Arabic

Arabic is a Semitic language belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family of languages which includes Berber; Chadic (including Hausa); Cushitic (including Somali); and Ancient Egyptian. It is the dominant mode of communication in some 20 countries, primarily in the Middle East, and is one of the official languages of the United Nations. Spoken Arabic differs (often substantially) from country to country and even from town to town, however the presence of a standard form and a common written language, serve to unify what would otherwise be a group of distinct languages. The 'dialects' of Arabic can be broadly grouped into an Eastern and Western Subdivision.

The Eastern Arabic subdivision groups together the languages spoken in a large region encompassing North Africa, the Middle East, and Arabic speaking countries in Asia. It includes Sudanese Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Gulf (Western Saudi) Arabic and Levantine Arabic, which is spoken in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Palestine (The 'Eastern Arabic' course offered by the Independent Study program, could more precisely be called "Levantine Arabic" ) Each of these languages may in turn include a number of mutually intelligible dialects.  Egyptian Arabic is spoken as a first language primarily in Egypt, but Cairene Arabic (the dialect of Egyptian Arabic spoken in Cairo),  is widely understood throughout much of the urbanized Arabic-speaking world.

Western Arabic includes the dialects spoken from western Libya to Morocco and in the adjacent African countries of northern Africa. While the Algerian, Libyan, and Tunisian variants of Arabic are closely related and apparently mutually intelligible, Moroccan Arabic is not mutually intelligible with the other western dialects.

None of the spoken dialects is used more than very marginally in writing: For all formal written communication and in literature, Modern Standard Arabic is universally used. It is also usually used in formal oral contexts, such as radio and TV news reading, political speeches, lectures, etc. This form of Arabic (which is learned at school and not as a native language by any Arab) is virtually uniform in its grammar and vocabulary throughout the Arab world.

Sources:
UCLA Language Materials Project
BYU humanities

For more information see:
The Arab World
al Mashriq

Information on Writing System:

omniglot.com

Independent Study Courses Available at UCSD:

• Conversational Modern Standard Arabic, LIDS 19
      The Rosetta Stone Language Library: Arabic I. (CD-ROM)    
     *Note-- enroll in any other Arabic course to take MSA

• Conversational Eastern (Levantine) Arabic, LIDS 19
       Frank A. Rice and Majed F. Sa'id, Eastern Arabic (Tape)         
  
  
• Conversational Egyptian Arabic, LIDS 19
       J. Heyworth-Dunne, [Linguaphone] Egyptian Arabic (Tape)      
  
  
• Conversational Iraqi Arabic, LIDS 19
       Spoken Language Services Spoken Iraqi Arabi (Tape)               
  
  
• Conversational Moroccan Arabic, LIDS 19
       Richard S. Harrell, A Basic Course in Moroccan Arabic (Tape)      
  
  
• Conversational Saudi (Gulf) Arabic, LIDS 19
       Van Wagoner, Satterthwait & Riice, Spoken Arabic  (Tape)                

Other Courses Available at UCSD:

•     *NEW for Fall 2002:  Beginning Arabic
       For details, see Linguistics Department Heritage Language Program
  

Other Local Resources:

UCSD International Center
Cafearabica.com
International channel
UCSD Extension Courses
Mingei museum of folk art
SD cultural events
International web radio
SDSU Arabic, Hebrew
Arabic Danse Academy
Arabic Broadcast Network Inc.~(858) 625-4690; 4660 La Jolla Village Dr.
Arabic Certified Interpreter and Translator~(858) 292-8537
Arabic Grocery~(619) 284-6361; 1545 El Cajon Bl.
Arabic Language Institute~(619) 444-5933; 2075 E Madison Ave El Cajon