Both literary and spoken Arabic contain varied dialects among numerous countries located as far west as Mauritania in Africa to as far east as Oman in Asia.

Arabic is fast becoming an international language as it is the language of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, with believers all over the world, from the United States to Indonesia. In commercial and business affairs, Arabic is almost synonymous with energy production since it is the native language of countries rich in oil and natural gas such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Libya. Arabic is a language used often in American governmental affairs, such as the military, diplomacy, national and homeland security; and increasingly in the affairs of law enforcement in America’s major metropolitan regions. Arabic is a language of the Mediterranean, rivaling Turkish, Greek and Italian. It is a key language for archaeologists, Egyptologists and religious scholars.Arabic may allow you to communicate to some degree with those who speak other languages, such as Aramaic and Hebrew, as these languages are closely related.

Arabic has only two written forms – Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic; all other regional variations are colloquial and only verbal. Classical Arabic originated in the Qur’an and is never used in conversation, or non-religious writing. Classical Arabic is the official and formal language of all Arab countries.

Modern Standard Arabic is the language used by the media, across the Middle East and North Africa, and is the standardized form for reading and writing. Colloquial Arabic is a collective term for the spoken varieties of Arabic used throughout the Arab world. Colloquial Arabic varies considerably from country to country and region to region.