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15 Intriguing Questions to Know About the Arabic Language

The Arabic language is one of the richest languages across the globe. You might want to study it to read Quran or you tend to read Arabic texts or delve into the Arabic culture. Maybe you want to study Arabic to land a job in gulf countries or work in Arabic language translation or you love to chat with Arabic people.

There’re many reasons to study Arabic, varying from one person to another. Though studying Arabic is a little bit hard, it’s one of the interesting experiments that could change your life ultimately.

This article will give you an introduction to the Arabic language, how did it originate and how it did evolve through history, keep reading.

1. What is the Arabic language?

The Arabic language is one of the Semitic languages. Spoken by more than 467 million people, it ranks fourth or fifth in terms of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world, and the fourth language in terms of the number of users on the Internet.
Being the language of the Qur’an, the Arabic language has a kind of sanctity for millions of Muslims who use it when performing many Islamic rituals, including prayer and reciting the Quran.

2. How many words are in the Arabic language?

Arabic is one of the richest languages in the world in terms of its inventory of vocabulary. According to the Palestine-based Arabic language center, It’s estimated that it includes more than 12.3 million words, 20 times more than English words. This number was also affirmed in the book (The detailed history of the Arabs before Islam) by Jawad Ali, a linguistic expert based in Iraq.

3. What language family does Arabic belong to?

The Arabic language belongs to the Semitic language family and stands side by side with Hebrew, Aramaic (spoken by relatively small communities, mostly in Iraq and Syria), Amharic (the official language in Ethiopia), and Tigari (Eritrea).
Scientists assume that the Semitic language evolved into two branches: Eastern and Western Semitic; And the eastern Semitic has branched into central and southern groups. However, they are still not assured about the position of the Arabic language in both groups.
Some postulated that Arabic is akin to Hebrew as they’re similar in the verbs’ structure, and thus it belongs to the central Semitic family. Others see it follows the phonological system and vocabularies formulation of the southern Ethiopian, Arabian group.

4. When did Arabic become a language?

There is no specific data about the genesis of the Arabic language or its infancy. But the oldest written forms of Arabic Literary texts have taken their fullest form in the fifth century AD. many researchers believe that Arabic language history has been through two phases. The first phase is named obsolete dialects like Thamudi, AD. It dates back to 8000 B.C and has been abandoned and buried a long ago.
The second phase includes the live dialects that persist today, including dialects of ancient Arabian tribes such as hulail, Tayy, and Quraish. This latter is the most eloquent dialect of all, and it has evolved into the modern standard Arabic.

5. In which countries Arabic is the primary language spoken?

Of the total world population, approximately 420 million people speak Arabic, making it the fifth most popular language in the world. Arabic is most widely spoken in the north of Africa and the middle east.

6. what does the Arabic language look like?

The Arabic language consists of 28 letters known as the Arabic Alphabet and each letter has its specific shape that differs according to its position in the word. for example the word ج can be written as ج provided it’s the last character in the word. For example the word بُرج (tower in English). But it’s written like جــ if it comes at the beginning or the middle of the word like جّدّ (grandfather in English).
The Arabic language follows the abjad system which means it reads from right to left and each of its letters is connected inside the word- no japs separate them-. In Arabic, there are 25 consonants and only three vowel letters which are أ. ي. و.

7. How do say how are you in the Arabic language?

In Arabic how are you? means كيف حالك? and you can answer by الحمد لله ( Alhamdillah or thanks god in English).

8. What is the Arabic language called?

The Arabic language is called لغة الضاد (which means the language that has the ض letter). No language in the world contains this letter, which feels hard for non-native speakers to pronounce.

9. Where did the Arabic language originate?

Arabic is descended from the Semitic language and was spoken in the southern Levant and northeastern Arabia in the early first millennium BC. We can classify The ancient Arabic dialects in this time into two groups: the northern dialect spoken by the population living in the Levant, and the southern dialect spoken by people in North Hijaz.

