The Arabic Language

Classical Arabic

Classical Arabic is the language of the Quran and of most pre-modern literature, with roots in pre-Islamic poetry such as the Mu'allaqat, the seven famous odes of the 6th century. Because of the Quran, its written form has remained remarkably stable for centuries.

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)

Modern Standard Arabic keeps the grammar of Classical Arabic with a modernised vocabulary and style. It is the language of books, newspapers, official documents, education and formal news broadcasts, and the written standard shared by the whole Arab world.

The main groups of spoken Arabic

• Maghrebi: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, with influences from Berber, French, Spanish and Italian. Hassaniya, spoken in Mauritania, is often grouped here.
• Egyptian and Sudanese: the Nile Valley. Egyptian Arabic is widely understood thanks to Egyptian film, radio and television.
• Levantine: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine.
• Mesopotamian: Iraq and north-eastern Syria.
• Peninsular: the Arabian Peninsula, including Gulf, Najdi, Hejazi and Yemeni Arabic.

Documents, manuals and contracts

Use Modern Standard Arabic. It is understood and accepted in every Arab country, so one translation can serve readers in Riyadh, Cairo and Casablanca alike.

Marketing, subtitles and voice-over

Here tone and word choice matter most. Tell us the target country and we adapt the wording to that market, so your message sounds natural to the people you want to reach.

Regional terminology

Everyday and technical vocabulary can differ between the Gulf, Egypt, the Levant and the Maghreb, where French has influenced many terms. We choose words that suit your audience and keep them consistent in a glossary.

Numerals

In the Maghreb, Western digits (0123456789) are the norm. In much of the Middle East, Arabic-Indic digits (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) are used, often side by side with Western digits (W3C). We follow the convention of your market.

Dates and the Hijri calendar

Dates may follow the Gregorian or the Islamic (Hijri) calendar. Saudi Arabia, for example, adopted the Gregorian calendar for most government business in 2023, while keeping the Hijri calendar for matters governed by Islamic law. We keep the calendar of your source text and convert dates only on request.

The Arabic script

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters and is written from right to left. It is an abjad: the letters represent consonants, while alif, waw and ya also mark the long vowels. Short vowels and some grammatical endings can be shown with small diacritical marks (harakat), but in most everyday texts they are left out.

Arabic is cursive, also in print. Most letters join the next one, and each letter changes its shape depending on its position: standalone, initial, medial or final. The same script, in the Nastaliq style, is used today for Persian, Dari, Pashto and Urdu.

Right-to-left mirroring

When Arabic is the main language, the whole page runs from right to left, not just the lines of text. Page order, columns, tables, timelines, icons with a direction and navigation are mirrored, and Arabic paragraphs are normally right-aligned (W3C Arabic layout requirements).

Arabic fonts and letter joining

Arabic letters join and change shape by position, so you need fonts that really support Arabic and a layout engine that shapes the text correctly. Otherwise words break into isolated letters or ligatures are lost, a typical error when Arabic is pasted into software that does not handle it.

Kashida and justification

Justified Arabic text is not only spaced out: lines can be lengthened by extending the connection between joined letters (kashida). Used with care at selected joins, it keeps the text colour even; overused, it makes the page look uneven (W3C).

Bidirectional text

Numbers, even in Arabic-Indic digits, are written from left to right inside Arabic text, and so are Latin brand names, product codes, units and e-mail addresses. Spaces and punctuation between them take their direction from the context, so mixed lines must be checked one by one.

InDesign and Illustrator workflows

We work in Adobe InDesign and Illustrator with Arabic support (often called ME, Middle Eastern, setups): right-to-left paragraph and story direction, the World-Ready Composer, kashida justification, Arabic digit types and ligatures (Adobe).

One partner for translation and layout

When the same team translates and lays out your Arabic text, line breaks, hyphenation, text length and mixed Arabic-Latin lines are solved together, without corrections going back and forth between translator and designer. Brochures, catalogues, packaging, manuals and presentations come back ready to print or publish.

Read more about Arabic DTP and layout and about all our translation services.

Official language of the UN and FAO

On 18 December 1973, with resolution 3190 (XXVIII), the UN General Assembly made Arabic an official and working language of the Assembly and its Main Committees; it is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had already added Arabic to its official languages in 1971.

World Arabic Language Day

Every year on 18 December, since 2012, the UN and UNESCO celebrate Arabic on the anniversary of that decision. UNESCO recalls the role Arabic played in passing on Greek and Roman science and philosophy to Renaissance Europe.