Arabic is one of the most widely spoken language in the world because of the number of countries that have it as a native language and also as a lingua franca of Islam, as the Holy Book of Islam is in Arabic. It is a Semitic language like Hebrew and Amharic, that has evolved in a singular way through time and space. It is the language of daily life of millions of people in the 22 Arab countries and the language of public discourse and communication, both formal and informal, both spoken and written.

It is natural for languages to vary if they are used across a big geographical area. They also vary from situation to situation , from formal, official speeches to talking to the vegetable grocer in the market. When these variations start showing big gaps and fundamental differences, then we start talking about “dialects”, a language within a language. It is interesting to note that these variations have been exaggerated in the case of Arabic. And, we start hearing of and reading about the different Arabic languages and how no two Arabs can understand each other and how the Arabic of print (and even of Qur‘an) has nothing to do with the Arabic used in everyday life !

This against a background where the Arabic spoken and used across the Arab world has kept the fundamental structures and morphology fo the language and only developed minimal differences in vocabulary use and intonation. Is this enough to make a case for “dialect” and “dialects” ? especially that the language used in formal situations (media, literature, education, public address, TV news readers …) , across the Arab world, is exactly the same : it is the Fus-ha language ! Fus-ha does not mean written language as opposite spoken, it does not mean standard as opposite as diverse and local, it does not mean modern as opposite to old. It simply means correct and accurate language, without mistakes. And it happens to be the language of Qur'an !

There is not enough differences between the spoken Arabic in the different parts of the Arab world to make a case for “dialects” and there isn't either enough differences between the spoken Arabic and the Fus-ha Arabic to make a case of written versus spoken, standard versus colloquial. Furthermore, the overall structure of the language has retained itself through time and there is hardly any difference - beyond the use of certain vocabulary - between the Arabic of hundreds of years ago and today. Speaking of classical Arabic and modern Arabic cannot be more meaningless !

As a result of these misconceptions and because little work has been done to spread the language beyond its borders to reach out to foreign learners, the language remains subject of fear amongst learners and matter of Grammar and Morphology amongst teachers. The many learners who suffered at the hands of the Grammar-Translation oriented method, have been deprived of the beauty and simplicity of the Arabic language, while many others, did not survive the experience and dropped out of courses they would have liked to complete.

The Arabic language is living today and is used in all forms of communications. Like all other languages, when they are presented to 2 nd or foreign learners, a choice needs to be made : it is usually the correct, acceptable language and not regional variations. With Arabic, it is the Fus-ha, the language of work, communications, print, media and Religion !

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