Arabic, Standard
PrintPrimary tabs
A language of Saudi Arabia
24,900,000 in Saudi Arabia (2014 SIL), all users. Total users in all countries: 273,989,700.
Widespread.
1 (National). Statutory national language (1992, Basic Law, Article 1).
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, Modern Literary Arabic), Classical Arabic (Koranic Arabic, Quranic Arabic). Preserves the ancient grammar. Lexical similarity (based on percentage of common words): When comparing Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) to Algerian [arq] (21%), Tunisian [aeb] (38%), Palestinian [ajp] (52%), Syrian [apc] (38%), Jordanian [ajp], and Egyptian [arz] spoken varieties, South Levantine Spoken Arabic [ajp] as spoken in Palestine is the most similar to MSA (Kwaik et al 2018, Harrat et al 2015). A member of macrolanguage Arabic [ara].
VSO; prepositions; noun head initial; gender (masculine/feminine); dual number; definite and indefinite affixes; case-marking (3 cases); verb affixes mark number, gender of subject; aspect; 28 consonant and 6 vowel phonemes; non-tonal; stress on first syllable; triliteral roots, few affixes.
Not an L1. In most Arab countries only the well-educated have adequate proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic. Education, official purposes, written materials, and formal speeches. Classical Arabic, with archaic vocabulary, is used for religion and ceremonial purposes.
Fully developed. Bible: 1645–2008.
Modern Standard Arabic is modernized Classical Arabic.