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Literary Arabic
اللغة العربية الفصحى
Spoken in:Arab world
Total speakers:ca. 300 million
Language family:Afro-Asiatic
 Semitic
  West Semitic
   Central Semitic
    South Central Semitic
     Arabic
      Literary Arabic 
Writing system:Arabic alphabet 
Official status
Official language in:Arab world, Israel
Regulated by:modelled after the Qur'an; Academy of the Arabic Language
Language codes
ISO 639-1:ar
ISO 639-2:ara
ISO 639-3:arb
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite The Arabic language family consists of The Arabic macrolanguage ( ISO 639-3 ara including the living Varieties of Arabic Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Literary Arabic (اللغة العربية الفصحى al-luġatu l-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā "the Eloquent Arabic language") or Standard Arabic is the literary and standard variety of Arabic used in writing. It is part of the Arabic macrolanguage. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes In defining some of its language codes some are defined as macrolanguages covering either significantly

Most western scholars distinguish two common fuṣḥā varieties: the Classical Arabic of the Qur'an and early Islamic (7th to 9th centuries) literature, and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), the standard language in use today. The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran Arabic literature ( Arabic: الأدب العربي Al-Adab Al-Arabi) is the writing produced both Prose and Poetry, by speakers A standard language (also standard dialect, standardized dialect, or standardised dialect) is a particular variety of a Language that The modern Standard language is based on the Classical language. Most Arabs consider the two varieties to be two registers of one language.

Contents

Classical Arabic

Main article: Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic, also known as Qur'anic Arabic, is the language used in the Qur'an as well as in numerous literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times (7th to 9th centuries). Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran

Classical Arabic is often believed to be the parent language of all the spoken varieties of Arabic, but recent scholarship, such as Clive Holes' (2004), questions this view, showing that other Old North Arabian dialects were extant in the 7th century and may be the origin of current spoken varieties. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties Ancient North Arabian is known from fragmentary inscriptions in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, dating to between roughly the 6th century

Modern Standard Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is the literary standard across the Middle East and North Africa, and one of the official six languages of the United Nations. The Middle East is a Subcontinent with no clear boundaries often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East. North Africa or Northern Africa is the Northernmost Region of the African Continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Most printed matter–including most books, newspapers, magazines, official documents, and reading primers for small children–is written in MSA. "Colloquial" Arabic refers to the many national or regional varieties derived from Arabic spoken daily across the region and learned as a first language. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties A first language (also mother tongue, native language, arterial language, or L1) is the language a human being learns from birth These sometimes differ enough from each other to be mutually incomprehensible. In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand They are not typically written, although a certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many of them. Literary Arabic or classical Arabic is the official language of all Arab countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages.

The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia — the use of two distinct varieties of the same language, usually in different social contexts. In Linguistics, diglossia is a situation where in a given society there are two (often closely-related languages one of high prestige, which is generally used Educated Arabic-speakers are usually able to communicate in MSA in formal situations across national boundaries — thus, MSA is a classic example of a Dachsprache. The Ausbausprache - Abstandsprache - Dachsprache ( framework is a tool developed by sociolinguists for analysing and categorising the status of language varieties This diglossic situation facilitates code-switching in which a speaker switches back and forth between the two varieties of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. Code-switching is a term in Linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety in conversation In instances in which highly educated Arabic-speakers of different nationalities engage in conversation but find their dialects mutually unintelligible (e. g. a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), they are able to code switch into MSA for the sake of communication.

Although closely based on Classical Arabic (especially from the pre-Islamic to the Abbasid period, including Qur'anic Arabic), literary Arabic continues to evolve. Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad The Qur’an ( القرآن, literally "the recitation" also sometimes transliterated as Qur’ān, Koran, Alcoran Classical Arabic is considered normative; modern authors attempt (with varying degrees of success) to follow the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by Classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh), and to use the vocabulary defined in Classical dictionaries (such as the Lisan al-Arab. Sibawayh ( Sibuyeh in Persian, سيبويه Sîbawayh in Arabic, سیبویه was a linguist of Persian origin born )

Switch from Classical Arabic to MSA

In spite of the romantic and variously successful attempts of modern Arab authors to follow the syntactic and grammatical norms of Classical Arabic, the exigencies of modernity have led to the adoption of numerous terms which would have been mysterious to a Classical author, whether taken from other languages (eg فيلم film) or coined from existing lexical resources (eg هاتف hātif "telephone" < "caller").

Structural influence from foreign languages or from the vernaculars has also affected Modern Standard Arabic: for example, MSA texts sometimes use the format "X, X, X, and X" when listing things, whereas Classical Arabic prefers "X and X and X and X", and subject-initial sentences may be more common in MSA than in Classical Arabic.

For all these reasons, Modern Standard Arabic is generally treated as separate language in non-Arab sources. Arab sources generally tend to regard MSA and Classical Arabic as different registers of one and the same language. Speakers of Modern Standard Arabic do not always observe the intricate rules of Classical Arabic grammar. Modern Standard Arabic principally differs from Classical Arabic in three areas: lexicon, stylistics, and certain innovations on the periphery that are not strictly regulated by the classical authorities. On the whole, Modern Standard Arabic is not homogeneous; there are authors who write in a style very close to the classical models and others who try to create new stylistic patterns. Add to this regional differences in vocabulary depending upon the influence of the local Arabic varieties and the influences of foreign languages, such as French in North Africa or English in Egypt, Jordan, and other countries. [1]

Regional variants

MSA is used uniformly across the Middle East, but some regional variations exist due to influence from the spoken vernaculars. People who "speak" MSA during interviews often give away their national or ethnic origins by their pronunciation of certain phonemes (e. g. the realization of the Classical jīm ج (/dʒ/) as /g/ by Egyptians, and as /ʒ/ by Lebanese), and by mixing between vernacular and Classical words and forms. Classical/vernacular mixing in formal writing can also be found (e. g. in some Egyptian newspaper editorials).

Grammar

Main article: Arabic grammar

Notes

  1. ^ Wolfdietrich Fischer. Arabic is a Semitic language See Arabic language for more information on the language in general 1997. "Classical Arabic," The Semitic Languages. London: Routledge. Pg 189.

References

See also

External links

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