If you’ve decided to learn Arabic online or in a classroom, you may have noticed that there seems to be a lot of regional dialects within the language. Many Arabic-speaking countries speak different variants of the Arabic language. This is especially true in both Egypt and Lebanon. As a result, if you’re planning on traveling to one of these two countries for business or pleasure, you may want to learn the Arabic dialects of these countries. This means you can learn Egyptian or Levantine Arabic, as learning these dialects can be very useful for you.


Before you decide which dialect to study, you may be wondering to yourself: “What’s the difference between the two?”
Well, you’re in luck because that’s the subject of today’s article – the Egyptian Arabic versus the Levantine Arabic.
Let’s start with Egyptian Arabic


Egyptian Arabic


It’s the national language of Egypt and 52 million people who call Egypt home speak it. However, many other Arabic-speaking countries have adopted Egyptian Arabic as their second language. This includes Libya, Yemen, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates. This means that there could actually be a total of 54 million people who speak Egyptian Arabic around the world. This could be because of the Egyptian film industry and music. The “Hollywood on the Nile” produced over 3,000 films since the early 1920s.


Levantine Arabic


Levantine Arabic is the dialect of over 20 million people in the Levant region of the Middle East. It includes Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan. It is not, however, an official language of any of these countries. Rather, it is the dialect of casual conversations between friends and family, at the office, or around communities.


Differences Between the Two Dialects


Levantine Arabic has been influenced by several other languages including French, Hebrew, Greek and English. The most noticeable difference between the two dialects is that with Levantine Arabic the vowels and some affixes are commonly brought together. In other cases, the feminine and masculine gender is sometimes used in first, second and third-person usage, but that not always the case.


Should You Learn Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic or Both?

Certainly, if you’re sure of the area in which you’ll be visiting or living, you’ll need to learn the dialect that will be spoken in that area. After all, you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you chose to learn to speak Arabic, but the people around you are speaking a different dialect. You’d be missing out on a great experience, to say the least! However, there’s no reason you can’t learn another dialect that might be handy as well.

For example, when I lived in Amman, Jordan, I learned the Levantine dialect; however, I met many Egyptians who worked in some of the local restaurants and mini-markets in my neighborhood. I got to know almost all of them and learned some of the Egyptian dialect; as a result, I added both another level to my Arabic language learning and gained some great friends in the process.

Learning any language is fun and interesting and the Kaleela Arabic learning app is the best way to learn Arabic in a fun and interesting way. Whether you’re learning Arabic for beginners and want to learn basic Arabic words for now, or you’ve been studying the language for a while and want to learn another of the Arabic dialects, the Kaleela Arabic language learning app is the leader in all Arabic language learning apps in meeting all of your Arabic language learning needs. Download it today from kaleela.com.

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