Eastern—especially Egyptian—films and other media).

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 fīh, and North African kayən all mean "there is", and all come from Classical Arabic forms (yakūn, fīhi, kā'in respectively), but now sound very different.

Different Dialects of Arabic in the Arab World

The major dialect groups are:

Egyptian Arabic

Gulf Arabic

Levantine Arabic

Maghrebi Arabic

Other

Other varieties include:

Sounds

Main article: Arabic phonology
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The phonemes below reflect the pronunciation of Modern Standard Arabic. There are minor variations from country to country. Additionally, these dialects can vary from region to region within a country.

Vowels

Modern Standard Arabic has three vowels, with long and short forms of /a/, /i/, and /u/. There are also two diphthongs: /aj/ and /aw/.

Consonants

Standard Arabic consonant phonemes
Labial Inter- dental Dental/Alveolar Post- alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn- geal3 Glottal
plain emphatic plain emphatic
Nasal m n
Stop voiceless ‎ t̪ ‎ t̪ˁ ‎ k ‎ q ʔ
voiced ‎ b ‎ d̪ ‎ d̪ˁ ‎ ʒ~dʒ~ɡ1
Fricative voiceless f θ ‎ s ‎ sˁ ʃ ‎ x~χ4 ‎ ħ ‎ h
voiced ð ðˁ~zˁ z ɣ~ʁ4 ʕ
Approximant l2 j w
Trill r

See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart.

  1. [dʒ] is pronounced [ɡ] by some speakers. This is especially characteristic of the Egyptian, Omani and some Yemeni dialects. In many parts of North Africa and in the Levant, it is pronounced [ʒ].
  2. /l/ is pronounced [lˁ] only in /ʔalːaːh/, the name of God, q.e. Allah, when the word follows a, ā, u or ū (after i or ī it is unvelarized: bismi l–lāh /bismilːaːh/).
  3. In many varieties, /ħ, ʕ/ are actually epiglottal [ʜ, ʢ] (despite what is reported in many earlier works).
  4. /x/ and /ɣ/ are often post-velar though velar and uvular pronunciations are also possible.[16]

Arabic has consonants traditionally termed "emphatic" /tˁ, dˁ, sˁ, ðˁ/, which exhibit simultaneous pharyngealization [tˁ, dˁ, sˁ, ðˁ] as well as varying degrees of velarization [tˠ, dˠ, sˠ, ðˠ]. This simultaneous articulation is described as "Retracted Tongue Root" by phonologists.[17] In some transcription systems, emphasis is shown by capitalizing the letter, for example, /dˁ/ is written ‹D›; in others the letter is underlined or has a dot below it, for example, ‹ḍ›.

Vowels and consonants can be phonologically short or long. Long (geminate) consonants are normally written doubled in Latin transcription (i.e. bb, dd, etc.), reflecting the presence of the Arabic diacritic mark shaddah, which indicates doubled consonants. In actual pronunciation, doubled consonants are held twice as long as short consonants. This consonant lengthening is phonemically contrastive: qabala "he accepted" vs. qabbala "he kissed."

Syllable structure

Arabic has two kinds of syllables: open syllables (CV) and (CVV)—and closed syllables (CVC), (CVVC), and (CVCC), the latter two, which are (CVVC) and (CVCC) occurring only at the end of the sentence. Every syllable begins with a consonant. Syllables cannot begin with a vowel. Arabic phonology recognizes the glottal stop as an independent consonant, so in cases where a word begins with a vowel sound, as the definite article "al", for example, the word is recognized in Arabic as beginning with the consonant [ʔ] (glottal stop). When a word ends in a vowel and the following word begins with a glottal stop, then the glottal stop and the initial vowel of the word are in some cases elided, and the following consonant closes the final syllable of the preceding word, for example, baytu al-mudi:r "house (of) the director," which becomes [bajtulmudiːr].

Stress

Although word stress is not phonemically contrastive in Standard Arabic, it does bear a strong relationship to vowel length. The basic rules are:

For example: ki-TAA-bun "book", KAA-ti-bun "writer", MAK-ta-bun "desk", ma-KAA-ti-bu "desks", mak-TA-ba-tun "library", KA-ta-buu (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote" = KA-ta-bu (dialect), ka-ta-BUU-hu (Modern Standard Arabic) "they wrote it" = ka-ta-BUU (dialect), ka-TA-ba-taa (Modern Standard Arabic) "they (dual, fem) wrote", ka-TAB-tu (Modern Standard Arabic) "I wrote" = ka-TABT (dialect). Doubled consonants count as two consonants: ma-JAL-la "magazine", ma-HALL "place".

