4 Interesting Facts About Arabic

Language Services Direct Team

From the outside, Arabic can seem like a very daunting language to learn, it has a different writing system, many new sounds compared to English and there are multiple varieties to learn. However, its also extremely rewarding and learning this language gives you an immediate connection with anywhere from 300 million to 1.8 billion people around the world in one way or another.

Here are 4 things to note about Arabic to get your language learning journey started:

You already know and use Arabic words all the time

Arabic’s influence on the world’s languages is huge, and the sponge that is the English language has soaked up a wide range of Arabic origin terms including:

• Coffee – originating in modern day Yemen, this plant’s Arabic name is قهوة /Qahwah. As the drink travelled across the globe this turned into Kahveh in Turkish, and then Caffe in Italian, Koffee in Dutch and finally landed as Coffee in English!
• Jumper – coming from the Arabic word جبة /Jubba, which meant a long outer garment with wide sleeves, this travelled to Italy where it became Iuppa, it took a couple of hundred years but it eventually reached English as Jump/Jumper/Jupo which were all words for a Jacket in the 1800s, before becoming the cosy garment we know and love today.
• Magazine – This word comes from the Arabic word for storerooms مخازن/makhaazin. We now use this word in English for publications like Vogue, Time or National Geographic in the sense that they are ‘stores’ of information and articles.

So next time you tell someone you’re going to relax with some coffee and a magazine in your favourite jumper remember you’ve spoken 3 words of Arabic!

Many, many people speak it and use it around the world

The spread of Arabic is huge. Its an official language in 26 countries making it the 3rd most common official language after English and French. It boasts 362 million native speakers across Northern and Saharan Africa and the middle east. Furthermore, as the liturgical language of Islam there are approximately 1.8 billion Muslims across the world with a deep connection to the language. This means that knowing the basics of saying hello in Arabic can help you break the ice from Morocco to Indonesia, from Uzbekistan to Madagascar and with communities across the world.

!nttrw si cbrA tsm woh fo trs si shT ?cntns sht dntsrdnu uoy nC

Were you able to figure out the heading above? How about a slightly clearer version:

Cn you undrstnd ths sntnc? Ths is srt of how mst Arbc is wrttn!

Many people will know that Arabic is written right to left, however one of its other interesting features is that for most writing, short vowel sounds in the middle of words are not written on the page. You might be thinking this would be really difficult to read but if you were able to puzzle out the example above as ‘Can you understand this sentence? This is sort of how most Arabic is written!’ you will quickly see that your brain is pretty good at filling in the gaps based on the context.

Luckily for beginners learning Arabic, there are plenty of materials with all the vowel sounds written, and all the letters that are written have a single sound they represent. This means there’s no learning exceptions, combinations of letters or worrying about silent letters like when trying to read English or French.

It’s built on a root and pattern system

The majority of Arabic words are built on a 3 root letter system, where sets of 3 letters are the building blocks for words centred around a particular idea or meaning. Take a look at some examples below:

When the vowel sounds are changed or other letters are added to these roots we get further meanings:

Now if you see a new word such as: مُرْسِلٌ mursil, you could at the least make an educated guess of its meaning, maybe its ‘package’ or ‘post office’ or ‘sent’? In fact it means ‘sender’, and when you see new words in context you get even more clues about what they are likely to mean. Hopefully this small example has illustrated how useful this system can be in your journey learning Arabic.  

Interested to learn more? 

This barely scratches the surface of all the interesting things about Arabic and its uses in the professional world. At Language Services Direct we offer Arabic classes that are designed to help your team members learn Arabic quickly and effectively. From basic grammar and vocabulary to more advanced business Arabic language skills, we cover a wide range of topics in our sessions. We adapt all our courses to your organisation’s particular requirements and objectives, so get in touch today!