This articleneeds attention from an expert in linguistics. The specific problem is:There seems to be some confusion surrounding the chronology of Arabic's origination, including notably in the paragraph on Qaryat Al-Faw (also discussed on talk). There are major sourcing gaps from "Literary Arabic" onwards.WikiProject Linguistics may be able to help recruit an expert.(August 2022)
Arabic (endonym:اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ,romanized: al-ʿarabiyyah,pronounced[alʕaraˈbijːa]ⓘ, orعَرَبِيّ,ʿarabīy,pronounced[ˈʕarabiː]ⓘor[ʕaraˈbij]) is aCentral Semitic language of theAfroasiatic language family spoken primarily in theArab world.[13] TheISO assigns language codes to 32varieties of Arabic, including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known asModern Standard Arabic,[14] which is derived fromClassical Arabic. This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both asal-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā (اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ[15] "the eloquent Arabic") or simplyal-fuṣḥā (اَلْفُصْحَىٰ).
Arabic is thethird most widespread official language after English and French,[16] one of sixofficial languages of the United Nations,[17] and theliturgical language ofIslam.[18] Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media.[18] During theMiddle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages haveborrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen inEuropean languages (mainlySpanish and to a lesser extentPortuguese,Catalan, andSicilian) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during theAl-Andalus era.Maltese is a Semitic language developed from a dialect of Arabic and written in theLatin alphabet.[19] TheBalkan languages, including Albanian,Greek, Serbo-Croatian, andBulgarian, have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact withOttoman Turkish.
Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world,[1] making it thefifth most spoken language in the world[22] and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users.[23][24] It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billionMuslims.[17] In 2011,Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic the fourth most useful language for business, after English,Mandarin Chinese, and French.[25] Arabic is written with theArabic alphabet, anabjad script that is written fromright to left.
Arabic is usually classified as aCentral Semitic language. Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups.[26] The Semitic languages changed betweenProto-Semitic and the emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include:
The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation (jalas-) into a past tense.
The conversion of the prefix-conjugatedpreterite-tense formation (yajlis-) into a present tense.
The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms (e.g., a present tense formed by doubling the middle root, aperfect formed byinfixing a/t/ after the first root consonant, probably a jussive formed by a stress shift) in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms (e.g.,-u for indicative,-a for subjunctive, no ending for jussive,-an or-anna for energetic).
The development of an internal passive.
There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as theSafaitic andHismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including theDadanitic andTaymanitic languages of thenorthern Hejaz. These features are evidence of common descent from ahypothetical ancestor,Proto-Arabic.[27][28] The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence:[29]
negative particlesm */mā/;lʾn */lā-ʾan/ to Classical Arabiclan
On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic.[30][31] Thus, Arabicvernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic:[32] Classical Arabic is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor.[27]
Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in theArabian Peninsula, as perceived by geographers fromancient Greece.[13][33] In the southwest, variousCentral Semitic languages both belonging to and outside theAncient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It is believed that the ancestors of theModern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northernHejaz,Dadanitic andTaymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. InNajd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested.[13]
In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in a script derived from ASA attest to a language known asHasaitic. On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars asThamudic B, Thamudic D,Safaitic, andHismaic are attested. The last two share importantisoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be consideredOld Arabic.[13]
Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic", a collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during theIron Age.[26] Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription inSabaic script atQaryat al-Faw, in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as the conversion of Semiticmimation tonunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum.[34]
It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced—epigraphicAncient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after the towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic).[26] However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable.[35] Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to the fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic.[13]
The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in anancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found inEn Avdat, Israel, and dated to around 125 CE.[36] This is followed by theNamara inscription, an epitaph of theLakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From the 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era.[37] There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria (Zabad,Jebel Usays,Harran,Umm el-Jimal). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of the Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into "Classical Arabic".[26]
In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in theHejaz, which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of theHijra, most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from the "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic).[38] This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue anOld Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of theQuran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi.[citation needed]
In the late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from thespoken vernaculars developed based on theBedouin dialects ofNajd, probably in connection with the court ofal-Ḥīra. During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardizedClassical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax.[citation needed]
Standardization
Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali (c. 603–689) is credited with standardizingArabic grammar, oran-naḥw (النَّحو "the way"[39]), and pioneering a system ofdiacritics to differentiate consonants (نقط الإعجامnuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicatevocalization (التشكيلat-tashkīl).[40]Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary,Kitāb al-'Ayn (كتاب العين "The Book of the Letterع"), and is credited with establishing the rules of Arabicprosody.[41]Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed toAl-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries.[42] The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of theʿarabiyya "Arabic",Sībawayhi'sal-Kitāb, is based first of all upon a corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of theʿarabiyya.[43]
By the 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example,Maimonides, theAndalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works inJudeo-Arabic—Arabic written inHebrew script.[45]
Charles Ferguson'skoine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on the eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories.[43] According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose frompidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequentcreolization among Arabs andarabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA.[48][49]
TheNahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression."[51] According toJames L. Gelvin, "Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to a wider audience."[51]
In the wake of theindustrial revolution and Europeanhegemony andcolonialism, pioneering Arabic presses, such as theAmiri Press established byMuhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabicliterature and publications.[52]Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment ofMadrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted the need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such assayyārahسَيَّارَة 'automobile' orbākhirahباخِرة 'steamship').[53][54]
In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after theAcadémie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations,[55] first inDamascus (1919), then inCairo (1932),Baghdad (1948),Rabat (1960),Amman (1977),Khartum [ar] (1993), andTunis (1993).[56] They review language development, monitor new words and approve the inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts.[citation needed]
In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to theEducational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of theArab League.[56] These academies and organizations have worked toward theArabization of the sciences,creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward the standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as aworld language.[56] This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s,Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco,[57] and Sudan.[58]
Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide intoClassical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic.[59] It could also refer to any of a variety of regional vernacularArabic dialects, which are not necessarily mutually intelligible.
