The Arabic language is a member of the North Arabic branch of the Semitic sub-group of the Afro-Asiatic (or Hamito-Semitic) family of languages. It is related to Hebrew (spoken in Israel) and Amharic (spoken in Ethiopia) as well as to the ancient Semitic languages.

Among Muslims, Arabic is considered sacred since it is the language through which the Koran was revealed. Islamic conquests from the 7th. Century carried the language far beyond its original borders, and it supplanted almost all the previous languages of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. After further conquest in succeeding centuries Arabic was spoken as far east as Afghanistan and as far west as Spain.

Modern Standard Arabic is the formal Arabic that is written and spoken throughout the contemporary Arab world. Also known as Fus’ha, it is used in various forms by Christian and Muslim Arabs. In the Arab world, Modern Standard Arabic is the language of the news media, intellectual life, and literature.

Spoken Arabic varies from country to country, but classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, has remained largely unchanged since the 7th century. When educated Arabs from different countries meet, they generally converse in classical Arabic.

How many people speak it?
Today, some 150 million people speak Arabic as a mother tongue and several million more speak it as a second language.

In how many countries?
Arabic is spoken/used in the following countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros (Federal Islamic Republic), Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gaza Strip, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, West Bank, Western Sahara, Yemen Arab Republic.

In 1974 Arabic was made the sixth official language of the United Nations.