ARABIC

Facts

Arabic is the official language in 25 countries in the Middle East and North Africa and there are estimated to be as many as 420 million native speakers and up to 245 million non-native speakers. Whilst the written language is standard (Modern Standard Arabic), spoken Arabic is divided into 5 major dialect groups – Egyptian, Mahgrebi, Levantine, Gulf and Iraqi. The use of Arabic represents 1.6% of global commerce and 0.9% of the Internet community and therefore it is not a yet major language of commerce.

Features

Arabic is written from right to left and there are several styles of script, including Naskh, which is used in print and by computers and Ruq’ah, which is commonly used in handwriting.