Arabic

Mainly spoken in the Arab world. The term “Arab” was originally used to identify those residing in the Arabian Peninsula, as viewed by ancient Greek geographers. It first appeared in the first century and is called after the Arab people.

Since the 7th century, Arabic has been characterized by diglossia, which pits many vernacular variants, which function as mother languages, against Literary Arabic, also known as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Classical Arabic, a standard prestige language.