Please take note that:
- For imported foreign words that do not have equivalent Arabic words or consonants or vowels, the Arabic language has adapted by borrowing other consonants or vowels in the Arabic list of alphabets as replacements. For example, the word “potato” has been converted to “batata” by converting the consonant “p” and the vowel “o” into the consonant “b”(ب ) and the vowel “a” (ا ) respectively.
- There are 2 types of diacritic signs or markings. They are:
- ’jam (إعجام), to differentiate consonants that have the same form by varying the number of dots and their positions. This has been made mandatory in present day Arabic writing. Examples of such diacritic signs are shown in the consonant ب , ت and ث with consonant sounds b, t and t respectively.
- tashkīl (تشكيل), to represent short vowels and consonant length and is an optional supplementary diacritics. They are usually used in children’s textbooks and religious materials that requires strict adherence to pronunciation rules such as the Qur'an and Hadith.
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The diacritic signs that represent short vowels are called Harakat. The symbol is placed above or below the letter that is vocalised. The Harakat symbols are:
- Fatḥa : Symbol “َ “ is a sloping stroke placed above the letter to give an “a” vowel as in “far”.
- Kasra: Symbol “ِ “ is a sloping stroke placed below the letter to give an “i” vowel as in “bit”.
- Ḍamma: Symbol “ُ “ is a curled shape sign placed above the letter to give a “u” vowel as in “put”.
- Madda: Symbol “~” is a tilde that’s always placed above the letter alif “ا ” to give a glottal stop followed by a long “a” vowel as in “Aaron”.
- Dagger alif: Symbol “|” is a short vertical stroke placed above the letter to indicate a long vowel “a” where alif is not written.
- Alif waṣla: Symbol is an eye shape sign that’s always placed above the alif letter resulting in “ٱ ” symbol to silence the alif.
- Sukūn: Symbol “˚” is a circle placed above the consonant to indicate that the consonant is not followed by a vowel.
- Tanwīn: The symbols for vowels “a”, “i” and “u” may be doubled to tanwīn symbols “ ً ”, “ ٍ ”,“ٌ ” respectively to indicate that the vowel is followed by an “n”.
- Shadda: Symbol “ّ ” is a little “w” placed above the consonant to indicate that the consonant is to be doubled.
- The reading of the Arabic article “ل ا ” which is the English equivalent of the article “the” (pronounced as “al” when alone) is dependent on the following alphabet. If the following alphabet is a “Sun” alphabet, the “ل ” takes on the consonant of the following alphabet. For example, “Al-Nile” is read as “An Nile” in Arabic as the “N” character “ن ” “ is grouped under “Sun”. The 14 sun alphabets are ﻥ ,ﻝ ,ﻅ ,ﻁ ,ﺽ ,ﺹ ,ﺵ ,ﺱ ,ﺯ ,ﺭ ,ﺫ ,ﺩ ,ﺙ ,ﺕ. The rest are grouped as “Moon” letters.
- The Hamza symbol “ ء ” may be regarded as a diacritic sign or a alphabet. It is used over or below the alif, wāw, or yā’ as in “ أ ؤ إ ئ ”.
Numerals
Eastern Arabic numerals (٠.١.٢.٣.٤.٥.٦.٧.٨.٩) are in use in Egypt and Arabic-speaking countries in the east; while Western Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are used in Arab speaking countries in North Africa usually. In Arabic writing, the lowest place value starts from the right, so the order of the place values is the same as in English. For digits such as telephone numbers, they are read from left to right. Numbers are spoken in the traditional Arabic fashion, whereby every value is spoken as in English except for units and tens whereby they are reversed. For example, 3,745 is said "three thousand and seven hundred and five and forty."
Arabic Language Origin
Arabic language belongs to a sub division of a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, called the Semitic languages. The language family includes the ancient and modern forms of Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese, Phoenician, Tigre and Tigrinya.
