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Learn
Arabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related
to and classified alongside other Semitic languages
such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. Learn Arabic
has more speakers than any other language in the
Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than
280 million people as a first language, most of whom
live in the Middle East and North Africa, and by 250
million more as a second language. Arabic has many
different, geographically-distributed spoken
varieties, some of which are mutually
unintelligible. Modern standard Arabic is widely
taught in schools, universities, and used in
workplaces, government and the media.
Modern Standard Learn Arabic derives from Classical
Arabic, the only surviving member of the Old North
Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic
Learn Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century.
Classical Arabic has also been a literary language
and the liturgical language of Islam since its
inception in the 7th century.
Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the
Islamic world. During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a
major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in
science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result,
many European languages have also borrowed many
words from it. Arabic influence is seen in
Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish,
Portuguese, and Sicilian, owing to both the
proximity of European and Arab civilizations and 700
years of Islamic rule in the Iberian peninsula.
Learn
Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages,
including Hebrew, Persian and Syriac in early
centuries, Turkish in medieval times and
contemporary European languages in modern times.
The influence of Learn Arabic has been most important in
Islamic countries. Arabic is a major source of
vocabulary for languages such as Amharic, Baluchi,
Bengali, Berber, Catalan, Cypriot Greek, Gujarati,
Hebrew , Hindustani , Indonesian, Kurdish, Malay,
Marathi, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi,
Rohingya, Sindhi, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog,
Turkish and Urdu as well as other languages in
countries where these languages are spoken. For
example, the Arabic word for book (/kitāb/) has been
borrowed in all the languages listed, with the
exception of Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese which
use the Latin-derived words "libro","llibre" and "livro",
respectively, and Tagalog which uses "aklat", and
Hebrew which uses "sefer". In addition, English has
many Learn Arabic loan words, some directly but most
through the medium of other Mediterranean languages.
Examples of such words include admiral, adobe,
alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline,
almanac, amber, arsenal, assassin, banana, candy,
carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, hazard, jar, jasmine,
lemon, loofah, magazine, mattress, sherbet, sofa,
sugar, sumac, tariff and many other words. Other
languages such as Maltese[9] and Kinubi derive from
Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or
grammar rules.
The terms borrowed range from religious terminology,
academic terms (like Uyghur mentiq "logic"),
economic items (like English sugar) to placeholders
(like Spanish fulano "so-and-so") and everyday
conjunctions (like Hindustani lekin "but", or
Spanish hasta "until"). Most Berber varieties (such
as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow some numbers
from Arabic. Most Islamic religious terms are direct
borrowings from Arabic, such as salat 'prayer' and
imam 'prayer leader.' In languages not directly in
contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are
often transferred indirectly via other languages
rather than being transferred directly from Arabic.
For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani
entered through Persian, and many older Arabic
loanwords in Hausa were borrowed from Kanuri. Some
words in English and other European languages are
derived from Arabic, often through other European
languages, especially Spanish and Italian. Among
them are commonly-used words like "sugar" (sukkar),
"cotton" (quṭn) and "magazine". English words more
recognizably of Learn Arabic origin include "algebra",
"alcohol", "alchemy", "alkali", "zenith" and
"nadir". Some words in common use, such as
"intention" and "information", were originally
calques of Arabic philosophical terms.
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