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“In 10th-century Baghdad, readers of Arabic had about the same degree of access to Aristotle that readers of English do today. This was thanks to a well-funded translation movement that unfolded during the Abbasid caliphate, beginning in the second half of the eighth century.” <https://aeon.co/ideas/arabic-translators-did-far-more-than-just-preserve-greek-philosophy> <!-- Template:Unsigned --><small class="autosigned">—&nbsp;Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Gghosn|Gghosn]] ([[User talk:Gghosn#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Gghosn|contribs]]) 16:43, 18 April 2017 (UTC)</small> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->
“In 10th-century Baghdad, readers of Arabic had about the same degree of access to Aristotle that readers of English do today. This was thanks to a well-funded translation movement that unfolded during the Abbasid caliphate, beginning in the second half of the eighth century.” <https://aeon.co/ideas/arabic-translators-did-far-more-than-just-preserve-greek-philosophy> <!-- Template:Unsigned --><small class="autosigned">—&nbsp;Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[User:Gghosn|Gghosn]] ([[User talk:Gghosn#top|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/Gghosn|contribs]]) 16:43, 18 April 2017 (UTC)</small> <!--Autosigned by SineBot-->

== Arabic influence on Classical Greek and Latin ==

I deleted from the main section: "Many words of Arabic origin are also found in ancient languages like Latin and Greek." Here is why. Classical Greek is typically dated as ending in 323BC, a rather abstract year I know but it's the year of the death of Alexander, and the beginning of the successor kingdoms, anyhow... So this period starts up Koine Greek which is a simplified version of Classical Greek. Classical Latin ended, again another arbitrary but used date, mid 3rd century AD during the Crisis of the Third Century. Now then the Classical Arabic started showing up in the 5th century AD. So, I'm not saying that Arabic did not influence Classical Latin, and Greek, but with a time period differential of roughly 723 years in the case of the Classical Greek, I think a citation should be used before an assertion such as that is used. Now I really don't want this to devolve in to an argument on timelines, because the basic idea stands true. If this were an article on Aramaic, which cited Koine instead of Classical Greek I'd be all for it, but as is for this assertion there needs to be a citation or a change of terminology. [[Special:Contributions/85.57.175.24|85.57.175.24]] ([[User talk:85.57.175.24|talk]]) 20:21, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Revision as of 20:21, 26 April 2017

Template:Vital article

The first paragraph

1, The structure of the first sentence is: "X is the classical X language ..." There must be something wrong with defining a term using the term itself. May I suggest "The Arabic language is a classical language from ..." (or something along these lines).

2, The title of the page is “Arabic language” not just “Arabic.” Surely the term “Arabic” has a wider meaning, (e.g. Arabic Culture/Architecture/Science/etc.) rather than just a language. So why not simply define the term "Arabic language"?

3, The phrase: "Arabic is spoken in a wide arc" must be confusing to some. This is trying to say the language is spoken in a geographically contiguous linear region (which I admit is somewhat clumsy), but perhaps "geographic arc" would be a helpful refinement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.100.23.163 (talk) 14:59, 8 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

sir i have supper market.my shop coming terrorist group attack me.Now who help me???pleass kindly answer SHIPON234 (talk) 00:50, 7 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

sir i have full video.pleass help me.my no :0545025494 SHIPON234 (talk) 00:52, 7 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Greek cypriot? what the hell.

arabic has no influence on greek cypriot what so ever. greek cypriot is a kinde of greek slang. if ever turkish cypriot has influences of arabic. get it right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.22.120.89 (talk • contribs) 12:51, 6 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Section on history of Arabic

Is Arabic 4th C? earliest records of mention to Arabic as a language? --Inayity (talk) 16:05, 19 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

See Classical Arabic#History. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 23:52, 28 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
I've now incorporated the relevant content from there into this article and tried to harmonise conflicting statements. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 01:32, 29 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Arabic is an ancient language early evidence shows that Arabic was mention by the sumerians around 3,800 bc they were known as the Urapi there for Is much older than 4th centuary.ArabAmazigh12 (talk) 19:02, 10 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

422 million

"If Arabic is considered a single language, it perhaps is spoken by as many as 422 million speakers in the Arab world". That's wrong and that's propaganda, 422 million is the total population of all countries with Arab as official or official among other languages. It has to be compared with French-speaking countries (443 million total population but far from all of them master French) and Spanish-speaking (468 million). — Preceding unsigned comment added by Loup Solitaire 81 (talk • contribs) 12:23, 7 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

This article is not accurate

Much of the history is written with bias of Islamic invasions into subcontinent.

