The History
A widely-known language, Arabic has proven itself around the globe. It is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Alongside Hebrew, Aramaic, and Phoenician, it belongs to a family called the Central Semitic language family. It is widely believed that Arabic came from the Arabian Peninsula’s deserts. It started then and continued until now untouched.
Unlike English, the language made almost no changes to its syntactic system. Instead, it added more vocabulary items to suit the day and age. The Middle East and North Africa region, otherwise known as the MENA region, is where most Arabic is spoken. This is because they are all Arabic-speaking countries.
Do they all speak the same? Not when they are speaking in colloquial Arabic. There are two types of Arabic: Formal /Fosha/ and informal /A’miah/. The informal one differs from on country to the next. It even differs from one area to the next in the same country. These differences are highlighted within the different tribes. This is how a foreigner is immediately recognized. Imagine a New-Yorker coming to Texas and trying to fit in, kind of situation.
Arabic Speaking Countries
It is not difficult to find out how many people speak Arabic if we look at an Arabic speaking countries map. Below we have a list for you. We cannot determine the top three Arabic speaking countries.
But we can place a list by population, GDP, or number of speakers per dialect.
Here is a list according to GDP:
| Country | GDP (billions of USD) |
|---|---|
| Saudi Country Arabia | 686.73 |
| United Arab Emirates | 382.57 |
| Egypt | 235.36 |
| Iraq | 192.06 |
| Algeria | 167.55 |
| Qatar | 166.92 |
| Kuwait | 120.12 |
| Sudan | 117.48 |
| Morocco | 109.70 |
| Oman | 70.78 |
| Lebanon | 53.57 |
| Jordan | 40.06 |
| Tunisia | 39.95 |
| Libya | 38.10 |
| Bahrain | 35.43 |
| Yemen | 31.26 |
| Syria | 15.18 |
| Palestine | 14.49 |
| Mauritania | 5.02 |
According to population:
| Country | Population |
|---|---|
| Egypt | 97,553,151 |
| Algeria | 41,318,142 |
| Sudan | 40,533,330 |
| Iraq | 38,274,618 |
| Morocco | 35,739,580 |
| Saudi Arabia | 32,938,213 |
| Yemen | 28,250,420 |
| Syria | 18,269,8680 |
| Tunisia | 11,532,127 |
| Jordan | 9,702,353 |
| United Arab Emirates | 9,400,145 |
| Libya | 6,374,616 |
| Lebanon | 6,082,357 |
| Palestine | 4,920,724 |
| Oman | 4,636,262 |
| Mauritania | 4,420,184 |
| Kuwait | 4,136,528 |
| Qatar | 2,639,211 |
| Bahrain | 1,492,584 |
There are a number of countries that recognize Arabic as a major language. This could be because it is an accepted official language alongside the other official language. The reason is that there are Arab communities in these countries. In both cases, the Arabic language is not the main official language and is usually for a minority.
Take a look at these countries here.
| Country | GDP (billions USD) | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Chad | 9.87 | 14,899,994 |
| Comoros | 1.06 | 813,912 |
| Djibouti | 1.84 | 956,985 |
| Eritrea | 5.81 | 5,068,831 |
| Israel | 353.26 | 8,321,570 |
| Somalia | 2.37 | 14,742,523 |
| South Sudan | 2.94 | 12,575,714 |
Are there non-Arabic speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa region? The answer is yes. Turkey, Iran, and Occupied Palestinian Territories do not speak any Arabic. But they do have Arabic-speaking people living there of course.
It is always good to learn Arabic as this is an important language due to its large number of speakers. Arab countries in Arabic are another option to take on. The proper pronunciation of these countries may take time but will be an asset for your Arabic learning journey.
Here is an Arabic speaking countries map which will help you see things more clearly.
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