Some dialects have different stress rules. In the Cairo (Egyptian Arabic) dialect, for example, a heavy syllable may not carry stress more than two syllables from the end of a word, hence mad-RA-sa "school", qaa-HI-ra "Cairo". In the Arabic of Sana, stress is often retracted: BAY-tayn "two houses", MAA-sat-hum "their table", ma-KAA-tiib "desks", ZAA-rat-hiin "sometimes", mad-RA-sat-hum "their school". (In this dialect, only syllables with long vowels or diphthongs are considered heavy; in a two-syllable word, the final syllable can be stressed only if the preceding syllable is light; and in longer words, the final syllable cannot be stressed.)

Dialectal variations

Further information: Varieties of Arabic

In some dialects, there may be more or fewer phonemes than those listed in the chart above. For example, non-Arabic [v] is used in the Maghrebi dialects as well in the written language mostly for foreign names. Semitic [p] became [f] extremely early on in Arabic before it was written down; a few modern Arabic dialects, such as Iraqi (influenced by Persian and Turkish) distinguish between [p] and [b].

Interdental fricatives ([θ] and [ð]) are rendered as stops [t] and [d] in some dialects (such as Egyptian, Levantine, and much of the Maghreb); some of these dialects render them as [s] and [z] in "learned" words from the Standard language. Early in the expansion of Arabic, the separate emphatic phonemes [dˁ] and [ðˁ] coallesced into a single phoneme, becoming one or the other. Predictably, dialects without interdental fricatives use [dˁ] exclusively, while dialects with such fricatives use [ðˁ]. Again, in "learned" words from the Standard language, [ðˁ] is rendered as [zˁ] (in Egypt & the Levant) or [dˁ] (in North Africa) in dialects without interdental fricatives.

Another key distinguishing mark of Arabic dialects is how they render the original velar and uvular stops /q/, /dʒ/ (Proto-Semitic /ɡ/), and /k/:

Grammar

Main article: Arabic grammar Visualization of Arabic grammar from the Quranic Arabic Corpus

Compared with other Semitic language systems, Classical Arabic is distinguished by, "its almost (too perfect) algebraic-looking grammar, i.e. root pattern and morphology."[18] Nouns in Literary Arabic have three grammatical cases (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also used when the noun is governed by a preposition]); three numbers (singular, dual and plural); two genders (masculine and feminine); and three "states" (indefinite, definite, and construct). The cases of singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) are indicated by suffixed short vowels (/-u/ for nominative, /-a/ for accusative, /-i/ for genitive). The feminine singular is often marked by /-at/, which is reduced to /-ah/ or /-a/ before a pause. Plural is indicated either through endings (the sound plural) or internal modification (the broken plural). Definite nouns include all proper nouns, all nouns in "construct state" and all nouns which are prefixed by the definite article /al-/. Indefinite singular nouns (other than those that end in long ā) add a final /-n/ to the case-marking vowels, giving /-un/, /-an/ or /-in/ (which is also referred to as nunation or tanwīn).

Verbs in Literary Arabic are marked for person (first, second, or third), gender, and number. They are conjugated in two major paradigms (termed perfective and imperfective, or past and non-past); two voices (active and passive); and five moods in the imperfective (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic). There are also two participles (active and passive) and a verbal noun, but no infinitive. As indicated by the differing terms for the two tense systems, there is some disagreement over whether the distinction between the two systems should be most accurately characterized as tense, aspect or a combination of the two. The perfective aspect is constructed using fused suffixes that combine person, number and gender in a single morpheme, while the imperfective aspect is constructed using a combination of prefixes (primarily encoding person) and suffixes (primarily encoding gender and number). The moods other than imperative are primarily marked by suffixes (/u/ for indicative, /a/ for subjunctive, no ending for jussive, /an/ for energetic). The imperative has the endings of the jussive but lacks any prefixes. The passive is marked through internal vowel changes. Plural forms for the verb are only used when the subject is not mentioned, or precedes it, and the feminine singular is used for all non-human plurals.

Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state, as for nouns. However, the plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective, which takes the /-ah/ or /-at/ suffix.

Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number and gender. There are two varieties, independent pronouns and enclitics. Enclitic pronouns are attached to the end of a verb, noun or preposition and indicate verbal and prepositional objects or possession of nouns. The first-person singular pronoun has a different enclitic form used for verbs (/-ni/) and for nouns or prepositions (/-ī/ after consonants, /-ya/ after vowels).

Nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives agree with each other in all respects. However, non-human plural nouns are grammatically considered to be feminine singular. Furthermore, a verb in a verb-initial sentence is marked as singular regardless of its semantic number when the subject of the verb is explicitly mentioned as a noun. Numerals between three and ten show "chiasmic" agreement, in that grammatically masculine numerals have feminine marking and vice versa.

The spoken dialects have lost the case distinctions and make only limited use of the dual (it occurs only on nouns and its use is no longer required in all circumstances). They have lost the mood distinctions other than imperative, but many have since gained new moods through the use of prefixes (most often /bi-/ for indicative vs. unmarked subjunctive). They have also mostly lost the indefinite "nunation" and the internal passive. Modern Standard Arabic maintains the grammatical distinctions of Literary Arabic except that the energetic mood is almost never used; in addition, Modern Standard Arabic sometimes drop the final short vowels that indicate case and mood.

As in many other Semitic languages, Arabic verb formation is based on a (usually) triconsonantal root, which is not a word in itself but contains the semantic core. The consonants k-t-b, for example, indicate write, q-r-ʾ indicate read, ʾ-k-l indicate eat, etc. Words are formed by supplying the root with a vowel structure and with affixes. (Traditionally, Arabic grammarians have used the root f-ʿ-l, do, as a template to discuss word formation.) From any particular root, up to fifteen different verbs can be formed, each with its own template; these are referred to by Western scholars as "form I", "form II", and so on through "form XV". These forms, and their associated participles and verbal nouns, are the primary means of forming vocabulary in Arabic. Forms XI to XV are incidental.

Writing system

Main article: Arabic alphabet An example of a text written in Arabic calligraphy.

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script through Nabatean, to which it bears a loose resemblance like that of Coptic or Cyrillic script to Greek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet—in particular, the fa and qaf had a dot underneath and a single dot above respectively in the Maghreb, and the order of the letters was slightly different (at least when they were used as numerals). However, the old Maghrebi variant has been abandoned except for calligraphic purposes in the Maghreb itself, and remains in use mainly in the Quranic schools (zaouias) of West Africa. Arabic, like all other Semitic languages (except for the Latin-written Maltese, and the languages with the Ge'ez script), is written from right to left. There are several styles of script, notably Naskh which is used in print and by computers, and Ruq'ah which is commonly used in handwriting.[19]

Calligraphy

Main article: Arabic calligraphy

After Khalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi finally fixed the Arabic script around 786, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Qur'an and other books, and for inscriptions on monuments as decoration.

Arabic calligraphy has not fallen out of use as calligraphy has in the Western world, and is still considered by Arabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin alphabet, Arabic script is used to write down a verse of the Qur'an, a Hadith, or simply a proverb, in a spectacular composition. The composition is often abstract, but sometimes the writing is shaped into an actual form such as that of an animal. One of the current masters of the genre is Hassan Massoudy

Transliteration

Main article: Arabic transliteration

There are a number of different standards of Arabic transliteration: methods of accurately and efficiently representing Arabic with the Latin alphabet. There are multiple conflicting motivations for transliteration. Scholarly systems are intended to accurately and unambiguously represent the phonemes of Arabic, generally making the phonetics more explicit than the original word in the Arabic alphabet. These systems are heavily reliant on diacritical marks such as "š" for the sound equivalently written sh in English. In some cases, the sh or kh sounds can be represented by italicizing or underlining them – that way, they can be distinguished from separate s and h sounds or k and h sounds, respectively. (Compare gashouse to gash.) At first sight, this may be difficult to recognize. Less scientific systems often use digraphs (like sh and kh), which are usually more simple to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems. Such systems may be intended to help readers who are neither Arabic speakers nor linguists to intuitively pronounce Arabic names and phrases. An example of such a system is the Bahá'í orthography. A third type of transliteration seeks to represent an equivalent of the Arabic spelling with Latin letters, for use by Arabic speakers when Arabic writing is not available (for example, when using an ASCII communication device). An example is the system used by the US military, Standard Arabic Technical Transliteration System or SATTS, which represents each Arabic letter with a unique symbol in the ASCII range to provide a one-to-one mapping from Arabic to ASCII and back. This system, while facilitating typing on English keyboards, presents its own ambiguities and disadvantages. During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such as personal computers, the World Wide Web, email, Bulletin board systems, IRC, instant messaging and mobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin alphabet only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic alphabet as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script, sometimes known as IM Arabic.