No one in India speaks Arabic.

The history of Avestan and Old Persian are not accounted for.

Arabic did not "heavily influence the Indian languages." There are no citations to prove these languages it 'influenced.' e Arabic script was borrowed from Avestan - Old Persian. Avestan and Persian influenced Arabic language.

These are ancient languages, much older than Arabic. Please Wiki do some fact finding. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.79.10.138 (talk) 12:31, 11 March 2014 (UTC) The arabic script is from المسند which is a Yemeni script that exicted before Islam, and what does "older than arabic" means? you think arabs couldn't speak till later? get your facts right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.184.111.60 (talk) 19:34, 24 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Wrong and stop spreading propaganda, Arabic did not borrow from Avestan since Avestan never had a native script. Old Persian and Avestan used old semitic script.Akmal94 (talk) 09:48, 26 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if you're even Indian? Just chill and watch a Bollywood movie, you'll soon realize many Hindi words are borrowed from Arabic indirectly via Persian. 210.19.13.194 (talk) 04:16, 12 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation of "jim"

The article states that the letter "jim" has several "standard pronunciations". I don't disagree with this, but it is safe to say that [dʒ] is considered the "most standard" of them. This means that speakers from anywhere in the Arab world may use either their respective dialectal sound or [dʒ] when speaking standard Arabic. So an Egyptian would pronounce the word jamîl as [gamiːl] or [dʒamiːl], but never [ʒamiːl]. And a Lebanese would pronounce [ʒamiːl] or [dʒamiːl], but never [gamiːl]. This means that [dʒ] is the only supraregionally accepted pronunciation of the letter. I think this should be clarified. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.206.162.155 (talk) 19:26, 3 April 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Proofreading necessary

Quite apart from any dispute on the reliability of the content, this page needs quite a lot of simple proofreading. I have tried to edit about a fifth of the article, but its length has put me off doing more for the moment. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Milton999 (talk • contribs) 18:05, 21 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]


\

The quran

(The Quran was revealed to Muhammad in 632 CE, but it was nearly a century before it was written down, during the reign of the Caliph Uthman) Uthamn died in 656!

Quranic verses were already written down during Muhammad's lifetime as the verses were revealed on separate occasions. The Quran as a single book/manuscript was compiled during Abu Bakr. Uthman standardized the variant manuscripts into one. All this happened within 20 years of Muhammad's death. 210.19.13.194 (talk) 04:23, 12 January 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Actual numbers for Afroasiatic speakers

Berber Branch

14 million Atlas languages 5 million Kabyle language 1.5 million Riffian language 1.4 million Shawiya language 1.2 million Tuareg languages 180,000 Nafusi language 30,000 Siwi language 12,000 Ghadamès language 10,000 Ghomara language 5,600 Sokna language 3,000 Awjila language 2,100 Zenaga language

Total = 23,342,700

Chadic Branch

55 million Hausa language 400,000 Ngas language 300,000 Kamwe language 300,000 Mwaghavul language 250,000 Bade language 230,000 Massa language 230,000 Musey language 200,000 Goemai language 200,000 Gera language 150,000 Azumeina language 150,000 Karekare language 130,000 Tangale language 120,000 Ron language 110,000 Kofyar language 100,000 Bole language 25,000 Tumak language 81,000 Nancere language 80,000 Ngizim language 78,000 Warji language 60,000 Dangaléat language 60,000 Ngamo language 50,000 Kera language 50,000 Ngeté-Herdé language 50,000 Saya language 50,000 Boghom language 35,000 Mubi language 35,000 Peve language 34,000 Gabri language 30,000 Tobanga language 30,000 Miya language 27,000 Gwandara language 26,000 Lele language (Chad) 26,000 Fyer language 25,700 Masmaje language 25,000 Galambu language 25,000 Pero language 22,000 Montol language 22,000 Polci language 20,700 Zari language 20,000 Kimré language 20,000 Mesme language 20,000 Migaama language 20,000 Kanakuru language 18,000 Kabalai language 17,000 Kwang language 17,000 Jorto language 17,000 Pyapun language 16,000 Kulere language 15,000 Guruntum language 14,000 Bidiyo language 14,000 Giiwo language 14,000 Yiwom language 12,000 Mokilko language 12,000 Mburku language 11,000 Kushi language 11,000 Ɗuwai language 10,400 Birgit language 10,000 Kajakse language 10,000 Maaka language 10,000 Kwaami language 10,000 Tal language 9,000 Geruma language 8,800 Dass language 8,500 Toram language 8,000 Pa'a language 7,400 Somrai language 7,200 Diri language 7,000 Mogum language 6,500 Ndam language 6,000 Deno language 6,000 Miship language 6,000 Geji language 5,000 Mire language 5,000 Piya language 5,000 Cakfem-Mushere language 3,800 Siri language 3,100 Kir-Balar language 3,000 Koenoem language 3,000 Kutto language 3,000 Tambas language 3,000 Sha language 2,500 Kholok language 2,500 Gadang language 2,200 Zirenkel language 2,000 Sarua language 2,000 Ciwogai language 2,000 Kariya language 2,000 Zumbun language 1,500 Jonkor language 1,300 Jelkung language 1,100 Ubi language 1,000 Kujargé language 1,000 Tala language 1,000 Mundat language 1,000 Jimi language (Nigeria) 250 Miltu language 100 Boor language 40 Buso language 3 Mabire language

