Modern Standard Arabic

Afro-Asiatic (Semitic)274 million nativeArabic

RegionMiddle East/North Africa

FamilyAfro-Asiatic (Semitic)

Speakers274 million native

ScriptArabic

TypeAbjad

About Modern Standard Arabic

The liturgical language of Islam. Written right-to-left. The root system uses 3 consonants to generate hundreds of related words. Classical Arabic has remained largely unchanged for 1,400 years. Dialects vary so much that Moroccan and Iraqi Arabic are nearly mutually unintelligible.

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