It is believed that the Arabic script is from the Nabataean branch or the Syriac branch of the Aramaic script which had evolved from the Phoenician script. It is also widely believed that Arabic was first used as a spoken language by the Nabataeans in the 6th and 5th Century around the Petra region (modern day Jordan). The earliest form of Arabic script was developed in the 2nd Century when the Nabataeans started to write their own version of Aramaic scripts that included some features of the Arabic scripts. This evolved into 2 forms of scripts; one for inscriptions which was more angular and for inscribing on hard surfaces such as wood or stone; the other for papyrus writing which was more cursive. The script for papyrus writing was further developed and evolved gradually to the modern day Arabic script.
Global Status of Arabic Language
The status of a language, in this case Modern Standard Arabic, is determined by a) the population size of users, b) their economic and c) political power and d) historical factors, that is, whether the language is the dominant language of the nation or region.
a) Size of users of Arabic Language
As of 2008, Modern Standard Arabic is still one of the world's major languages and is used by at least 200 million native speakers and 21 million non-native users.
National and Regional size of users
The Arabic world consists of 25 countries and territories with an approximate combined population of 358 million people. It covers more than 14 million square kilometres in North and North-East Africa, and South-West Asia called the Middle East. Modern Standard Arab is the official language for Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Western Sahara (largely Moroccan controlled) and Yemen.
The population size and number of native speakers of the Arabic language in their respective nations are as follows:
| 1. |
Egypt |
77,500,000 |
| 2. |
Sudan |
39,154,490 |
| 3. |
Algeria |
34,895,000 |
| 4. |
Morocco |
31,649,000 |
| 5. |
Iraq |
30,747,000 |
| 6. |
Saudi Arabia |
25,721,000 |
| 7. |
Yemen |
23,580,000 |
| 8. |
Syria |
21,906,000 |
| 9. |
Tunisia |
10,327,800 |
| 10. |
Chad |
9,000,000 |
| 11. |
Somalia |
9,133,000 |
| 12. |
Libya |
6,420,000 |
| 13. |
Jordan |
6,316,000 |
| 14. |
Eritrea |
5,073,000 |
| 15. |
United Arab Emirates |
4,599,000 |
| 16. |
Lebanon |
4,224,000 |
| 17. |
Palestinian territories |
4,136,540 |
| 18. |
Mauritania |
3,291,000 |
| 19. |
Kuwait |
2,985,000 |
| 20. |
Oman |
2,845,000 |
| 21. |
Qatar |
1,409,000 |
| 22. |
Djibouti |
864,000 |
| 23. |
Bahrain |
791,000 |
| 24. |
Comoros |
676,000 |
| 25. |
Western Sahara |
513,000 |
(The following list is from George Weber's article "Top Languages: The World's 10 Most Influential Languages" in Language Today (Vol. 2, Dec 1997))
Globally, the total number of Modern Standard Arabic users including non-native users compared to other major languages is as follows:
- Mandarin (1.12 billion users, Native: 1.1 billion, Non-Native: 20 million)
- English (480 million users, Native: 330 million, Non-Native: 150 million)
- Spanish (320 million users, Native: 300 million, Non-Native: 20 million)
- Russian (285 million users, Native: 160 million, Non-Native: 125 million)
- French (265 million users, Native: 75 million, Non-Native: 190 million)
- Hindi/Urdu (250 million users, Native: 250 million, Non-Native: 0 million)
- Arabic (221 million users, Native: 200 million, Non-Native: 21 million)
- Portuguese (188 million users, Native: 160 million, Non-Native: 28 million)
- Bengali (185 million users, Native: 185 million, Non-Native: 0 million)
- Japanese (133 million users, Native: 125 million, Non-Native: 8 million)
- German (109 million users, Native: 100 million, Non-Native: 9 million)
b) Economy
The following is a brief description of the economy in the Arab Region
The successful Arab countries are developing economies with significant export revenues from oil and gas, emerging sale of other raw materials and service sectors.