Classical Arabic is the language found in theQuran, used from the period ofPre-Islamic Arabia to that of theAbbasid Caliphate. Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to thesyntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such asSibawayh) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as theLisān al-ʻArab).[citation needed]
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in theindustrial andpost-industrial era, especially in modern times.[60]
Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while the latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children.[60]
The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that ofClassical Latin andVulgar Latin vernaculars (which becameRomance languages) in medieval and early modern Europe.[59]
MSA is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" (فُصْحَىfuṣḥá) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic.[citation needed]
Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows:[citation needed]
Certain grammatical constructions of CA that have no counterpart in any modern vernacular dialect (e.g., theenergetic mood) are almost never used in Modern Standard Arabic.[citation needed]
Case distinctions are very rare in Arabic vernaculars. As a result, MSA is generally composed without case distinctions in mind, and the proper cases are added after the fact, when necessary. Because most case endings are noted using final short vowels, which are normally left unwritten in the Arabic script, it is unnecessary to determine the proper case of most words. The practical result of this is that MSA, like English andStandard Chinese, is written in a strongly determined word order and alternative orders that were used in CA for emphasis are rare. In addition, because of the lack of case marking in the spoken varieties, most speakers cannot consistently use the correct endings in extemporaneous speech. As a result, spoken MSA tends to drop or regularize the endings except when reading from a prepared text.[citation needed]
The numeral system in CA is complex and heavily tied in with the case system. This system is never used in MSA, even in the most formal of circumstances; instead, a greatly simplified system is used, approximating the system of the conservative spoken varieties.[citation needed]
MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g.,dhahaba 'to go') that is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve.[61] Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g.,فِلْمfilm 'film' orديمقراطيةdīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy').[citation needed]
The current preference is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either useloan translations (e.g.,فرعfarʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization;جناحjanāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existingroots (استماتةistimātah 'apoptosis', using the rootموتm/w/t 'death' put into theXth form, orجامعةjāmiʻah 'university', based onجمعjamaʻa 'to gather, unite';جمهوريةjumhūriyyah 'republic', based onجمهورjumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g.,هاتفhātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)';جريدةjarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk').[citation needed]
Colloquial ordialectal Arabic refers to the many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to bemutually unintelligible, and some linguists consider them distinct languages.[62] However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations.[63]
The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such assoap operas andtalk shows,[65] as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising.
Hassaniya Arabic,Maltese, andCypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition.[66] Hassaniya is official in Mali[67] and recognized as a minority language in Morocco,[68] while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it.[11] Maltese is official in (predominantlyCatholic)Malta and written with theLatin script. Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended fromSiculo-Arabic, though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not a type of Arabic.[69] Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus.[70]
Status and usage
Diglossia
The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon ofdiglossia, which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations.Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example,al-hatif lexicographically means the one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the termal-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process oftawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic.[71]
In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on the region may be mutually unintelligible.[72][73][74][75][76] Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own.[77] When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakerscode-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence.
Flag of theArab League, used in some cases for the Arabic language
The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for thevarieties of Chinese,Hindi andUrdu,Serbian andCroatian,Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot.[78]
While there is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak a single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions.[79]
From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as theRomance languages.[80] This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for the Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from theMaghreb, a linguistically innovative variety such asMoroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from theMashriq, much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages.[citation needed]
Status in the Arab world vis-à-vis other languages
With the sole example of Medieval linguistAbu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior.[81]
In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view.Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of the Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises."[82]
As a foreign language
Arabic has been taught worldwide in manyelementary andsecondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around the world have classes that teach Arabic as part of theirforeign languages,Middle Eastern studies, andreligious studies courses.Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabiclanguage schools in the Arab world and otherMuslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and allIslamic terms are in Arabic, millions[83] of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study the language.
