Arabic

Arabic (العربية or عربي ) is a Central Semitic language. Arabic is the most widely spoken language of the Semitic language family which includes Hebrew and Syriac. It is spoken by approximately 422 million people, including approximately 322 million native speakers, most of whom live in the Middle East and North Africa.

The earliest surviving texts in Proto-Arabic, or Ancient North Arabian, are the Hasaean inscriptions of eastern Saudi Arabia, from the 8th century BC, written in variants of the epigraphic South Arabian musnad. From about the 2nd century BC, inscriptions from Qaryat al-Faw (near Al Sulayyil in South Central Arabia) reveal a dialect which is Pre-Classical Arabic.

By the fourth century AD, the Arab kingdoms of the Lakhmids, the Ghassanids, and the Kindites emerged in Central Arabia. Their courts were responsible for some notable pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, and for some pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions in the Arabic alphabet. Modern Standard Arabic derives from Classical Arabic, which has also been a literary language and the language of worship for Islam since the 7th century.

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script. There were several differences between the Western (North African) and Middle Eastern version of the alphabet. Like all other Semitic languages (except Maltese and languages with the Ge'ez script), is written from right to left. There are several styles of script, notably Naskh which is used in print and by computers, and Ruq'ah which is commonly used in handwriting.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world. Many European languages have borrowed numerous words from it. Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, Maltese, and Sicilian, due to the proximity of European and Arab civilization and also due to 700 years of Arab rule in the Iberian peninsula. Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew, Persian, and Syriac in early centuries, and European languages in modern times. Arabic was also influenced by other languages including Persian.

Arabic has three main variants: Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic, and colloquial Arabic. Classical Arabic is the language the Qur'an was written in and was used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate. Based on Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is the literary language used by the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers.

Colloquial Arabic refers to the many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many varieties, each of which are so different from others that they are sometimes considered distinct languages. The only variety of modern Arabic that has acquired official language status is Maltese, spoken in Malta and written in the Latin alphabet.

The major dialect groups are: Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Levantine Arabic (spoken in Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and Turkey), and Maghrebi Arabic, spoken in North Africa.

Literary Arabic nouns have three grammatical cases: nominative, accusative, and genitive. They have three numbers, which are singular, dual, and plural; two genders, masculine and feminine; and three states, indefinite, definite, and construct. The case of singular nouns is indicated by short vowels suffixed to nouns. Plural is indicated either through endings or internal modification.

Verbs in Literary Arabic are marked for person, gender, and number. They are conjugated according to two systems, perfective and imperfective; two voices, active and passive; and five moods in the imperfective (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, jussive and energetic). Plural forms are used when the subject is not mentioned, or is preceding it, and the feminine singular is used for all non-human plurals.
Adjectives in Literary Arabic are marked for case, number, gender and state. However, the plural of all non-human nouns is always combined with a singular feminine adjective.

Pronouns in Literary Arabic are marked for person, number, and gender. There are two varieties, independent pronouns and enclitics. Enclitics are attached to the end of a verb, noun, or preposition. They indicate verbal and prepositional objects or possession of nouns. The first person singular pronoun has a different enclitic form used for verbs and for nouns or prepositions.

Nouns, verbs, pronouns, and adjectives agree with each other in all respects. However, non-human plural nouns are considered to be feminine singular. A verb in a sentence beginning with a verb is marked as singular regardless of its number when the subject is a noun. Numerals between three and ten show "chiasmic" agreement, in that grammatically masculine numerals have feminine marking and vice versa.

Information: Wikipedia