[News]

News:

[lailabash]

 

SALAAM

ARABIC ranks sixth in the world's league table of languages, with an estimated 186 million native speakers. As the language of the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, it is also widely used throughout the Muslim world. It belongs to the Semitic group of languages which also includes Hebrew and Amharic, the main language of Ethiopia.

There are many Arabic dialects. Classical Arabic – the language of the Qur'an – was originally the dialect of Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. An adapted form of this, known as Modern Standard Arabic, is used in books, newspapers, on television and radio, in the mosques, and in conversation between educated Arabs from different countries (for example at international conferences).

Local dialects vary, and a Moroccan might have difficulty understanding an Iraqi, even though they speak the same language.WA SALAAM.

[qwickmalik]

Wa alaikum salam wa rahmatullah,

JazakAllahu khayr for that piece of education on Arabic. I believe Arabic will rank slightly higher when non-native speakers are also considered.

Very true about different dialects. Some of them came about as a result of corruption from local and other international languages. For example, I a friend who lived in Libya for a couple of years told me they have a lot of Italian words in the Libyan dialect.

I also heard people who are able to speak classic Arabic are very respected in the Arab world. Anyone heard of this too?