Total = 59,263,943

Cushitic Branch

17 million Somali language 4.5 million Eastern Oromo language 3.9 million Southern Oromo language 3 million Sidamo language 1.9 million Maay language 1.4 million Afar language 1.2 million Beja language 980,000 Gedeo language 890,000 Kambaata language 490,000 Awngi language 460,000 Iraqw language 280,000 Alaba-K’abeena language 250,000 Hadiyya language 240,000 Konso language 220,000 Saho language 210,000 Xamtanga language 91,000 Bilen language 70,000 Burji language 69,000 Gawwada language 66,000 Orma language 65,000 Dirasha language 60,000 Daasanach language 60,000 Rendille language 59,000 Libido language 58,000 Garre language 23,000 Tunni language 23,000 Dabarre language 22,000 Jiiddu language 18,000 Tsamai language 18,000 Bussa language 13,000 Waata language 8,000 Aweer language 7,200 Arbore language 5,500 Baiso language 1,700 Qimant language 1,500 Dobase language 400 Dahalo language 12 Ongota language 8 El Molo language

Total = 37,659,320

Egyptian Branch

? Coptic Language

Total = ?

Omotic Branch

2 million Gamo-Gofa-Dawro language 1.6 million Wolaytta language 830,000 Kafa language 350,000 Bench language 240,000 Aari language 160,000 Koore language 95,000 Maale language 93,000 Basketo language 92,000 Yem language 80,000 Shakacho language 74,000 Hamer language 56,000 Gayil language 39,000 Sheko language 38,000 Shinasha language 37,000 Oyda language 34,000 Dizin language 30,900 Dorze language 20,000 Melo language 19,000 Zayse-Zergulla language 13,000 Chara language 7,200 Nayi language 5,000 Bambassi language 3,000 Hozo language 3,000 Seze language 3,000 Ganza language 2,800 Kachama-Ganjule language 570 Dime language 500 Anfillo language

Total = 5,925,970

Semitic Branch

357-397 million Arabic language 25 million Amharic language 25 million Oromo language 7 million Hebrew language 7 million Tigrinya language 1 million Tigre language 940,000 Silt'e language 550,000 Aramaic language 440,000 Sebat Bet Gurage language 280,000 Inor language 260,000 Soddo language 200,000 Mesqan language 120,000 Mehri language 120,000 Harari language 90,000 Muher language 64,000 Soqotri language 44,000 Argobba language 25,000 Shehri language 4,900 Zay language 3,000 Dahalik language 600 Harsusi language 200 Bathari language 100 Hobyót language

Total = 425-465 million

Absolute Total = 551-591 million speakers 166.147.72.157 (talk) 18:17, 26 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Muslim speakers?

In the article I read: "Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslim speakers." Am I right in thinking that what is meant here is: "Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslims."?Redav (talk) 21:40, 25 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

/d/ mentioned twice

In the article I read "While the Nabatean alphabet and writing system met a great deal of the needs, it did not provide letters or symbols for /t/, /d/, /h/, /g/, /z/ and /d/, which were not represented by Aramaic script." "/d/ is mentioned twice. Is /ð/ and / or /dˤ/ and / or /ðˤ/ meant (as well)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Redav (talk • contribs) 22:13, 25 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The Quran was written down in a way that reflected the pronunciation of the western dialect of Mecca. Scholars from lower Iraq eventually attempted to reclaim the Quran and have it written to reflect their accent and dialect. this phrase need to be revised — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.141.65.50 (talk) 00:28, 11 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Anders Arabic?