The significant economic growth in the Arab World is due to tripling of oil and gas prices, between 2001 and 2006 and successful efforts by a few states in diversifying their economies. Examples would be the growth in steel production and telecommunications industry whereby local companies such as Orascom and Etisalat have managed to compete internationally.
Significant difference in wealth and economic conditions exist between the rich oil states (e.g. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar) and poor countries (e.g. Comoros, Mauritania and Djibouti). Arab economic funding is underway to support the poorer regions such as the Sudanese region of Darfur with funds of 500 million dollars and efforts are being made to build several wells in this dry area.
The following are brief descriptions of the economy of the top 2 Arab countries in terms of GDP (Nominal).
Saudi Arabia’s economy ranks 1st among the Arab World and 26th globally just after Austria and Taiwan with Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD $ 369,671 million in 2009. In terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), Saudi Arabia is positioned 22nd in the world with a value of USD $ 593,385 million in 2009. Saudi Arabia’s GDP per Capita (PPP) was USD$ 23,221 with a ranking of 38th in 2009 which is quite an achievement for a country that has a population of about 28 million. All figures provided in this paragraph are from IMF (International Monetary Fund) statistics.
Saudi Arabia is the largest Arab country in the Middle East and its economy is driven from revenues received from petroleum. The oil industry provides 90% of export earnings and makes up for approximately 24% of the world's proven total petroleum reserves which is about 245 billion barrels.
Apart from crude oil production, petroleum refining and petrochemicals; other revenue sources are industrial gases, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda), fertilizer, plastics, metals, cement, construction, commercial ship repair, commercial aircraft repair.
Saudi Arabia imports goods of about USD$86.61 billion based on 2009 estimates. The imports are mainly from US (12%), China (10.4%), Japan (7.6%), Germany (7.3%), South Korea (5.1%), Italy (4.7%), India (4.5%), UK (4%) based on 2008 estimates. Goods imported are mainly machinery, equipment, automobiles, textiles, chemicals and food.
In an effort to diversify the economy, Saudi Arabia is developing six economic cities to increase Saudi Arabia’s per capita income. The first economic city “King Abdullah Economic City” is to be located on the western coast (near al-Rabegh industrial city north to Jeddah) and is to be completed by 2020. The investments are budgeted to be more than $26.6 billion. The new city includes a port which will be the kingdom’s largest. Extending along a coastline of 35 km, the city will boost activities in the finance sector, tourism, education, research and development as well as growth in the pharmaceutical industry, petrochemical industry. The government has also started privatisation initiatives in the area of power and telecommunications since 1999.
The 2 largest cities which is Riyadh (the capital of Saudi Arabia) and Jeddah (where Mecca is located) are projected to contribute $287 billion dollars by the year 2020.
In 2004,Tadawul (the Saudi stock market index) became the biggest stock market in the Middle East when it closed at 4437.58 points with an increase of 110.14% market capital funds in contrast to previous year to total at $157.3 billion (589.93SR billion).
Saudi Arabia became a World Trade Organization member in December 2005.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of fastest growing economies in the world in terms of increasing GDP per capita, human development Index and Energy consumption per capita. United Arab Emirates ranks 2nd among the Arab World and 35th globally just after Thailand and Finland with Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD $ 229,971 million in 2009. In terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), United Arab Emirates is positioned 54th in the world with a value of USD $184,984 million in 2009. United Arab Emirates’ GDP per Capita (PPP) was USD $36,537 with a ranking of 1st in the Arab World and 15th globally in 2009. All figures provided in this paragraph are from IMF (International Monetary Fund) statistics.
The UAE possesses almost 10% of the world’s total reserves with a total estimated proven crude oil reserves of 98 billion barrels and natural gas reserves of 5.2 trillion cubic meters, with the majority of both reserves lying within Abu Dhabi.
Apart from crude oil production, petroleum refining and petrochemicals; other revenue sources are in commercial ship repair, construction materials, boat building, aluminium, cement, fishing, fertilizers, handicrafts and textiles.
