Arabic
اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ‎ al-ʿarabiyyah
al-ʿarabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script)
Pronunciation	/ˈʕarabiː/, /alʕaraˈbijːa/
Native to	Countries of the Arab League, minorities in neighboring countries and some parts of Asia, Africa, Europe
Ethnicity	Arabs and the original peoples of the Middle East and North Africa (as a result of language shift)
Native speakers	350 million, all varieties (2011–2020)[1] 270 million L2 speakers of Modern Standard Arabic[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic North Arabian Arabic
Early form	Proto-Arabic Old Arabic Old Hijazi Classical Arabic
Standard forms	Modern Standard Arabic
Dialects	Western (Maghrebi) Northern (Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Levantine) Southern (Peninsular Gulf, Hejazi, Najdi and Yemeni)
Writing system	Arabic alphabet Arabic Braille Arabizi
Signed forms	Signed Arabic (different national forms)
Official status
Official language in	show 26 states show International Organizations
Recognised minority language in	show List
Regulated by	show List
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ar
ISO 639-2	ara
ISO 639-3	ara – inclusive code Individual codes: arq – Algerian Arabic aao – Algerian Saharan Arabic xaa – Andalusian Arabic bbz – Babalia Creole Arabic abv – Baharna Arabic shu – Chadian Arabic acy – Cypriot Arabic adf – Dhofari Arabic avl – Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic arz – Egyptian Arabic afb – Gulf Arabic ayh – Hadrami Arabic acw – Hijazi Arabic ayl – Libyan Arabic acm – Mesopotamian Arabic ary – Moroccan Arabic ars – Najdi Arabic apc – North Levantine Arabic ayp – North Mesopotamian Arabic acx – Omani Arabic aec – Saidi Arabic ayn – Sanaani Arabic ssh – Shihhi Arabic sqr – Siculo Arabic ajp – South Levantine Arabic arb – Standard Arabic apd – Sudanese Arabic pga – Sudanese Creole Arabic acq – Taizzi-Adeni Arabic abh – Tajiki Arabic
Glottolog	arab1395
Linguasphere	12-AAC
Dispersion of native Arabic speakers as the majority (dark green) or minority (light green) population
Use of Arabic as the national language (green), as an official language (dark blue) and as a regional/minority language (light blue)
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Arabic (اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ, al-ʿarabiyyah [al ʕaraˈbijːa] (listen) or عَرَبِيّ‎, ʿarabīy [ˈʕarabiː] (listen) or [ʕaraˈbij]) is a Semitic language that first emerged in the 1st to 4th centuries CE.^[3] It is now the lingua franca of the Arab world.^[4] It is named after the Arabs, a term initially used to describe peoples living in the Arabian Peninsula bounded by eastern Egypt in the west, Mesopotamia in the east, and the Anti-Lebanon mountains and Northern Syria in the north, as perceived by ancient Greek geographers.^[5] The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic, including its standard form, Modern Standard Arabic,^[6] also referred to as Literary Arabic, which is modernized Classical 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 as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā (اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ^[7] "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā (اَلْفُصْحَىٰ). Modern Standard Arabic is an official language of 26 states and 1 disputed territory, the third most after English and French.^[8]   

Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media.^[9] Arabic, in its standard form, is the official language of 26 states, as well as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam, since the Quran and the