language spoken in North Africa, most of the Arabian
Peninsula, and other parts of the Middle East.
expressions Arabic and Classical Arabic usually refer to both the language of present-day media across North
Africa and the Middle East (from Morocco to Iraq) and the language of the Qur'an.
Modern Standard Arabic is sometimes used in the West to refer to the
language of the media as opposed to the language of "classical" Arabic
literature; Arabs make no such distinction, and regard the two as identical.
The word "Arabic" also refers to the many national or regional
dialects/languages derived from Classical Arabic, spoken daily across North
Africa and the Middle East, which sometimes differ enough to be mutually
incomprehensible. These dialects are not frequently written, although a
certain amount of literature (particularly plays and poetry) exists in many
of them, notably Lebanon and Egypt.
The chief dialect groups
are those of Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and North Africa. With the
exception of the dialect of Algeria, all Arabic dialects have been strongly
influenced by the literary language.
Arabic alphabet is second
most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (the Latin alphabet
is the most widespread). It has 28 letters, all representing consonants, and
is written from right to left. The shape of each letter depends on its
position in a word—initial, medial, and final. There is a fourth form of the
letter when it is written alone.