Arabic (lang: العربية ; less formally: lang: عربي ) is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Aramaic. In terms of speakers, Arabic is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as a first language and by 250 million more as a second language. Most native speakers live in the Middle East and North Africa. Different spoken varieties of Arabic exist and differ according to region. Not all of the varieties are mutually intelligible and speakers may use a sort of medial language with features common to most Arabic varieties to communicate with speakers of mutually unintelligible varieties. Standard Arabic is widely taught in schools, universities, and used in the office and the media.

Modern Standard Arabic derives from Classical Arabic, the only surviving member of the Old North Arabian dialect group, attested in Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions dating back to the 4th century.Versteegh, 1997, p. 33. Classical Arabic has also been a literary language and the liturgical language of Islam since its inception in the 7th century.

Arabic has lent many words to other languages of the Islamic world. During the Middle Ages, Arabic was a major vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As a result, many European languages have also borrowed numerous words from it. Arabic influence is seen in Mediterranean languages, particularly Spanish, Portuguese, Maltese, and Sicilian, due to both the proximity of European and Arab civilization and 700 years of Arab rule in the Iberian peninsula (see Al-Andalus).

Arabic has also borrowed words from many languages, including Hebrew, Persian and Aramaic in early centuries, and contemporary European languages in modern times.

Classical and Modern Standard Arabic

main: Modern Standard Arabic The term "Arabic" may refer to either literary/standard Arabic (lang: الفصحى ) or the many localized spoken varieties of Arabic commonly called "colloquial Arabic". Arabs consider literary Arabic as the standard language and tend to view everything else as dialects. The only variety, through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, to have acquired official language status is Maltese, spoken in (predominately Catholic) Malta and written with the Latin alphabet.

Standard Arabic (lang: اللغة العربية الفصحى "the most eloquent Arabic language"), refers both to the language of present-day media across North Africa and the Middle East, the language of the Qur'an, as well as practically all written matter.

Historically, Classical Arabic (especially from the pre-Islamic to the Abbasid period, including Qur'anic Arabic) can be distinguished from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as used today. Classical Arabic is considered normative; modern authors attempt to follow the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by Classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh), and use the vocabulary defined in Classical dictionaries (such as the Lisān al-Arab).