Arabic is known to be part of the Semitic family of languages. In turn, several other languages, which are spoken in different parts of the Arabian Peninsula, can be grouped under the Arabic language family.

Arabic is spoken by more than six hundred million people around the world. More than two-thirds of these speak Arabic as their native language. It is the official language of about twenty five countries around the world. One can find Arabic speaking populations in countries that include, but are not limited to: Algeria, Bahrain, Brazil, the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Mexico, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States of America and Yemen.

Arabic language dialects

The term “Arabic language” can be considered as a more general term for defining the language spoken in the League of Arab States and other locations. These several variants of Arabic language, spoken in different parts of the Arabic world, differ from Standard Arabic in numerous aspects.

The major Arabic dialect groups include, but are not limited to: Bahrani Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Hassaniya Arabic, Hejazi Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic, Najdi Arabic, Siculo Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, Saharan Arabic and Yemeni Arabic.

Levantine Arabic can be further be classified into: Bedawi Arabic, Cypriot Arabic, Jordanian Arabic, Lebanese Arabic, Palestinian Arabic and Syrian Arabic. While Maghrebi Arabic can be sub-divided into groups including: Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Libyan Arabic and Tunisian Arabic. In Saudi Arabia there are at least four identifiable Arabic dialects spoken, which include: Gulf Arabic in the country’s eastern region, Hejazi Arabic in its western region, Najdi Arabic in its central region, and Yemeni Arabic in its southern areas.

Characteristics of Arabic languages

Arabic grammar can be classified into four parts: lexicon, morphology, syntax and derivation.

There are three types of nouns in Arabic: definite, indefinite and construct state. The Arabic language has two genders, namely masculine and feminine. Genders can be complicated because in some cases they add up suffixes. For example, in some situations is the suffix denoting a feminine noun.

There are only two tenses in the Arabic language: perfect tense and imperfect tense. The perfect tense is related to an action that has finished while the imperfect tense expresses actions that are still being carried out. Some linguists believe that the perfect tense in Arabic is equivalent to the past tense in English while the imperfect is the same as the present tense.Â