What do you know about Arabic What do

What do you know about Arabic?

What do you know about Arabic?

Did you know? • Total speakers: • 280 million native speakers • 250 million non-native speakers

Official language of: • 25 countries, the third most after English and French • Do you know what these countries are?

The major dialect groups are: • Egyptian Arabic, spoken by around 76 million in Egypt. It is one of the most understood varieties of Arabic. Closely related varieties are also spoken in Sudan.

Levantine Arabic, includes North Levantine Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, and Cypriot Arabic, and is spoken by almost 35 million people in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus, and Turkey. It's also called Mediterranean Arabic.

• Iraqi Arabic, spoken by about 29 million people in Iraq. With significant differences between the Arabian-like dialects of the south and the more conservative dialects of the north. Closely related varieties are also spoken in Iran, Syria, and Turkey.

• Gulf Arabic, spoken by around 34 million people in Arab states of the Persian Gulf and eastern Saudi Arabia.

And also… Tunisian Arabic, and Libyan Arabic, and is spoken by around 45 million North Africans in Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Niger, and western Egypt; it is mostly difficult for speakers of Near Eastern Arabic varieties to understand. The Berber influence in these dialects varies in degree.

A little more… • Sudanese Arabic, spoken in Sudan • Yemeni Arabic, spoken in Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Somalia

Arabic influences • Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, Maltese, and Sicilian, due to both the proximity of European and Arab civilization and 700 years of Arab rule in the Iberian peninsula.

Can you think of any words that are influenced by Arabic? • • Aceitunas Arroz Almohada Calcetines