To handle those Arabic letters that cannot be accurately represented using the Latin script, numerals and other characters were appropriated. For example, the numeral "3" may be used to represent the Arabic letter "ع", ayn. There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named it Arabic Chat Alphabet. Other systems of transliteration exist, such as using dots or capitalization to represent the "emphatic" counterparts of certain consonants. For instance, using capitalization, the letter "د", or daal, may be represented by d. Its emphatic counterpart, "ض", may be written as D.

Numerals

See also: Arabic numerals

In most of present-day North Africa, the Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used. However in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries to the east of it, the Eastern Arabic numerals (٠.١.٢.٣.٤.٥.٦.٧.٨.٩) are in use. When representing a number in Arabic, the lowest-valued position is placed on the right, so the order of positions is the same as in left-to-right scripts. Sequences of digits such as telephone numbers are read from left to right, but numbers are spoken in the traditional Arabic fashion, with units and tens reversed from the modern English usage. For example, 24 is said "four and twenty", and 1975 is said "one thousand and nine hundred and five and seventy."

Language-standards regulators

Academy of the Arabic Language is the name of a number of language-regulation bodies formed in Arab countries. The most active are in Damascus and Cairo. They review language development, monitor new words and approve inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts.

Studying Arabic

Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study the language. Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around the world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages, Middle Eastern studies, and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students in learning Arabic outside of the academic world. Many Arabic language schools are located in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Software and books with tapes are also important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education.

Examples

English Arabic Romanization (ALA-LC) IPA
English الْإِنْكِليزيَّة or الْإِنْجِليزيَّة al-injlīzīyah /alinʒliːziːjah/
Yes نَعَمْ naʿam /naʕam/
No لا lā /laː/
Hello مَرْحَباً marḥaban /marħaban/
Welcome أَهْلاً ahlan /ahlan/
Goodbye مَعَ السَّلامَةِ maʿa as-salāmah /maʕ assalaːmah/
Please مِنْ فَضْلِك min faḍlik /min ˈfadˁlik/
Thanks شُكْرًا shukran /ʃukran/
Excuse me عَفْوًا ʿafwan /ʕafwan/
I'm sorry آسِف āsif /ʔaːsif/
What's your name? ما اسمُكَ؟ maa ismuk? /masmuk/
How much? كَم؟ kam? /kam/
I don't understand. لا أَفْهَمُ lā afham /laː ʔafham/
I don't speak Arabic. لا أَتَكَلَّمُ الْعَرَبيَّةَ lā atakallamu al-ʿarabīyah /laː ʔatakallam ulʕarabiːja/
I don't know. لا أَعْرِفُ lā aʿrif /laː ʔaʕrif/
I'm hungry. أنا جائِعٌ anā jāʾiʿun /ʔanaː dʒaʔiʕun/
Orange بُرْتُقالي burtuqāli /burtuqaːliː/
Black أَسْوَد aswad /ʔaswad/
One واحِد wāḥid /waːħid/
Two إِثْنان ithnān /iθnaːn/
Three ثَلاثَة thalāthah /θalaːθah/
Four أَرْبَعَة arbaʿah /ʔarbaʕah/
Five خَمْسَة khamsah /xamsah/
Six سِتَّة sittah /sitah/
Seven سَبْعَة saba'ah /sabʕah/
Eight ثَمانِيَّة thamaniah /θamaniːjah/
Nine تِسْعَة tis'aah /tisʕah/
Ten عَشَرَة asharah /ʕaʃarah/
Eleven إِحدَى عَشَر eḥda ashar /ʔeħda ʕaʃar/

