Arabic Language Day 2023: Today, December 18, is Arabic Language Day. If you’ve ever wanted to learn Arabic, this is the day to do it. Proto-Semitic languages from the old Middle East gave rise to Arabic more than a thousand years ago. More than 400 million people in 25 countries speak it now.
People who know Arabic gave us some of the most useful tools in history, like algebra, chemistry, and the toothbrush. Arabs had a big impact on art, music, and science in Europe. Need coffee every day? The people who lived in Yemen in the 9th century brought it to you.
Arabic Language History Day
Arabic comes from the Proto-Semitic languages of the Middle East in the 7th century. It is one of the oldest languages spoken in the world and the sixth most popular. “Arab” means “nomad,” which suggests that the language comes from the Arabian Peninsula’s nomadic people.
The Qur’an, which is Islam’s holy book, is where most of what we know about classical Arabic comes from. The text is the first important written record of the Arabic language and tells us a lot about how the old language was put together. A lot of Muslims today learn Arabic so they can read the Qur’an in its original language.
Arabic is spelled from right to left, like other Semitic languages. It also has sounds that aren’t found in English or other languages. The beautiful “alphabet” of Arabic isn’t an alphabet, at least not in the way we usually think of it. Accents serve to indicate vowel sounds in the abjad writing system, while each symbol stands for a consonant sound. Instead of capital letters, quotation marks are used to draw attention to something.
Most words start with a basic root that has something to do with their meaning. Words that have to do with writing, for instance, all start with the letters “k,” “t,” and “b,” plus other word parts. To find out what kind of thing a word is in the world, look at its root.
Most English speakers might find it hard to learn Arabic, but many important and useful English words come from Arabic sources. For example, algebra, alcohol, coffee, loofah, tariff, cotton, and many more English words.
The United Nations made Arabic one of six official UN languages on December 18, 1993. This showed that the UN understood how important it was and how widely it was used around the world.
How To Mark The Day Of The Arabic Language
Pick up some Arabic words.
Learn some simple Arabic words and sentences with a language app. Learning how to talk to someone starts with learning easy greetings and small talk.
Work on your skills with a friend who speaks Arabic.
Call up a friend who speaks Arabic and practice with them once you know a few words.
Read some poems in Arabic.
Some people call Arabic “the language of poetry,” and some of the best writers in the world spoke and wrote it.
World Arabic Language Day Messages, Quotes, Greetings, Wishes 2023
5 Interesting Facts About Arabic
Not a single capital letter.
Instead, quotation marks are used to make a point.
It has a lot of words for “camel” in Arabic.
Some of these words mean “a camel that is scared of anything” and “a female camel that walks ahead of other camels.”
Arab writing goes from left to right.
Arab script is written from right to left, just like all Semitic scripts.
Arabic can only be written in a handwritten style.
When written or typed, Arabic letters always go together. There’s no “print” type.
Arabic does not have contractions.
In English, contractions and acronyms are widespread. But in Arabic, words are not merged to make them shorter.
Why It’s Important To March 16th
Arabic is the language of science.
People who know Arabic have made important contributions to the fields of medicine, chemistry, and math. Europeans in the Middle Ages learned a lot from traveling to the Middle East and North Africa. This helped Europe get out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment.
Arabic is one of the oldest languages in the world.
Arabic has been spoken for more than a thousand years, and more and more people are learning it. More than a billion people around the world learn Arabic to read the Qur’an, in addition to people who already understand the language.
A lot of English words come from Arabic.
There are Arabic roots in more than 7,000 English words, and more than 500 of them are still used today.
ARABIC LANGUAGE DAY DATES
Year | Date | Day |
---|---|---|
2023 | December 18 | Monday |
2024 | December 18 | Wednesday |
2025 | December 18 | Thursday |
2026 | December 18 | Friday |
2027 | December 18 | Saturday |