Modern Standard Arabic

Modern Standard Arabic. It is the standardized, literary variety of the Arabic language used in formal writing and speech across the Arab world. Developed from Classical Arabic, the language of the Qur'an and pre-Islamic poetry, it serves as a lingua franca among educated Arabs from Mauritania to Oman. It is the official language of all member states of the Arab League and is used in media, academia, legislation, and international diplomacy.

History and development

The direct descendant of Classical Arabic, its modern form began to crystallize in the 19th and early 20th centuries during the Nahda, or Arab cultural renaissance. Intellectuals like Rifa'a al-Tahtawi and Butrus al-Bustani worked to adapt the classical language to modern needs, coining new vocabulary for concepts encountered through contact with Europe. The establishment of language academies, most notably the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo in 1932, institutionalized its standardization, aiming to preserve its integrity while facilitating its use in contemporary contexts such as the United Nations.

Linguistic features

Its phonology is largely consistent with that of its classical predecessor, maintaining distinctive sounds like the pharyngeal consonants. The grammar retains the complex morphological system based on trilateral roots and non-concatenative patterns. While its syntax is fundamentally that of Classical Arabic, modern journalistic and academic styles show influence from English and French in sentence structure. Its lexicon has expanded significantly through systematic derivation from existing roots and borrowing, with technical terms often coined by bodies like the Arabic Language International Council in Khartoum.

Usage and status

It is the primary language of all formal written communication, including newspapers like Al-Ahram, official documents of governments such as Saudi Arabia, and scholarly publications. It is the medium of instruction in universities across the Arab world and the language of news broadcasts on major networks like Al Jazeera and BBC Arabic. While not used for daily conversation, it is employed in formal speeches by figures like the President of Egypt, religious sermons, and cross-dialect communication among educated speakers from different regions like Morocco and Kuwait.

Relationship to other varieties

It exists in a state of diglossia alongside the many colloquial varieties of Arabic, such as Egyptian Arabic and Levantine Arabic. These spoken dialects, used in everyday life, can differ significantly in phonology, lexicon, and grammar. All dialects, however, derive historically from Classical Arabic and share a fundamental grammatical core. The relationship is often compared to that between Latin and the Romance languages, though the continued prestige and use of the standard form is far more vigorous.

Education and acquisition

It is not a native language but is acquired through formal education, beginning in primary school in countries like Jordan and Tunisia. Mastery is a key goal of education systems, emphasized through the study of grammar and the literature of the Abbasid Caliphate. For non-native speakers, it is taught worldwide in institutions such as the Defense Language Institute in the United States and the University of Damascus. Resources like the textbooks of the American University of Beirut are standard, and proficiency is often measured by tests like the Arabic Proficiency Test.

Category:Arabic language Category:Standard languages Category:Languages of Africa Category:Languages of Asia