Software and books with tapes are an 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.[84] A number of websites on theInternet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries.[85]
The tradition of Arabiclexicography extended for about a millennium before themodern period.[86] Early lexicographers (لُغَوِيُّونlughawiyyūn) sought to explain words in theQuran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran.[86] They gatheredshawāhid (شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') frompoetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouinʾaʿrāb [ar] (أَعْراب) who were perceived to speak the "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process ofjamʿu‿l-luɣah (جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries.[86]
Arabic from the Quran in the old Hijazi dialect (Hijazi script, 7th century AD)
This lexicographic tradition was traditionalist and corrective in nature—holding that linguistic correctness and eloquence derive from Qurʾānic usage,pre-Islamic poetry [fr;ar], and Bedouin speech—positioning itself againstlaḥnu‿l-ʿāmmah (لَحْن العامة), thesolecism it viewed as defective.[86]
The Qur'an has served and continues to serve as a fundamental reference for Arabic. (MaghrebiKufic script,Blue Qur'an, 9th–10th century.)
The most important sources of borrowings into (pre-Islamic) Arabic are from the related (Semitic) languagesAramaic,[94] which used to be the principal, international language of communication throughout the ancient Near and Middle East, andEthiopic. Many cultural, religious and political terms have entered Arabic fromIranian languages, notablyMiddle Persian,Parthian, and (Classical) Persian,[95] and Hellenistic Greek (kīmiyāʼ has as origin the Greekkhymia, meaning in that language the melting of metals; seeRoger Dachez,Histoire de la Médecine de l'Antiquité au XXe siècle, Tallandier, 2008, p. 251),alembic (distiller) fromambix (cup),almanac (climate) fromalmenichiakon (calendar).
For the origin of the last three borrowed words, see Alfred-Louis de Prémare,Foundations of Islam, Seuil, L'Univers Historique, 2002. Some Arabic borrowings from Semitic or Persian languages are, as presented in De Prémare's above-cited book:[citation needed]
madīnah/medina (مدينة, city or city square), a word of Aramaic origin ܡܕ݂ܝܼܢ݇ܬܵܐməḏī(n)ttā (in which it means "state/city").[citation needed]
jazīrah (جزيرة), as in the well-known form الجزيرة "Al-Jazeera", means "island" and has its origin in the Syriac ܓܵܙܲܪܬܵܐgāzartā.[citation needed]
lāzaward (لازورد) is taken from Persian لاژوردlājvard, the name of a blue stone, lapis lazuli. This word was borrowed in several European languages to mean (light) blue – azure in English,azur in French andazul in Portuguese and Spanish.[citation needed]
Evolution of earlyArabic script (9th–11th century), with theBasmala as an example, fromkuficQur'ān manuscripts: (1) Early 9th century, script with no dots or diacritic marks;(2) and (3) 9th–10th century under the Abbasid dynasty,Abu al-Aswad's system established red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel; later, a second black-dot system was used to differentiate between letters likefā' andqāf; (4) 11th century, inal-Farāhidi's system (system used today) dots were changed into shapes resembling the letters to transcribe the corresponding long vowels.
A comprehensive overview of the influence of other languages on Arabic is found in Lucas & Manfredi (2020).[96]
English has many Arabic loanwords, some directly, but most via other Mediterranean languages. Examples of such words include admiral, adobe, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, almanac, amber, arsenal, assassin, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, ghoul, hazard, jar, kismet, lemon, loofah, magazine, mattress, sherbet, sofa, sumac, tariff, and zenith.[98] Other languages such asMaltese[99] andKinubi derive ultimately from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or grammatical rules.
Terms borrowed range from religious terminology (likeBerbertaẓallit, "prayer", fromsalat (صلاةṣalāh)), academic terms (likeUyghurmentiq, "logic"), and economic items (like Englishcoffee) toplaceholders (likeSpanishfulano, "so-and-so"), everyday terms (likeHindustanilekin, "but", or Spanishtaza andFrenchtasse, meaning "cup"), and expressions (likeCatalana betzef, "galore, in quantity"). Most Berber varieties (such asKabyle), along withSwahili, borrow some numbers from Arabic. Most Islamic religious terms are direct borrowings from Arabic, such asصلاة (ṣalāh), "prayer", andإمام (imām), "prayer leader".[citation needed]
In languages not directly in contact with theArab world, Arabic loanwords are often transferred indirectly via other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic. For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani andTurkish entered throughPersian. Older Arabic loanwords inHausa were borrowed fromKanuri. Most Arabic loanwords inYoruba entered throughHausa.[citation needed]
Arabic words made their way into several West African languages as Islam spread across the Sahara. Variants of Arabic words such asكتابkitāb ("book") have spread to the languages of African groups who had no direct contact with Arab traders.[100]
Since, throughout the Islamic world, Arabic occupied a position similar to that ofLatin in Europe, many of the Arabic concepts in the fields of science, philosophy, commerce, etc. were coined from Arabic roots by non-native Arabic speakers, notably byAramaic and Persian translators, and then found their way into other languages. This process of using Arabic roots, especially inKurdish and Persian, to translate foreign concepts continued through to the 18th and 19th centuries, when swaths of Arab-inhabited lands were underOttoman rule.[citation needed]
Sparsely populated area or no indigenous Arabic speakers
Solid area fill: variety natively spoken by at least 25% of the population of that area or variety indigenous to that area only
Hatched area fill: minority scattered over the area
Dotted area fill: speakers of this variety are mixed with speakers of other Arabic varieties in the area
Colloquial Arabic is a collective term for the spoken dialects of Arabic used throughout theArab world, which differ radically from theliterary language. The main dialectal division is between the varieties within and outside of theArabian peninsula, followed by that betweensedentary varieties and the much more conservativeBedouin varieties. All the varieties outside of the Arabian peninsula, which include the large majority of speakers, have many features in common with each other that are not found in Classical Arabic. This has led researchers to postulate the existence of a prestigekoine dialect in the one or two centuries immediately following theArab conquest, whose features eventually spread to all newly conquered areas. These features are present to varying degrees inside the Arabian peninsula. Generally, the Arabian peninsula varieties have much more diversity than the non-peninsula varieties, but these have been understudied.[citation needed]
A copy of the Qur'an byIbn al-Bawwab in the year 1000/1001 CE, thought to be the earliest existing example of a Qur'an written in a cursive script.