Tracking the oldest written evidence of the Arabic language, we can find Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions for some people living in the ninth century B.C. Those inscriptions stand as a testimony to the diverse fabric of Arabic dialects in this age.

In the fourth century BC, the Arab Nabataean kingdom was established, and it straddled the south and north, causing the Arabic language to take hold in the areas it took over, including the north of Hijaz.

Between the fourth and sixth centuries, and under the commercial influence of the Nabataean kingdom, a unified form of the Arabic language emerged. However, Standard Arabic wasn’t turned to be literary language until the middle of the sixth century when the oldest forms of Arabic poems blossomed.

10. How to say hi in the Arabic language?

There are many ways to say Hi in Arabic

  1. مرحبًا
  2. أهلًا وسهلًا
  3. السلام عليكم

11. How to say thank you in the Arabic language?

شكرًا

12. How to say good morning in the Arabic language?

صباح الخير

13. how to greet in the Arabic language?

السلام عليكم

14. How to say no in the Arabic language?

لا

15. What are countries where Arabic is the official language?

Arabic is It’s the official language for 22 countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen

16. How did Arabic spread in Africa?

Arabic language in Africa has a massive presence and it’s often intertwined with Islamic rituals. Islam has penetrated Africa through trade. Based on the evidence we have, historians believe that, at first, West African kings attempted to cease the growth of Islam by separating the Islamic communities from the African ones.

However, the tide of Islamic caravans coming from the north overwhelms the edicts of the kings. Over time, the Arabic language began to seep into African communities so we can say trade doesn’t only carry goods but most importantly the Arabic language to Africa.

17. how to learn the Arabic language online

Those are the steps you must follow to have a good command of Arabic. But, first, you’ve to decide which type of Arabic you intend to study. Arabic has three levels. Based on your purpose of learning Arabic, you can identify which level to learn.

Classical Arabic

Also known as Quranic Arabic, this is the standardized literary Arabic language used from the 7th century and throughout the Middle Ages. You can find books written in it in Umayyad and Abbasid literary texts such as poetry, elevated prose, and oratory. It is also the liturgical language of Islam.

You can study it should you’re interested in studying Quran, Hadith, Islamic studies, and literature before Islam and to the 18the century.

Modern Standard Arabic

Shortened MSA, this term is used mostly by Western linguists to refer to that standardized, literary form of Arabic developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. MSA is the language used in literature, academia, print, mass media, law, and legislation.

Though it is generally not spoken as a first language, it’s endorsed in the Arab world in the formal educational books and it differs significantly from many dialects spoken around the Arabian regions, though many words of MSA can be noticed in the daily spoken conversations.

Western linguists consider MSA to be distinct from Classical Arabic since it includes words from Arabic roots (such as سيارة car or باخرة steamship), Besides it loans words from European languages (such technology تكنولوجيا Internet إنترنت) to describe modern terms. However, most Arabic people don’t consider classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic as two distinct groups.

You can learn MSA if you want to study modern Arabic and read modern literary books.

colloquial Arabic

It is an umbrella term that involves a variety of dialects of spoken Arabic around the Arabic regions. And those dialects are hard to translate since it’s so affected by the cultural elements which differ from one country to another. It’s not used in the already prepared speeches but can be seen tremendously in everyday conversations.

Geographically, modern Arabic varieties are classified into five groups: Maghrebi, Egyptic, Mesopotamian, Levantine, and Peninsular Arabic.

Learn colloquial Arabic in case you want to travel or communicate with people from specific regions, for example, learn the Egyptian dialect to speak with people from Egypt.

Learn also: What’s the best way to learn Arabic in practical tips?

Conclusion

Arabic is one most interesting languages to learn. It’s one of the oldest languages that endured through centuries. and it evolves from the Semitic language into the standard Arabic used currently as the official language in the Arab region.

Interested to learn Arabic, Just enroll in our courses and let our native speakers shorten the journey for you. Have a trial session from here.

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