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Procházka, 2006.
  2. ^ a b "''Ethnologue'' (1999)". Ethnologue.com. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arb. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  3. ^ Wright, 2001, p. 492.
  4. ^ "Arabic language." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 29 July 2009.
  5. ^ Versteegh, 2000, p. 33.
  6. ^ "Arabic Language." Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2009. Retrieved on 29 July 2009.
  7. ^ Orville Boyd Jenkins (18 March 2000), Population Analysis of the Arabic Languages, http://strategyleader.org/articles/arabicpercent.html
  8. ^ a b Kaye, 1991.
  9. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. "Maltese language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Britannica.com. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9050379/Maltese-language. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  10. ^ Gregersen, 1977, p. 237.
  11. ^ James Coffman (December 1995). "Does the Arabic Language Encourage Radical Islam?". Middle East Quarterly. http://www.meforum.org/article/276. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
  12. ^ "Arabic - the mother of all languages - Al Islam Online". Alislam.org. http://www.alislam.org/topics/arabic/. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  13. ^ "A History of the Arabic Language". Linguistics.byu.edu. http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/arabic.html. Retrieved 2010-05-04.
  14. ^ Kaplan and Baldauf, 2007, p. 48. See also Bateson, 2003, pp. 96–103 and Berber: Linguistic "Substratum" of North African Arabic by Ernest N. McCarus.
  15. ^ MED Magazine
  16. ^ Watson (2002:18)
  17. ^ e.g. Thelwall (2003:52)
  18. ^ Hetzron, 1997, p. 229.
  19. ^ Hanna, 1972, p. 2

References

External links

Arabic language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikiversity has learning materials about Arabic language
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Arabic
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Arabic language
Arabic · العربية
Overviews Language · Alphabet · History · Transliteration · Numerology · Influence on other languages
Alphabet Arabic numerals · Eastern numerals · Diacritics · Hamza · Tāʾ marbūṭa
Letters ʾAlif · Bāʾ · Tāʾ · Ṯāʾ · Ǧīm · Ḥāʾ · Ḫāʾ · Dāl · Ḏāl · Rāʾ · Zayn · Sīn · Šīn · Ṣād · Ḍād · Ṭāʾ · Ẓāʾ · ʿAyn · Ġain · Fāʾ · Qāf · Kāf · Lām · Mīm · Nūn · Hāʾ · Wāw · Yāʾ
Eras Ancient North Arabian · Classical · Modern
Major varieties Modern Standard Arabic (formal) · Maghrebi · Egyptian · Sudanese · Levantine · Arabian · Iraqi · Judeo-Arabic
Academic Literature · Names
Calligraphy and scripts Naskh · Kufic · Thuluth · Ruq'ah · Diwani · Muhaqqaq · Maghrebi · Hejazi · Mashq · Nastaʿlīq · Jawi · Pegon
Linguistics Phonology · Sun and moon letters · ʼIʻrab (inflection) · Grammar · Triliteral root · Mater lectionis · IPA · Quranic Arabic Corpus
Official languages of the United Nations

Arabic · Chinese · English · French · Russian · Spanish
Languages of the African Union
Working Arabic · English · French · Portuguese · Spanish · Swahili
Transnational Hausa · Somali · Yoruba · Igbo · Oromo · Kinyarwanda/Kirundi · Swati · Tswana · Sotho · Wolof · Kongo/Kituba · Kanuri · Fula · Chichewa · Lingala · Malagasy · Afrikaans · Shona · Tigrinya · Mòoré · Zulu
National Amharic · Sango
Modern Semitic languages

