Know the
Arabic
Language
BY : LANY ZHYAR
01
Did you know
Arabic is one of the 6 official languages of the
United Nations (+ English, French, Chinese,
Russian, and Spanish)
02
03
Did you know
Arabic is the fourth most widely spoken
language, after English, Spanish, and Chinese
Did you know
number of native speakers: 220 - 280 million
04
Did you know
There are 3 functional types of Arabic language
Three Functional types of Arabic language
Classical Arabic
Spoken Arabic
Modern Standard Arabic
Classical Arabic is the
language of the Qur’an, and is
used primarily for reading and
reciting Islamic holy text
Spoken Arabic has 4 regional
dialects, but over 30 actual
varieties of colloquial (spoken)
Arabic around the world
Modern Standard Arabic is
used in the news and
on TV the “common language”
used by speakers of different
dialects
Dialect
A dialect
is a different way of speaking the
SAME language to say the SAME
thing
Can you name a dialect of
English?
A dialect
is not right or wrong, just different
Do you think that Rasha,
Sami, Yasmin, and Akram
speak the same
dialect?
Did you know?
Countries where Arabic is the primary spoken language:
Countries where
Arabic is the primary
spoken language:
Algeria, Bahrain,
Djibouti, Egypt,
Eritrea, Iran, Iraq,
Palestinian
, Jordan, Kuwait,
Lebanon,
Libya, Mauritania,
Morocco, Oman,
Palestinian West
Bank
& Gaza, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia,
Somalia, Sudan,
Syria,
Tanzania, Tunisia,
United Arab
Emirates, and
Yemen
Speakers of
colloquial Arabic
from different
parts
of the world use
dialects
and may not
understand
each other! (They
can use Modern
Standard
Arabic to
communicate with
each other
Native speakers
of Arabic include
Muslims,
Christians, and
people of other
faiths...but Arabic
is the liturgical
(religious)
language of Islam
Classical Arabic is read everywhere that Islam is practiced
Arabic literature
Arabic has been a highly developed literary
language for over 1,500 years (including poetry).
Some writers:
Hafiz (poet)
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1
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Khalil Gibran (poet)
4
Mourid Barghouti
Naguib Mahfouz –
living novelist from Egypt
(Nobel Prize for literature, 1988)
Words derived from Arabic
Coffee (kahwa)
Lemon (limon)
Checkmate (Shekmat, “the
king is dead”)
Cotton (qutun)
Algebra (al Jabr)
Cipher (sifr , the name for
“zero”)
Alcohol (al quhul )
Sugar (sukkar)
Characteristics of
Arabic language
- Arabic an Afro Asiatic language of
the Semitic group.
- Arabic is considered one of the
“younger” Semitic languages
(4th century)
- As the religious language of the
Qur’an (7th century), it expanded
rapidly during the rise of Islam in the
8th century
‫القرآن الكريم‬
‫بسم هللا‬
‫الرحمن‬
‫الرحيم‬
‫بسم هللا‬
‫الرحمن‬
‫الرحيم‬