Today is World Arabic Language Day. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established  this event in 2010 “to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six of its official working languages throughout the organization”. On December 18, 1973 the General Assembly approved Arabic as an official UN language. Therefore, December 18 was chosen as the day for the Arabic Language.

There are 27 countries that speak Arabic and have it as an official language: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara), Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen

A few Facts about the Arabic Language:

The number of Arabic speakers around the world is about 420 million, which makes it the sixth most spoken language in the world. The word “Arab” in itself means “nomad”; the language originated from nomadic tribes in the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula. Arabic evolved from Nabataean Aramaic script and has been used since the 4th century CE.  It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Arabic belongs to the “Semitic” group of languages and is closely related to Aramaic.

Arabic Alphabet and how each letter is pronounced

Arabic is a very beautiful and rich language. Arabic poetry is one of the best in the world actually. As for the different dialects, here they are:

On a fun note, check out the video below. Spoiler Alert: It features my 6 year old 😀