Unable to find any sourcing anywhere on the web about arabic spoken in Anderska, Serbia. Also unable to locate Anderska or any information about it.

اللغة المروية القديمة رموز لم تكتشف بعد

صورة للغة المروية القديمة

اثريون سودانيون

'تعد اللغة المروية القديمة من أقدم اللغات المكتوبة على وجه الأرض سوى أن رموزها لم تفك بعد، حيث يرى المؤمنون بنطرية المؤامرةأن وراءعدم فك رموزها مؤامرة من الآثاريين المصريين والأجانب المتواطئين معهم لتظل الآثار السودانية مغمورة ومجهولة ولا قيمة لها، لكني أظن أن البحوث ما تزال جارية لكنها لم تصل بعد للنهاية فكل اللغات القديمة استغرق الكشف عنها وقتا طويلا فاللغة الهيروغليفية مثلا صمدت لثلاث ألفيات! فما أن توصل شامبليون الى المفتاح من اللغة القبطية القديمة التي كانت تنطق ولا تكتب حتى تيسرت له الترجمة... سادت «مملكة مروي» ما بين 2500 ق. م. إلى القرن الخامس الميلادي، معاصرة للحضارة المصرية القديمة، وامتدت من الأقصر، جنوب مصر الى وسط السودان حول حوض النيل. لكن بعض المؤرخين يرون أن الحضارة المصرية، سبقت الحضارة المروية في تدوين أو كتابة اللغة بفترة طويلة، ويستدلون على هذا بأن ملك مروى الشهير ترهاقا الذي غزا مصر في القرن السابع ق.م. كتب واصفا غزواته وانتصاراته باللغة الهيروغليفية، إلا أنه في القرن الثاني ق.م. بدأت كتابة اللغة المروية. وتعود أول محاولة للعلماء الغربيين لمعرفة اللغة المروية القديمة إلى أكثر من 150 عاما، أي بعد وقت قصير من النجاح في الكشف عن اللغة المصرية القديمة. لكن العلماء فوجئوا بأن اللغة المروية هي لغة معقدة ومختلفة تماما عن اللغة المصرية القديمة التي تلجأ الى التصوير أو الرسم لطائر أو عين إلخ، بينما اللغة المروية صغيرة الحجم وشبيهة بالأرقام وتبدأ من اليمين للشمال، وبها حروف صغيرة وأخرى كبيرة «كالإنجليزية». وفي العام 1911 توصل عالم المصريات البريطاني جريفث الى معرفة نطق أو قراءة اللغة المروية، ولكن دون فهم معانيها. والانجاز الذي أعلن عنه مؤخراً في الخرطوم، هو نجاح العلماء الآن، في ترجمة 100 كلمة تتضمن 40 حرفا أساسيا، وإن لم يتوصلوا بعد الى معرفة كل مفردات اللغة المروية

Ethnologue list

@Kwamikagami: Your justification for deleting the Ethnologue list of dialects is that they were already in the varieties of Arabic article, but by analogy, German language has the full list while the dialects are covered in German dialects. The same for Chinese language - Chinese dialects. Why should your edits be selectively opinionated? --Mahmudmasri (talk) 01:32, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

WP:OTHERSTUFF. Perhaps the others should be reduced. Since it's such a lot of info that's not covered in the article (as info boxes are supposed to), perhaps we should discuss it first.
More important is the atrocious writing, which is an embarrassment for such an important language. — kwami (talk) 01:37, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
What you referred to as "atrocious writing" isn't valid in that discussion, since the revert I referred to was about deleting the list. Still, you are opinionated when it comes to when to add the list of dialects and why not for Arabic but OK for other languages? --Mahmudmasri (talk) 01:47, 6 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Ibid. — kwami (talk) 20:49, 7 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Inaccuracies

"Many words of Arabic origin are also found in ancient languages like Latin and Greek". This assertion appears in the opening section, but is not borne out in the detailed sections that follow. It's also unsourced and blatantly untrue.