The UAE imports goods of about USD$141.1 billion based on 2008 estimates. The imports are mainly from China (12.8%), India (10%), United States (8.7%), Japan (6.1%), Germany (5.9%), United Kingdom (5.3%) and Italy (4.6%) based on 2007 estimates. Goods imported are mainly manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment which accounts for 80% of the total imports and the balance are mainly chemicals and food.
In Dubai (the largest emirate), there are at least 200 factories in the Jebel Ali industrial complex, which caters for a deep-water port facility. This complex is a free trade zone for manufacturing activities; and goods to be trans-shipped or re-exported are entitled to 100% duty exemption. Plans are underway to build the Dubai World Central International Airport, to expand the logistics, manufacturing and hospitality industries. Outside this free trade zone, the UAE presently requires at least 51% local citizen ownership in all businesses operating in the country.
Dubai has begun development in tourism and international finance as new revenue streams. Depending on the foreign investor’s business, Dubai can offer from 55.5% right up to 100% foreign ownership, no withholding tax, freehold land and office space and a tailor-made financial regulatory system comparable to financial centres such as New York, London, Zürich and Singapore. In the finance sector, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority manages approximately $360 billion in overseas investments & an estimated $900 billion in assets.
The UAE is also a member of the World Trade Organization since 10th April 1996 and is a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
The following is a brief description of the economy of the top Arab country in terms of GDP per capita.
Qatar is the richest country in the Arab world and the 3rd richest in the world based on GDP (Nominal) per capita of USD $68, 872 just after Luxembourg and Norway according to 2009 estimates. With a population of only 1.4 million (based on United Nations 2009 estimates), Qatar ranks 60th in the world in terms of Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of USD $83,910 million. In terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), Qatar is positioned 65th in the world with a value of USD $ 94,249 million in 2009. All figures provided in this paragraph are from IMF (International Monetary Fund) statistics.
The bulk of Qatar’s revenue comes from petroleum and natural gas. Proved oil reserves of 15 billion barrels (588,000,000 m³) ensures a supply for 23 years at present output levels. Qatar’s natural gas reserves ranks third globally which is 5% of the world total and exceeds 250 trillion cubic feet or 7000 km³. Huge efforts are underway to exploit, process and export the gas to global markets such as Japan.
Apart from crude oil and gas production and refining and petrochemicals, the other main industries are ammonia, fertilizers, steel reinforcing bars, cement and ship repairs.
Qatar imports goods of about USD$24.96 billion based on 2008 estimates. The imports are mainly from United States (13.3%), Italy (10.8%), Japan (8.9%), France (7.9%), Germany (7.3%), United Kingdom (5.7%), South Korea (5.6%), United Arab Emirates (5.1%), Saudi Arabia (4.3%) based on 2007 estimates. Goods imported are mainly manufactured goods, machinery, transport equipment, chemicals and food.
Qatar is also expanding the industrial sector by developing a variety of heavy, medium and light industries concentrated in three industrial areas: Mesaieed Industrial Area, the new Ras Lattan Industrial City, and the Doha Industrial Area. The developments are near to ports to expedite exports such as petrochemicals, fertilisers and steel.
The Mesaieed (also known as Umm Said) Industrial Area includes a refinery with daily capacity of 50,000 barrels (8,000 m³), a fertilizer plant for urea and ammonia, a steel plant, and a petrochemical plant. European and Japanese firms are the main investors in these industries with joint venture agreements with state-owned Qatar General Petroleum Corporation (QGPC); as these industries require gas for fuel.
The expanding non-hydrocarbons (non oil and gas) sector of the economy is accelerating growth in the IT business. Hence, the government is further developing the IT infrastructure to establish Qatar as a leading knowledge-based economy in the 21st century market. Further development in sophisticated health, education, communications and financial systems will fuel further growth in the IT industry as both public and private companies seek technical services and solutions. Privatisation has begun with new entrants to the Telecom business, such as Vodafone into the fixed line and mobile market.
