Arabic is a language spoken by 290 million people (native speakers) primarily in the Middle East and North Africa. It is an official language of 24 countries, as well as 3 territories which are not fully recognized as states.
It is a member of the Semitic language family, and is related to Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac, Amharic, Tigrinya, and numerous dead languages like Ugaritic, Phonecian, and Akkadian.
Arabic is the language of the Islamic Holy book the Qu`ran, which is considered “pure” Arabic by much of the Arab world. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the language of media, newspapers, and formal presentations, is closely based on the Arabic of the Qu`ran, with very little change aside from updated vocabulary for the modern world.
Arabic spoken dialects, or Amiya, diverged as they developed away from Classical Arabic. They can vary widely from place to place throughout the Arab world, with some dialects not being mutually comprehensible. Native speakers use Modern Standard Arabic as a lingua franca to bridge communication gaps, often blending MSA and their dialect to make it more comprehensible. Many Arabs are not fluent in MSA.
When we include minorities living in the Arab world who speak Arabic as a second language, the number of speakers reaches as high as 420 million. Arabic is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is also the religious language of Muslims around the world.
Arabic is an official language in: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates.
It is also official in these three disputed states:
Somaliland
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic
Palestine
Also see: The language of Egypt