| Arabic
Language:
The
Arabic language is spoken by over 200 million people in almost
22 countries. Arabic speakers are mainly concentrated in the
Middle East in an area expanding from the Arabian Gulf to
the Atlantic Ocean; moreover, there are almost 3 million Arabic
speakers living in the United States and Canada. Arabic is
the Language of Quran, the Holy Book of Islam, so it is the
language number one in almost all Islamic countries. It was
adopted by the United Nations as one of its six official languages.
The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters and each letter has rules
for pronunciation. Almost all letters could be spelled in
English; however, there are some letter that only exist in
the Arabic language and have very special pronunciation like
the KH, GH, and 'AIN.
The Arabic language is divided into two types, the first one
is the "Fusha" (Classical Arabic) which is the formal
Arabic language usually used in formal writings and also in
formal oral context like TV and Radio news. The other type
is "Al 'Amiya" (colloquial) which is the non-formal
spoken language. You could find it spoke on the streets, in
the markets, and in the houses. The colloquial language is
spoken in many different ways depending on the country and
even on the town. For instance, if you went to Luxor or Aswan,
you will find that people there speak Egyptian Arabic in a
slightly different way where the dialect plays a very important
role.
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