Arabic is the sixth- most spoken language in the world, with over 200 million speakers. The exact statistics vary, but most listings have Arabic after Mandarin Chinese, English, Spanish, Bengali, and Hindi/Urdu. It remains the largest Semitic language alive in the modern world, and shares its roots with both Aramaic and Hebrew. The spoken dialects of Arabic have differentiated themselves quite substantially over the centuries, so that speakers of say, Moroccan Arabic, may actually find much of Egyptian Arabic to be a mystery. In fact, the difference between some dialects of Arabic may be as great as the differences between Spanish and Portuguese. Thankfully, the official language of every Arab nation is actually the same: classical, or literary Arabic. This is considered by most Arabs to be the only “authentic” Arabic, and is also referred to as FusHa, or Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). This is the Arabic of the Qur’an, and is used in literature, the news media, diplomacy, and of course, religious dialogue.
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