Within the non-peninsula varieties, the largest difference is between the non-EgyptianNorth African dialects, especiallyMoroccan Arabic, and the others. Moroccan Arabic in particular is hardly comprehensible to Arabic speakers east ofLibya (although the converse is not true, in part due to the popularity of Egyptian films and other media).[citation needed]
One factor in the differentiation of the dialects is influence from the languages previously spoken in the areas, which have typically provided many new words and have sometimes also influenced pronunciation or word order. However, a more weighty factor for most dialects is, as amongRomance languages, retention (or change of meaning) of different classical forms. ThusIraqiaku,Levantine andPeninsularfīh andNorth Africankayən all mean 'there is', and all come from Classical Arabic forms (yakūn,fīhi,kā'in respectively), but now sound very different.[citation needed]
Koiné
According toCharles A. Ferguson,[101] the following are some of the characteristic features of thekoiné that underlies all the modern dialects outside the Arabian peninsula. Although many other features are common to most or all of these varieties, Ferguson believes that these features in particular are unlikely to have evolved independently more than once or twice and together suggest the existence of the koine:
Loss of thedual number except on nouns, with consistent plural agreement (cf. feminine singular agreement in plural inanimates).
Change ofa toi in many affixes (e.g., non-past-tense prefixesti- yi- ni-;wi- 'and';il- 'the'; feminine-it in theconstruct state).
Loss of third-weak verbs ending inw (which merge with verbs ending iny).
Reformation of geminate verbs, e.g.,ḥalaltu 'I untied' →ḥalēt(u).
Conversion of separate wordslī 'to me',laka 'to you', etc. into indirect-objectclitic suffixes.
Certain changes in thecardinal number system, e.g.,khamsat ayyām 'five days' →kham(a)s tiyyām, where certain words have a special plural with prefixedt.
Merger of/dˤ/⟨ض⟩ and/ðˤ/⟨ظ⟩ in most or all positions.
Dialect groups
Egyptian Arabic, spoken by 67 million people inEgypt.[102] It is one of the most understood varieties of Arabic, due in large part to the widespread distribution of Egyptian films and television shows throughout the Arabic-speaking world.
Maltese, spoken on theisland of Malta, is the only fully separate standardized language to have originated from an Arabic dialect, the extinctSiculo-Arabic dialect, with independent literary norms. Maltese has evolved independently of Modern Standard Arabic and its varieties into a standardized language over the past 800 years in a gradual process ofLatinisation.[106][107] Maltese is therefore considered an exceptional descendant of Arabic that has nodiglossic relationship withStandard Arabic orClassical Arabic.[108] Maltese is different from Arabic and otherSemitic languages since itsmorphology has been deeply influenced byRomance languages,Italian andSicilian.[109] It is the only Semitic language written in theLatin script. In terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are reported to be able to understand less than a third of what is said to them inTunisian Arabic,[110] which is related to Siculo-Arabic,[105] whereas speakers of Tunisian are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese.[111] Thisasymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than themutual intelligibility found between Maghrebi Arabic dialects.[112] Maltese has its own dialects, with urban varieties of Maltese being closer to Standard Maltese than rural varieties.[113]
Sudanese Arabic, spoken by 17 million people inSudan and some parts of southernEgypt. Sudanese Arabic is quite distinct from the dialect of its neighbor to the north; rather, the Sudanese have a dialect similar to the Hejazi dialect.
Indonesian Arabic, spoken in Arab ethnic enclaves inIndonesia, especially along the north coast ofJava. It has about 60,000 speakers according to a rough estimate in 2010.[116]
Najdi Arabic, spoken by around 10 million people, mainly spoken inNajd, central and northernSaudi Arabia. Most Qatari citizens speak Najdi Arabic (Bedawi).
Judeo-Arabic dialects – these are the dialects spoken by theJews that had lived or continue to live in theArab World. As Jewish migration to Israel took hold, the language did not thrive and is now considered endangered. So-called Qəltu Arabic.
While many languages have numerous dialects that differ inphonology, contemporary spoken Arabic is more properly described as acontinuum of varieties.[120]Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), is thestandard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions. MSA is used in writing in formal print media and orally in newscasts, speeches and formal declarations of numerous types.[121]
As in other Semitic languages, Arabic has a complex and unusualmorphology, i.e. method of constructing words from a basicroot. Arabic has anonconcatenative "root-and-pattern" morphology: A root consists of a set of bare consonants (usuallythree), which are fitted into a discontinuous pattern to form words. For example, the word for 'I wrote' is constructed by combining the rootk-t-b 'write' with the pattern-a-a-tu 'I Xed' to formkatabtu 'I wrote'.