In order to increase tourism, Qatar has started developing the New Doha International Airport (NDIA) which has a maximum capacity of 24m passengers upon the completion of the first phase in 2012. Development of exhibition space and infrastructure and complementing activities; such as the Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art; promotion of sports tourism and hosting of Asian Games, have continued to draw more tourists from around the world.
As a competitor in the global media market, Qatar has done well in the establishment of the Al Jazeera satellite channel in 1996 which operates in both Arabic and English and maintaining a high degree of press freedom. Al Jazeera’s has also moved into the mobile and online media market to increase its revenue and networks.
According to the World Bank, the listed companies in Qatar’s stock market were all valued at $95,487 million in 2007.
c) Politics
The Arab League which was founded in Cairo in 1945 to deal with political, economic, cultural, and social issues within member states. Apart from promoting economic integration among member states, the Arab league plays an important role in formulating and maintaining school curricula, preserving Arabic manuscripts and Arab cultural heritage. The Arab League has embarked upon literacy campaigns, and reproduced intellectual works, and translated modern technical terminology for the use of member states.
The prominent economic organisations in the Arab World are the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which involves Persian Gulf states; and the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA) which involves the North African States. The GCC deals in economic issues such as free trade and easier inter country investments and single currency issues among member states. The UMA's main objective is to establish economic and political unity in North Africa. Its achievement included the construction of a 7000 km highway across North Africa from Mauritania to Libya's border with Egypt benefiting Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
d) Historical Factors
Historically, Classical Arabic emerged during the 7th to 9th century and is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) became the direct descendent of Classical Arabic which is used today throughout the Arab World for writing and formal conversations or speeches such as radio broadcasts, conferences and business meetings.
After the rise of Islam, Classical Arabic (where Modern Standard Arabic has the same grammar and slight difference) is backed by the religious authority of the Qur’an. Unlike most other languages, the Arabic language is preserved in the writing and reading of the Qur’an and is inseparable from the lives of the Arabic people.
The importance of Arabic language became more valuable and attractive to learn since the Islamic Golden Age when the Arab world became an intellectual centre for science, philosophy, medicine and education. A major "House of Wisdom" (بيت الحكمة) was established in Baghdad by the Abbasid Caliphate (Islamic Government) where both Muslim and non-Muslim scholars work towards translating and collating all of the world's knowledge gained from the ancient Mesopotamian, Roman, Chinese, Indian, Persian, Egyptian, North African, Greek and Byzantine civilizations into Arabic.
Many writers have also tapped into this "House of Wisdom" to retranslate the ancient classic works from different parts of the world that were available in Arabic into Latin, Hebrew Turkish and Persian. Other similar centres were also established in Egypt and Al-Andalus; in the parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Septimania governed by Arab and North African Muslims (given the generic name of Moors), at various times in the period between 711 and 1492.
Miscellaneous
Colloquial or Dialectal Arabic is a collective term for the spoken varieties of Arabic.
The major dialect groups are:
- Egyptian Arabic: There are 76 million speakers in Egypt. It is one of the most understood Arabic due to the popularity of Egyptian films and television shows throughout the Arabic speaking world. The dialect in Sudan is closely related to the Egyptian Arabic.
- Gulf Arabic: There are 34 million speakers in Arab states of the Persian Gulf and eastern Saudi Arabia.
- Iraqi Arabic: There are 29 million speakers in Iraq. The dialect in Iran, Syria, and Turkey are closely related to Iraqi Arabic.
- North Mesopotamian Arabic: There are 7 million speakers in northern Iraq, Northern Syria and Southern Turkey.
- Levantine Arabic (also known as Mediterranean Arabic, includes North Levantine Arabic, South Levantine Arabic, and Cypriot Arabic). There are almost 35 million speakers in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey.
- Maghrebi Arabic ( includes Moroccan Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Algerian Saharan Arabic, Tunisian Arabic, and Libyan Arabic) , There are around 45 million speakers in these regions.
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