I.

Introduction

Arabic Language, the language of written communication and of most formal, oral communication for speakers of the various forms of Arabic from Morocco to Iraq. Among Muslims, Arabic is considered sacred since it is the language through which the Koran is believed to have been revealed. With the rise of Islam as a dominant religion after ad 622, Arabic became the most widespread of the living Semitic languages, and today the various Arabic varieties are spoken by some 206 million as a mother tongue, and 246 million as a second language. Classified as South Central Semitic, Arabic is related to Hebrew, spoken in Israel, and Amharic, spoken in Ethiopia, as well as to the ancient Semitic languages. The earliest written inscriptions in Arabic are found in the Arabian Peninsula and date from the early 4th century ad, but the language is thought to have been in use as early as the 5th century bc. Today, Standard Arabic is a unifying bond among Arabs, and it is the liturgical language of Muslims in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Arabic exists in two main forms—Classical and colloquial. Classical Arabic has many archaic words and is the sacred language of Islam and the lingua franca of educated people throughout the Arabic-speaking world (in most countries, only the well educated are fluent in it). Standard Arabic is a slightly more modern and more-used version of Classical Arabic. Neither variation is spoken by anyone as a mother tongue as it is learnt in schools and places of worship, although it is the official language in many countries. Colloquial Arabic refers to the form of the language heard on television and radio as well as in mosques. The diverse colloquial forms of Arabic are interrelated but vary considerably among speakers from different parts of the Middle East and Africa, so much so that many are considered separate languages. These languages differ from Standard Arabic and from one another in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and are usually labelled according to major geographical areas, such as Algerian, Egyptian, and Gulf. Some of these languages, including those mentioned above, have their own different dialects. Within these classifications, the daily speech of urban, rural, and nomadic speakers is distinctively different. Illiterate speakers from widely separated parts of the Arab world may not understand one another, although each is speaking a version of Arabic.

The sound system of Arabic has 28 consonants, including all the Semitic guttural sounds produced far back in the mouth and throat. Each of the three vowels in standard Arabic occurs in a long and short form, creating the long and short syllables so important to the metre of Arabic poetry. Although the dialects retain the long vowels, they have lost many of the short-vowel contrasts.