Other verbs meaning 'I Xed' will typically have the same pattern but with different consonants, e.g.qaraʼtu 'I read',akaltu 'I ate',dhahabtu 'I went', although other patterns are possible, e.g.sharibtu 'I drank',qultu 'I said',takallamtu 'I spoke', where the subpattern used to signal the past tense may change but the suffix-tu is always used.
From a single rootk-t-b, numerous words can be formed by applying different patterns:
كَتَبْتُkatabtu 'I wrote'
كَتَّبْتُkattabtu 'I had (something) written'
كَاتَبْتُkātabtu 'I corresponded (with someone)'
أَكْتَبْتُ'aktabtu 'I dictated'
اِكْتَتَبْتُiktatabtu 'I subscribed'
تَكَاتَبْنَاtakātabnā 'we corresponded with each other'
أَكْتُبُ'aktubu 'I write'
أُكَتِّبُ'ukattibu 'I have (something) written'
أُكَاتِبُ'ukātibu 'I correspond (with someone)'
أُكْتِبُ'uktibu 'I dictate'
أَكْتَتِبُ'aktatibu 'I subscribe'
نَتَكَتِبُnatakātabu 'we correspond each other'
كُتِبَkutiba 'it was written'
أُكْتِبَ'uktiba 'it was dictated'
مَكْتُوبٌmaktūbun 'written'
مُكْتَبٌmuktabun 'dictated'
كِتَابٌkitābun 'book'
كُتُبٌkutubun 'books'
كَاتِبٌkātibun 'writer'
كُتَّابٌkuttābun 'writers'
مَكْتَبٌmaktabun 'desk, office'
مَكْتَبَةٌmaktabatun 'library, bookshop'
etc.
Nouns and adjectives
Nouns in Literary Arabic have three grammaticalcases (nominative,accusative, andgenitive [also used when the noun is governed by a preposition]); threenumbers (singular, dual and plural); twogenders (masculine and feminine); and three "states" (indefinite, definite, andconstruct). The cases of singular nouns, other than those that end in long ā, are indicated bysuffixed short vowels (/-u/ for nominative, /-a/ for accusative, /-i/ for genitive).
The feminine singular is often marked byـَة /-at/, which is pronounced as /-ah/ before a pause. Plural is indicated either through endings (thesound plural) or internal modification (thebroken plural). Definite nouns include all proper nouns, all nouns in "construct state" and all nouns which areprefixed by the definite articleاَلْـ /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 asnunation ortanwīn.
Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state, as for nouns. The plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective, which takes theـَة /-at/ suffix.
Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number and gender. There are two varieties, independent pronouns andenclitics. 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 (ـنِي /-nī/) and for nouns or prepositions (ـِي /-ī/ after consonants,ـيَ /-ya/ after vowels).
Nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives agree with each other in all respects. Non-human plural nouns are grammatically considered to be feminine singular. 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 past and non-past paradigms are sometimes termedperfective andimperfective, indicating the fact that they actually represent a combination oftense andaspect. The moods other than theindicative occur only in the non-past, and thefuture tense is signaled by prefixingسَـsa- orسَوْفَsawfa onto the non-past. The past and non-past differ in the form of the stem (e.g., pastكَتَبـkatab- vs. non-pastـكْتُبـ-ktub-), and use completely different sets of affixes for indicating person, number and gender: In the past, the person, number and gender are fused into a singlesuffixal morpheme, while in the non-past, a combination ofprefixes (primarily encoding person) and suffixes (primarily encoding gender and number) are used. The passive voice uses the same person/number/gender affixes but changes the vowels of the stem.
The following shows a paradigm of a regular Arabic verb,كَتَبَkataba 'to write'. In Modern Standard, the energetic mood, in either long or short form, which has the same meaning, is almost never used.
Derivation
Like otherSemitic languages, and unlike most other languages, Arabic makes much more use ofnonconcatenative morphology, applying many templates applied to roots, toderive words than adding prefixes or suffixes to words.
For verbs, a given root can occur in many differentderived verb stems, of which there are about fifteen, each with one or more characteristic meanings and each with its own templates for the past and non-past stems, active and passive participles, and verbal noun. These are referred to by Western scholars as "Form I", "Form II", and so on through "Form XV", although Forms XI to XV are rare.
These stems encode grammatical functions such as thecausative,intensive andreflexive. Stems sharing the same root consonants represent separate verbs, albeit often semantically related, and each is the basis for its ownconjugational paradigm. As a result, these derived stems are part of the system ofderivational morphology, not part of theinflectional system.
Examples of the different verbs formed from the rootكتبk-t-b 'write' (usingحمرḥ-m-r 'red' for Form IX, which is limited to colors and physical defects):
Form II is sometimes used to create transitivedenominative verbs (verbs built from nouns); Form V is the equivalent used for intransitive denominatives.
