How well do you know Modern Standard Arabic?

Modern Standard Arabic: The Literary Standard of the Arab World

• Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a standardized, literary variety of Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• MSA is used in literature, academia, print and mass media, law and legislation, but is generally not spoken as a first language.

• It is taught throughout the Arab world in formal education and differs significantly from many vernacular varieties of Arabic.

• Native speakers of Arabic generally do not distinguish between "Modern Standard Arabic" and "Classical Arabic" as separate languages.

• Classical Arabic is the language used in the Quran and many literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times.

• Napoleon's campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) is generally considered to be the starting point of the modern period of the Arabic language.

• Modern Standard Arabic is the literary standard across the Middle East, North Africa, and Horn of Africa.

• Colloquial Arabic refers to the many regional dialects derived from Classical Arabic spoken daily across the region and learned as a first language.

• Literary Arabic (MSA) is the official language of all Arab League countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages.

• Modern Standard Arabic is not homogeneous; there are authors who write in a style very close to the classical models and others who try to create new stylistic patterns.

• MSA includes two sounds not present in Classical Arabic: /p/ and /v/, which occur in loanwords.

• According to Ethnologue, there are no native speakers of Modern Standard Arabic, but a total of 273,989,700 second language speakers in the world.The decline of Modern Standard Arabic in the Arab world

• STEM is the language of the future in the Arab world, while English is the lingua franca of commerce, media, and education in Gulf countries such as the UAE.

• Modern Standard Arabic is on the decline in the Arab world, and its content is under-represented online and in literature.

• According to the 2017 Arab Youth Survey, 54% of young urban Arabs aged 18 to 24 use English more than Arabic on a daily basis, rising to 68% in GCC countries.

• Most Arab students of Northwestern University in Qatar and Georgetown University in Qatar do not have professional proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic.