Arabic
Language of written communication and of most formal, oral communication for speakers of Arabic dialects from Morocco to Iraq. Among Muslims, Arabic is considered sacred since it is the language through which the Qur'an (Koran) is believed to have been revealed. With the rise of Islam as a dominant religion after AD622, Arabic became the most widespread of the living Semitic languages. Classified as South Central Semitic, Arabic is related to Hebrew, spoken in Israel, and
Amharic, spoken in Ethiopia, as well as to the ancient Semitic languages.
The earliest written inscriptions in Arabic are found in the Arabian Peninsula and date from the early 4th century AD. Today, Arabic is a unifying bond among Arabs, and it is the liturgical language of Muslims in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
Estimated 200,000,000 people use Arabic (or one of its dialects) as their first language.
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