Arabic is a Semitic language with about 221 million speakers in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Cyprus, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Oman, Palestinian West Bank & Gaza, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
There are over 30 different varieties of colloquial Arabic which include:
- Egyptian - spoken by about 50 million people in Egypt and perhaps the most widely understood variety, thanks to the popularity of Egyptian-made films and TV shows.
- Algerian - spoken by about 22 million people in Algeria
- Moroccan/Maghrebi - spoken in Morocco by about 19.5 million people
- Sudanese - spoken in Sudan by about 19 million people
- Saidi - spoken by about 19 million people in Egypt
- North Levantine - spoken in Lebanon and Syria by about 15 million people
- Mesopotamian - spoken by about 14 million people in Iraq, Iran and Syria
- Najdi - spoken in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and Syria by about 10 million people
Arabic Language: History of Its Evolution
