The Allure of Arabic: Exploring the Fascinating Aspects That Make It A Wonderful Language

photo source: قصة أسماء الحروف العربية | المرسال (almrsal.com)

As an Egyptian who lives in the middle east, I am very proud that Arabic is my mother tongue. One of the hardest languages in the world. It is also the official language of the United Nations.

Where is the Arabic Language Spoken?

The official tongue of the 22 Arab nations that make up the Arab League, a political and economic union, is Arabic. Additionally, it is one of the six official languages of the UN.

The 22 countries are Algeria - Bahrain - Comoros - Djibouti - Egypt - Iraq - Jordan - Kuwait - Lebanon - Libya - Mauritania - Morocco - Oman - Palestine - Qatar - Saudi Arabia - Somalia - Sudan - Syria - Tunisia - United Arab Emirates – Yemen.

Why the Arabic Language is Hard?

The Arabic language is hard even for people who speak it as their mother language for many reasons.

I studied French for the 3 years of high school, and it was really hard for me to define the word feminine or masculine. So, I really understand people suffering from learning Arabic as everything has sex. That chair is masculine, and that tree is feminine. And every sex has its pronouns. For example, there is no "it" that can work with both sexes.

Another reason why Arabic is hard is that it has many words between 12 and 15 million. Even I sometimes found words I do not know.

The biggest reason why the Arabic language is hard is the grammar. That is why most of those who learn Arabic do not start with it. even Arabs may have struggled with it.

Do Arabs Understand Each Other?

Nowadays spoken Arabic includes both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the many different dialects of Arabic spoken around the world.

MSA is the formal written language of Arabic and is used in newspapers, magazines, books, and government documents. It is also the language of the Quran.

The dialects of Arabic are spoken by the majority of Arabic speakers and are used in everyday conversation. They vary greatly from region to region, and some are mutually intelligible while others are not. But in general, yes, Arabs understand each other but there are word meaning differences that may make the understanding process difficult. While "gamd -جامد” means "cool" in Egypt it means "frozen" in another dialect while in MSA it means “rigid”.

For me, I understand the dialect of most Arab countries but not Morocco and Algeria because there are many French words in it also, they have a strange accent.

Are Arabic and Urdu Related?

They are only similar in the alphabet but are different in everything else. People who speak Arabic do not understand Urdu, and people who speak Urdu do not understand Arabic.

Not only the Urdu language is similar to Arabic in the alphabet there are 9 more languages that use it:

1. Persian (Farsi/Dari)

2. Pashto

3. Kurdish

4. Sindhi

5. Balochi

6. Uyghur

7. Malay (Jawi)

8. Mandinka

9. Mooré

They are similar because they belong to the same language family.

Will the Arabic Language Die?

The Arabic language is not going to disappear anytime soon. With over 300 million speakers worldwide, it is the official language of 22 nations. The Quran, the holy book of Islam, is likewise written in Arabic. 

This indicates that Arabic will probably continue to have a significant role in society for a very long time. It has survived for centuries, and it is likely to continue to survive for many more years to come.

I know that Arabic is a hard language. But there are a ton of materials available to get you started if learning Arabic is something you're interested in. You can enroll in online courses or find Arabic lessons at your nearby community college or university. 

You can also learn Arabic with the aid of a variety of books and applications. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a notebook and a pen and start learning now. And for the first word you learn let me be your teacher: Goodbye: مع السلامة. It is pronounced like this: ma'a as-salama.

So, everyone, ma'a as-salama.

Written by: Heba Salah