In the section "Influence of Arabic on other languages", it is asserted without source that "Arabic is also an important source of vocabulary for languages such as ... Bosnian, Catalan, English, French, German, ... Italian, ..." (my emphasis). In all of the languages listed here, Arabic is a minor source of vocabulary. Certainly not a major/important one. 88.151.31.65 (talk) 16:10, 11 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation of Kaf in Palestinian Arabic

The Rural variant of Palestinian Arabic does indeed use "tʃ" instead of "k" but not in all words. The examples "ktaab" and "maktabeh", "book" and "library" respectively, in the table are pronounced with a normal Kaf, not "tʃtaab" or "matʃtabeh". Those sentences should be corrected. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.79.9.50 (talk) 23:32, 12 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Root and etymology

Why no section about the root or the etymology of the words ʻarabiyyah and ʻarabī? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.79.48.1 (talk) 02:02, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

See Arab (etymology) for etymology information. Perhaps information could be given in this article, but at the moment this article is way too long and disorganized... — Eru·tuon 02:43, 4 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Moroccan Arabic official?

In the lead, the article claims that "Moroccan Arabic was official in Morocco for some time, before the country joined the Arab League". No source is given (I put the "Citation needed" tag). It's quite hard to imagine how it could have been official - Morocco joined the Arab League in 1958, two years after achieving independence (1956), and its first Constitution was written in 1962. There is no indication at all that Moroccan Arabic was "official" during the French Protectorate either (although booklets to teach it to French-speaking people certainly existed). I've had a quick look at the documents signed during the process of achieving independence (http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/constit/ma1956.htm) and as far as I can see, no mention is made to language. So if somebody can dig out some document between 1956 and 1958 that mentions Moroccan Arabic, that would be really great, but unless somebody can, the claim should probably go. Ilyacadiz (talk) 20:13, 15 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Era

An IP user (104.153.42.105) changed the date format from BC–AD to BCE–CE, saying it's culturally neutral. I reverted the date change, because WP:ERA says there needs to be a discussion before date format is changed. So, IP user, please give your reasoning, and let others say if they would prefer to keep BC/AD. — Eru·tuon 03:46, 15 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Classification of Safaitic and Hismaic

@Taivo: @Kwamikagami: @AnonMoos:

@Zimriel: has changed several articles to state al-Jallad's (2015) view that Safaitic and Hismaic are direct precursors of Arabic as fact, point-blank. (This has been reverted in the meanwhile.) Regardless whether this conclusion is true or not (which doesn't matter anyway: recall that Wikipedia is about verifiability, not truth), it is unacceptable and recentist to take a single scholar's new proposal and treat it as gospel already. It's completely OK to mention serious new proposals – for all I care al-Jallad's argument may have merit, be 100% serious and even headed on its way to consensus –, but it goes overboard to promote them as fact before the print has even dried. (Zimriel's ridiculous accusation on my talk page that I'm a fundamentalist Muslim only because I don't fall over myself to accept every new hypothesis about the origin of the Arabic language as fact has to be one of the more blatant violations of WP:AGF I've had to endure lately, so far I'm left to wonder if Zimriel is a troll. Maybe cut down on the rhetorics and verbal aggression a bit?) --Florian Blaschke (talk) 19:42, 26 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]

We determine noteworthiness partly by the quality of publication (e.g. a peer-reviewed journal in the appropriate field) and partly by how the proposal is reviewed in subsequent publications and secondary sources. If al-Jallad has made a convincing case, we'll know soon enough. — kwami (talk) 20:16, 26 June 2015 (UTC)[reply]
All I know about these is what's in the "Ancient North Arabian" article in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages (ISBN 0-521-56256-2), but it seems that Safaitic has an h- prefix article (not al-) while Hismaic inscriptions contain little beyond names, so it doesn't sound promising... AnonMoos (talk) 06:35, 2 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Arabic Native speakers

There Are 480 million arabs worldwide including those of arab descent in Pakistan afganistan so on the total speaker population it says 340 million but it should be 420 million you must include them and include the berbers because 99% of berbers speak Arabic therefore they should be included you cant subtract them out its like subtract all English speakers cause of there ethnic orgins that's called a propagandist ideology that's vandalism.ArabAmazigh12 (talk) 19:15, 10 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 15 July 2015

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Move. We have a consensus that this is both the WP:COMMONNAME for the language and that the language is the WP:PRIMARYTOPIC of the term.--Cúchullain t/c 15:22, 23 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]