The associated participles and verbal nouns of a verb are the primary means of forming new lexical nouns in Arabic. This is similar to the process by which, for example, theEnglish gerund "meeting" (similar to a verbal noun) has turned into a noun referring to a particular type of social, often work-related event where people gather together to have a "discussion" (another lexicalized verbal noun). Another fairly common means of forming nouns is through one of a limited number of patterns that can be applied directly to roots, such as the "nouns of location" inma- (e.g.maktab 'desk, office' <k-t-b 'write',maṭbakh 'kitchen' <ṭ-b-kh 'cook').
The only three genuine suffixes are as follows:
The feminine suffix-ah; variously derives terms for women from related terms for men, or more generally terms along the same lines as the corresponding masculine, e.g.maktabah 'library' (also a writing-related place, but different frommaktab, as above).
Thenisbah suffix-iyy-. This suffix is extremely productive, and forms adjectives meaning "related to X". It corresponds to English adjectives in-ic, -al, -an, -y, -ist, etc.
The femininenisbah suffix-iyyah. This is formed by adding the feminine suffix-ah onto nisba adjectives to form abstract nouns. For example, from the basic rootš-r-k 'share' can be derived the Form VIII verbishtaraka 'to cooperate, participate', and in turn its verbal nouništirāk 'cooperation, participation' can be formed. This in turn can be made into a nisbah adjectiveištirākiyy 'socialist', from which an abstract nounishtirākiyyah 'socialism' can be derived. Other recent formations arejumhūriyyah 'republic' (lit. "public-ness", <jumhūr 'multitude, general public'), and theGaddafi-specific variationjamāhīriyyah 'people's republic' (lit. "masses-ness", <jamāhīr 'the masses', pl. ofjumhūr, as above).
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.
The following is an example of a regular verb paradigm in Egyptian Arabic.
Example of a regular Form I verb inEgyptian Arabic,kátab/yíktib "write"
Arabic calligraphy written by a Malay Muslim in Malaysia. The calligrapher is making a rough draft.
The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic throughNabatean, to which it bears a loose resemblance like that ofCoptic orCyrillic scripts toGreek script. Traditionally, there were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern versions of the alphabet—in particular, thefaʼ had a dot underneath andqaf a single dot above 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 theGe'ez script), is written from right to left. There are several styles of scripts such asthuluth,muhaqqaq,tawqi,rayhan, and notablynaskh, which is used in print and by computers, andruqʻah, which is commonly used for correspondence.[124][125]
Originally Arabic was made up of onlyrasm without diacritical marks[126] Later diacritical points (which in Arabic are referred to asnuqaṯ) were added (which allowed readers to distinguish between letters such as b, t, th, n and y). Finally signs known asTashkil were used for short vowels known asharakat and other uses such as final postnasalized or long vowels.
Modern Standard Arabic (Literary Arabic)⟨ج⟩ can be pronounced/d͡ʒ/ or/ʒ/ (or/g/ only in Egypt) depending on the speaker's regional dialect.
TheHamza⟨ء⟩ can be considered a letter and plays an important role in Arabic spelling but it is not considered part of the alphabet, it has different written forms depending on its position in the word, checkHamza.
AfterKhalil ibn Ahmad al Farahidi finally fixed the Arabic script around 786, many styles were developed, both for the writing down of the Quran 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 byArabs as a major art form; calligraphers are held in great esteem. Being cursive by nature, unlike the Latin script, Arabic script is used to write down averse of the Quran, ahadith, or aproverb. 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 isHassan Massoudy.[127]
In modern times the intrinsically calligraphic nature of the written Arabic form is haunted by the thought that a typographic approach to the language, necessary for digitized unification, will not always accurately maintain meanings conveyed through calligraphy.[128]
There are a number of different standards for theromanization of Arabic, i.e. methods of accurately and efficiently representing Arabic with the Latin script. There are various conflicting motivations involved, which leads to multiple systems. Some are interested intransliteration, i.e. representing thespelling of Arabic, while others focus ontranscription, i.e. representing thepronunciation of Arabic. (They differ in that, for example, the same letterي is used to represent both a consonant, as in "you" or "yet", and a vowel, as in "me" or "eat".)
Some systems, e.g. for scholarly use, are intended to accurately and unambiguously represent the phonemes of Arabic, generally making the phonetics more explicit than the original word in the Arabic script. These systems are heavily reliant ondiacritical marks such as "š" for the sound equivalently writtensh in English. Other systems (e.g. theBahá'í orthography) are intended to help readers who are neither Arabic speakers nor linguists with intuitive pronunciation of Arabic names and phrases.[citation needed]
These less "scientific" systems tend to avoiddiacritics and usedigraphs (likesh andkh). These are usually simpler to read, but sacrifice the definiteness of the scientific systems, and may lead to ambiguities, e.g. whether to interpretsh as a single sound, as ingash, or a combination of two sounds, as ingashouse. TheALA-LC romanization solves this problem by separating the two sounds with aprime symbol ( ′ ); e.g.,as′hal 'easier'.