Amharic · Arabic (varieties of Arabic) · Aramaic · Chaha · Harari · Hebrew · Inor · Maltese · Mandaic · Silt'e · Soddo · South Arabian · Tigre · Tigrinya
Varieties of Arabic
Pre-Islamic Old South Arabian† · Ancient North Arabian† (Safaitic†, Lihyanitic†, Thamudic†, Hasaitic†) · Classical Arabic
Modern Literary Variety Modern Standard Arabic
Maghreb Moroccan Arabic · Algerian Arabic · Tunisian Arabic · Andalusian Arabic† · Libyan Arabic · Jebli Arabic · Jijel Arabic · Saharan Arabic · Hassānīya Arabic · Darija · Maltese · Siculo-Arabic†
Levant Lebanese Arabic · Syrian Arabic · North Syrian Arabic · Palestinian Arabic · Bedawi Arabic · Cypriot Maronite Arabic
Mesopotamia Iraqi Arabic (Baghdad Arabic) · North Mesopotamian Arabic
Arabia Gulf Arabic · Bahrani Arabic · Najdi Arabic · Hejazi Arabic · Sharqi Arabic · Yemeni Arabic · Hadhrami Arabic · Dhofari Arabic · Omani Arabic · Shihhi Arabic
Nile Valley Egyptian Arabic · Sa'idi Arabic · Sudanese Arabic
Peripheral Nigerian Arabic . Chadian Arabic · Khuzestani Arabic · Shirvani Arabic† · Central Asian Arabic · Tajiki Arabic · Uzbeki Arabic
Judeo-Arabic Judeo-Moroccan Arabic · Judeo-Yemeni Arabic · Judeo-Iraqi Arabic (Baghdad Arabic (Jewish)) · Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic · Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
Creoles Nubi language · Babalia Creole Arabic · Juba Arabic
† Extinct
Semitic languages
East
Akkadian · Eblaite
West · Central
Northwest
Canaanite
Hebrew Biblical · Mishnaic · Medieval · Mizrahi · Yemenite · Sephardi · Ashkenazi · Samaritan · Modern
Phoenician Punic
Others Ammonite · Moabite · Edomite
Aramaic
Western
Western Middle Jewish Middle Palestinian · Samaritan · Christian Palestinian
Eastern Biblical · Hatran · Syriac · Jewish Babylonian Aramaic · Chaldean Neo-Aramaic · Assyrian Neo-Aramaic · Senaya · Koy Sanjaq Surat · Hértevin · Turoyo · Mlahsô · Mandaic · Judeo-Aramaic
Others Nabataean · Western Neo-Aramaic
Others Amorite · Eteocypriot · Ugaritic
Arabic
Literary Classical · Middle · Modern Standard
Dialects
Eastern
Arabian Peninsular Dhofari · Hejazi · Najdi · Omani · Yemeni · Judeo-Yemenite
Bedouin / Bedawi Eastern Egyptian and Peninsular Bedawi ·
Others Central Asian (Khuzestani · Shirvani) · Egyptian (Sa'idi Arabic) · Gulf (Bahrani · Shihhi) · Levantine (Cypriot Maronite · Lebanese · Palestinian) · Iraqi (Judeo-Iraqi) · Sudanese
Maghrebi Algerian · Saharan · Shuwa · Hassānīya · Andalusian · Libyan Arabic (Judeo-Tripolitanian) · Siculo-Arabic (Maltese) · Moroccan Arabic (Judeo-Moroccan) · Tunisian Arabic (Judeo-Tunisian)
Others Ancient North Arabian (Safaitic · Dedanitic/Lihyanitic (Dedanite/Lihyanite) · Thamudic · Hasaitic · Hismaic · Taymanitic · Dumaitic ·
South
Western South
Old South Sabaean · Minaean · Qatabanian · Hadramautic
Ethiopian
North Ge'ez · Tigrinya · Tigre · Dahlik
South
Amharic Argobba
Harari Silt'e (Wolane, Ulbareg, Inneqor) · Zay
Outer
n-group Gafat · Soddo
tt-group Mesmes · Muher · West Gurage (Masqan · Ezha · Chaha · Gura · Gumer · Gyeto · Ennemor · Endegen)
Eastern South
Bathari · Harsusi · Hobyot · Jibbali · Mehri · Soqotri

Categories: Arabic language | Central Semitic languages | Languages of Algeria | Languages of Bahrain | Languages of Chad | Languages of Comoros | Languages of Djibouti | Languages of Eritrea | Languages of Iraq | Languages of Israel | Languages of Jordan | Languages of Kuwait | Languages of Lebanon | Languages of Libya | Languages of Mauritania | Languages of Morocco | Languages of Oman | Languages of Qatar | Languages of Saudi Arabia | Languages of Somalia | Languages of Sudan | Languages of Syria | Languages of Tunisia | Languages of the United Arab Emirates | Languages of Yemen | Languages of the Philippines

 

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