Arabic language → Arabic – WP:COMMONNAME and WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. "Arabic" redirects to the language page. Shhhhwwww!! (talk) 02:04, 15 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The trend has change albeit quietly:
  1. Afrikaans
  2. Amharic
  3. Bislama
  4. Bokmal
  5. Dzongkha
  6. Esperanto
  7. Haitian Creole
  8. Hindi
  9. Interlingua
  10. Kannada
  11. Kinyarwanda
  12. Kirundi
  13. Latin
  14. Lingala
  15. Luganda
  16. Malayalam
  17. Northern Sami
  18. Nynorsk
  19. Old Church Slavonic
  20. Pali
  21. Pashto
  22. Sanskrit
  23. Scottish Gaelic
  24. Standard Tibetan
  25. Tagalog
  26. Twi
  27. Urdu
  28. Volapuk
Shhhhwwww!! (talk) 07:07, 15 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
There is no ambiguity. The people are called Arabs and the adjectival is "Arabian". "Arabic" is far more unambiguous than for example Latin which is the title of a language article although it also refers to Latins and Latin people. "Arabic" is a suitable title for this article. Khestwol (talk) 12:14, 23 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The Gambia

English remains the main language used for official purposes and in education, but it may face competition from Arabic.[1][2]

In 2014, Gambian president Yahya Jammeh announced that The Gambia would drop English as the official language because it is a "colonial relic" in favour of Arabic.[3][4] However, such change was not enacted until the present day.

Numerals

Mx Mashael told the TheGuardian: «Hmmm, what all of you don't know is that Arabic numbers also used to be read from right to left beginning from ones, tens, hundreds, and then thousands. Example: the year 1413 used to be read and spilled out in plenty of old texts as "the thirteen after four hundred and a thousand" or "thirteen and fourteen thousand". Now, it is partially influenced be others and spilled from left to right except for the ones and tens; we still say and write the ones before tens. For instance, 1658 is a thousand and six hundred and eight and fifty. Although it might sound awkward to English speakers, it sounds totally natural to Arabs.»

Even in present day, some Arabs (like some of my teachers) read numbers from right to left, which is quite normal [5] — Preceding unsigned comment added by إلياس الجزائري (talk • contribs) 14:42, 8 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Request Edit for "Arabic speakers and other languages"

From the beginning of the 9th century the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, a major intellectual center during the Islamic Golden Age, had scholars from various parts of the world with different cultural backgrounds mandated to gather and translate all of the world's classical knowledge into the Arabic language. Drawing primarily on Greek, but also Syriac, Indian and Persian texts, the scholars accumulated a great collection of world knowledge and built on it through their own discoveries. By the middle of the ninth century, the House of Wisdom had the largest selection of books in the world.<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Wisdom>

“In 10th-century Baghdad, readers of Arabic had about the same degree of access to Aristotle that readers of English do today. This was thanks to a well-funded translation movement that unfolded during the Abbasid caliphate, beginning in the second half of the eighth century.” <https://aeon.co/ideas/arabic-translators-did-far-more-than-just-preserve-greek-philosophy> — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gghosn (talk • contribs) 16:43, 18 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Arabic influence on Classical Greek and Latin

I deleted from the main section: "Many words of Arabic origin are also found in ancient languages like Latin and Greek." Here is why. Classical Greek is typically dated as ending in 323BC, a rather abstract year I know but it's the year of the death of Alexander, and the beginning of the successor kingdoms, anyhow... So this period starts up Koine Greek which is a simplified version of Classical Greek. Classical Latin ended, again another arbitrary but used date, mid 3rd century AD during the Crisis of the Third Century. Now then the Classical Arabic started showing up in the 5th century AD. So, I'm not saying that Arabic did not influence Classical Latin, and Greek, but with a time period differential of roughly 723 years in the case of the Classical Greek, I think a citation should be used before an assertion such as that is used. Now I really don't want this to devolve in to an argument on timelines, because the basic idea stands true. If this were an article on Aramaic, which cited Koine instead of Classical Greek I'd be all for it, but as is for this assertion there needs to be a citation or a change of terminology. 85.57.175.24 (talk) 20:21, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

  1. ^ "Gambie : Yahya Jammeh choisit l'arabe comme langue officielle" (in French). afrik.com. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  2. ^ "Republic of the Gambia" (in French). Trésor de la langue française au Québec. 27 April 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  3. ^ "Gambia to drop English as 'colonial relic'", Al-Jazeera, 2014-03-13.
  4. ^ Index on Censorship: Gambia’s president wants to ditch English as official language, 28 March 2014, retrieved 21 October 2016
  5. ^ الدكتور ابراهيم قلاتي، قصة الاعراب، الصفحة 156
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