During the last few decades and especially since the 1990s, Western-invented text communication technologies have become prevalent in the Arab world, such aspersonal computers, theWorld Wide Web,email,bulletin board systems,IRC,instant messaging andmobile phone text messaging. Most of these technologies originally had the ability to communicate using the Latin script only, and some of them still do not have the Arabic script as an optional feature. As a result, Arabic speaking users communicated in these technologies by transliterating the Arabic text using the Latin script.
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⟩. There is no universal name for this type of transliteration, but some have named itArabic Chat Alphabet or IM Arabic. 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⟩, may be represented byd. Its emphatic counterpart,⟨ض⟩, may be written asD.
Numerals
In most of present-day North Africa, theWestern 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, theEastern Arabic numerals (٠ –١ –٢ –٣ –٤ –٥ –٦ –٧ –٨ –٩) are in use. When representing a number in Arabic, the lowest-valuedposition 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" just like in the German language (vierundzwanzig) andClassical Hebrew, and 1975 is said "a thousand and nine-hundred and five and seventy" or, more eloquently, "a thousand and nine-hundred five seventy".
Arabic alphabet and nationalism
There have been many instances of national movements to convert Arabic script into Latin script or to Romanize the language. Currently, the only Arabic variety to use Latin script isMaltese.
Lebanon
The Beirut newspaperLa Syrie pushed for the change from Arabic script to Latin letters in 1922. The major head of this movement wasLouis Massignon, a French Orientalist, who brought his concern before the Arabic Language Academy in Damascus in 1928. Massignon's attempt at Romanization failed as the academy and population viewed the proposal as an attempt from the Western world to take over their country.Sa'id Afghani, a member of the academy, mentioned that the movement to Romanize the script was aZionist plan to dominate Lebanon.[129][130]Said Akl created a Latin-based alphabet forLebanese and used it in a newspaper he founded,Lebnaan, as well as in some books he wrote.
Egypt
After the period of colonialism in Egypt, Egyptians were looking for a way to reclaim and re-emphasize Egyptian culture. As a result, some Egyptians pushed for an Egyptianization of the Arabic language in which the formal Arabic and the colloquial Arabic would be combined into one language and the Latin alphabet would be used.[129][130] There was also the idea of finding a way to useHieroglyphics instead of the Latin alphabet, but this was seen as too complicated to use.[129][130]
A scholar,Salama Musa agreed with the idea of applying a Latin alphabet to Arabic, as he believed that would allow Egypt to have a closer relationship with the West. He also believed that Latin script was key to the success of Egypt as it would allow for more advances in science and technology. This change in alphabet, he believed, would solve the problems inherent with Arabic, such as a lack of written vowels and difficulties writing foreign words that made it difficult for non-native speakers to learn.[129][130]Ahmad Lutfi As Sayid andMuhammad Azmi, two Egyptian intellectuals, agreed with Musa and supported the push for Romanization.[129][131]
The idea that Romanization was necessary for modernization and growth in Egypt continued with Abd Al-Aziz Fahmi in 1944. He was the chairman for the Writing and Grammar Committee for the Arabic Language Academy of Cairo.[129][131] This effort failed as the Egyptian people felt a strong cultural tie to the Arabic alphabet.[129][131] In particular, the older Egyptian generations believed that the Arabic alphabet had strong connections to Arab values and history, due to the long history of the Arabic alphabet (Shrivtiel, 189) in Muslim societies.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
^The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran recognizes the Arabic language as the language of Islam, giving it a formal status as the language of religion, and regulates its spreading within the Iranian national curriculum. The constitution declares in Chapter II: (The Official Language, Script, Calendar, and Flag of the Country) in Article 16 "Since the language of the Qur`an and Islamic texts and teachings is Arabic, ..., it must be taught after elementary level, in all classes of secondary school and in all areas of study."[4]
^The constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan states in Article 31 No. 2 that "The State shall endeavour, as respects the Muslims of Pakistan (a) to make the teaching of the Holy Quran and Islamiat compulsory, to encourage and facilitate the learning of Arabic language ..."[5]
Further reading
Al Malwi, Ibrahim; Herrero De Haro, Alfredo; Baker, Amanda (2023). "Abha Arabic". Illustrations of the IPA.Journal of the International Phonetic Association:1–19.doi:10.1017/S0025100323000269, with supplementary sound recordings.
^"Implementation of the Charter in Cyprus".Database for the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Public Foundation for European Comparative Minority Research. Archived fromthe original on 24 October 2011. Retrieved20 May 2013.
^Constitution of the Philippines, Article XIV, Sec 7: For purposes of communication and instruction, the official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English. The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein. Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.
^abWorld, I. H."Arabic".IH World. Retrieved7 July 2021.
^"Maltese language".Encyclopedia Britannica.Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved21 December 2019.
^Versteegh, Kees; Versteegh, C. H. M. (1997).The Arabic Language. Columbia University Press.ISBN9780231111522.... of the Qufdn; many Arabic loanwords in the indigenous languages, as in Urdu and Indonesian, were introduced mainly through the medium of Persian.
^abcdSemitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston, 2011.
^Lentin, Jérôme (30 May 2011)."Middle Arabic".Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Brill Reference.Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved17 July 2016.
