Local name: العربية (ʾal-ʿarabíyya)
Language family: Afro-Asiatic > Semitic > West Semitic > Central Semitic > Arabic
Native speakers: ~ 206 millions [all sublanguages] (Ethnologue.com, 1999)
Script: Arabic alphabet
Official in: Mauretania, West Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria
Spoken mostly in: Above-mentioned states in North Africa and the Middle East, Iran (esp. Khuzestan)

‘Arabic’ in its written form normally refers to the classical Qur’ān Arabic or the unifying Modern Standard Arabic, which is used a language of instruction and by many media throughout the Arab states. The spoken (and sometimes written) varieties of Arabic used in everyday life do however differ enough, both from Modern Standard Arabic and from each other, to speak about different sub-languages under the Arabic macro-language umbrella.

Being the language of the Qur’ān (the holy book of Islam), Arabic has had, and still has, a great impact on languages spoken by Muslims, like Persian, Indonesian, Urdu, Bosnian, Turkish and many others.

Modern Standard Arabic: “Rīḥu ʾš-šimāl wa-ʾš-šams”
Speaker: Dlovan Age at recording: 34 (2006) Transcription scheme: DIN 31635

ريح الشمال والشمس كانتا تتنافسان حول من منهما كانت الٲقوی.
وحينئذ جاء رجل لابساً معطفاً دافئاً.
فأتفقتا علی إن من تستطيع ٲن تقنع الرجل بأن ينزع معطفه ٲولاً فهي الٲقوی.

ريح الشمال بدأت تنفخ بكلِّ قوتها لكنَّ الرجل بدأ يلفُّ حوله معطفه بقوة أشدّ، إلی ٲن إنسحبت ريح الشمال.
وعندها بدأت الشمس تشرق بقوة إلی ٲن اجبرت الرجل علی ٲن ينزع معطفه.
 وعندها ٲدركت ريح الشمال بأان الشمس هي الأقوی.

rīḥu ʾš-šimāli wa-ʾš-šams kānatā tatanāfasāni ḥawla man minhuma kānat ʾal-ʾaqwā.
wa-ḥinaʾiḏin ǧāʾa raǧulun lābisan miʿṭafan dāfiʾan.
faʾittafaqatā ʿalā ʾinna man tastaṭīʾu ʾan toqniʾa ʾr-raǧul bi-ʾan yanzaʾa miʿṭafahu ʾawwalan fahíyya ʾl-ʾaqwā.
rīḥu ʾš-šimāli badaʾat tanfuḫu bi-kulli quwwatihā lakinna ʾr-raǧulu badaʾa yaluffu ḥawlahu miʿṭafahu bi-quwatin ʾašadd, ʾilā ʾan ʾinsaḥabat rīḥu ʾš-šimāl.
wa-ʿindahā badaʾat ʾaš-šamsu tašruqu bi-quwwa ʾilā ʾan ʾajbarat ʾar-raǧula ʿalā ʾan yanzaʿ miʿṭafahu.
wa-ʿindahā ʾadrakat rīḥu ʾš-šimāl biʾana ʾš-šamsa hiya ʾl-ʾaqwā.