^abAl-Jallad, Ahmad (30 May 2011)."Polygenesis in the Arabic Dialects".Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics. Brill Reference.Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved17 July 2016.
^Sawaie, Mohammed (30 May 2011)."Language Academies".Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics.Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved20 February 2020.
^Tilmatine, Mohand (2015). "Arabization and linguistic domination: Berber and Arabic in the North of Africa".Language Empires in Comparative Perspective. Berlin, München, Boston: DE GRUYTER. pp. 1–16.doi:10.1515/9783110408362.1.ISBN978-3-11-040836-2.S2CID132791029.
^Čéplö, Slavomír (1 January 2020)."Chapter 13 Maltese".Arabic and Contact-induced Change.
^Hadjioannou, Xenia; Tsiplakou, Stavroula; Kappler, Matthias (2011). "Language policy and language planning in Cyprus".Current Issues in Language Planning.12 (4). Routledge: 508.doi:10.1080/14664208.2011.629113.hdl:10278/29371.S2CID143966308.
^Quesada, Thomas C.Arabic Keyboard (Atlanta ed.). Madisonville: Peter Jones. p. 49.Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved11 October 2012.
^See the seminal study by Siegmund Fraenkel,Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen, Leiden 1886 (repr. 1962)
^See for instance Wilhelm Eilers, "Iranisches Lehngut im Arabischen",Actas IV. Congresso des Estudos Árabes et Islâmicos, Coimbra, Lisboa, Leiden 1971, with earlier references.
^abBorg, Albert J.; Azzopardi-Alexander, Marie (1997). Maltese. Routledge.ISBN0-415-02243-6.
^Borg and Azzopardi-Alexander (1997).Maltese. Routledge. p. xiii.ISBN978-0-415-02243-9.In fact, Maltese displays some areal traits typical of Maghrebine Arabic, although over the past 800 years of independent evolution it has drifted apart from Tunisian Arabic
^Brincat, Joseph M. (February 2005).Maltese – an unusual formula. MED Magazine.Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved17 February 2018.Originally Maltese was an Arabic dialect but it was immediately exposed to Latinisation because the Normans conquered the islands in 1090, while Christianisation, which was complete by 1250, cut off the dialect from contact with Classical Arabic. Consequently Maltese developed on its own, slowly but steadily absorbing new words from Sicilian and Italian according to the needs of the developing community.
^Robert D Hoberman (2007).Morphologies of Asia and Africa, Alan S. Kaye (Ed.), Chapter 13: Maltese Morphology. Eisenbrown.ISBN978-1-57506-109-2.Archived from the original on 4 October 2018.yet it is in its morphology that Maltese also shows the most elaborate and deeply embedded influence from the Romance languages, Sicilian and Italian, with which it has long been in intimate contact....As a result Maltese is unique and different from Arabic and other Semitic languages.
^abcdefgShrivtiel, Shraybom (1998).The Question of Romanisation of the Script and The Emergence of Nationalism in the Middle East. Mediterranean Language Review. pp. 179–196.
Durand, Olivier; Langone, Angela D.; Mion, Giuliano (2010),Corso di Arabo Contemporaneo. Lingua Standard (in Italian), Milan: Hoepli,ISBN978-88-203-4552-5
Hanna, Sami A.; Greis, Naguib (1972),Writing Arabic: A Linguistic Approach, from Sounds to Script, Brill Archive,ISBN978-90-04-03589-8
Haywood; Nahmad (1965),A new Arabic grammar, London: Lund Humphries,ISBN978-0-85331-585-8
Hetzron, Robert (1997),The Semitic languages (Illustrated ed.), Taylor & Francis,ISBN978-0-415-05767-7
Holes, Clive (2004).Modern Arabic: Structures, Functions, and Varieties. Georgetown University Press.ISBN978-1-58901-022-2.
Irwin, Robert (2006),For Lust of Knowing, London: Allen Lane
Kaplan, Robert B.; Baldauf, Richard B. (2007),Language Planning and Policy in Africa, Multilingual Matters,ISBN978-1-85359-726-8
Kaye, Alan S. (1991), "The Hamzat al-Waṣl in Contemporary Modern Standard Arabic",Journal of the American Oriental Society,111 (3):572–574,doi:10.2307/604273,JSTOR604273
Kirchhoff, Katrin; Vergyri, Dimitra (2005). "Cross-dialectal data sharing for acoustic modeling in Arabic speech recognition".Speech Communication.46 (1):37–51.doi:10.1016/j.specom.2005.01.004.
Suileman, Yasir.Arabic, Self and Identity: A Study in Conflict and Displacement. Oxford University Press, 2011.ISBN0-19-974701-6,978-0-19-974701-6.
Thelwall, Robin (2003). "Arabic".Handbook of the International Phonetic Association a guide to the use of the international phonetic alphabet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0-521-63751-0.
Traini, R. (1961),Vocabolario di arabo [Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic] (in Italian), Rome: I.P.O. – via Harassowitz
Vaglieri, Laura Veccia,Grammatica teorico-pratica della lingua araba, Rome: I.P.O.
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