Why is Arabic the official language of Egypt?
Arabic was spoken in parts of Egypt such as the Eastern Desert and Sinai before Islam. However, Nile Valley Egyptians slowly adopted Arabic as a written language following the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the seventh century. Until then, they had spoken either Koine Greek or Egyptian in its Coptic form.
What type of Arabic is spoken in Egypt?
Modern Standard ArabicEgypt's official language is Modern Standard Arabic, which is used in most written documents and schools. However, Modern Standard Arabic mostly describes the literary form of Arabic, which is actually a macrolanguage composed of multiple distinct vernacular dialects.11-Nov-2019
Is Egyptian Arabic the same as Arabic?
Egyptian Colloquial Arabic is the most widespread regional dialect of Arabic as it is the language used in Arabic entertainment, most notably in movies. With its prominence, Egyptian Colloquial Arabic is the most popular Arabic dialect.26-Sept-2016
Is Egyptian Arabic standard?
Status. Egyptian Spoken Arabic is the language of wider communication and de facto national language of Egypt, although the official language of Egypt is Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).
Is English an official language in Egypt?
Literary Arabic is the official language and the most widely written. The Coptic language is used primarily by Egyptian Copts and it is the liturgical language of Coptic Christianity....Languages of EgyptForeignEnglish French SpanishSignedEgyptian Sign LanguageHistorical language(s)Ancient Egyptian Meroitic4 more rows
Is Coptic language still spoken?
There are no native speakers of Coptic, the language died out as a natively spoken language already several centuries ago, but it is still used in the liturgy of the Coptic church, so some people speak it to some extent as a second language. Coptic is descended from ancient Egyptian.
When did Egypt become Arab?
These factors resulted in Muslims becoming a majority in Egypt by the mid-10th century, the Egyptians acculturation into Arab identity and the replacement of their native Coptic and Greek languages with Arabic as their sole vernacular.
What language did Cleopatra speak?
Egyptian languageAncient GreekCleopatra/LanguagesHer native language was Koine Greek, and she was the only Ptolemaic ruler to learn the Egyptian language. In 58 BC, Cleopatra presumably accompanied her father, Ptolemy XII Auletes, during his exile to Rome after a revolt in Egypt (a Roman client state) allowed his rival daughter Berenice IV to claim his throne.
Is Egyptian Arabic difficult?
Egyptian Arabic Is Easier Than Standard Arabic These two languages are most definitely not the same. Standard Arabic is the older “original” language. It's essentially the language that prophet Muhammad spoke, and is much more “formal” than Egyptian Arabic. Egyptian Arabic, however, is a dialect.
Did Egypt always speak Arabic?
Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of Egypt today. ... Arabic did not become the official language of Egypt until the 17th century. Although the language of the ancient Egyptians and Arabic share linguistic roots, ancient Egyptians did not speak Arabic.
Who is Egyptian queen?
Cleopatra, (Greek: “Famous in Her Father”) in full Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (“Cleopatra the Father-Loving Goddess”), (born 70/69 bce—died August 30 bce, Alexandria), Egyptian queen, famous in history and drama as the lover of Julius Caesar and later as the wife of Mark Antony.
What makes Egyptian Arabic different?
Two things differ: first, the arabic is a language while the egyptian is a dialect. Second, the egyptian dialect has a different vocabulary for most of the words. Egyptians are not Genetically Arabs!. They just speak Arabic language..
What language did ancient Egypt speak?
Languages Spoken In Egypt. The language of ancient Egypt was among the first written languages in the world. Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of the African country of Egypt and is used in most written documents and taught in schools across the country.
How many people speak Sudanese Arabic?
It is spoken by 1.6% of the population in Egypt. Sudanese Arabic is most prevalent among Sudanese immigrants, and it is linguistically distinct from Egyptian Arabic. Egypt is home to the largest number of Sudanese immigrants and refugees than any other African country.
Where did Arabic originate?
The language first developed in the Nile Delta near Cairo, where the first Islamic Capital was located. The variety of Arabic was the language spoken by the Arab invaders during the Muslim conquest of Egypt in the 7th century. The mixture fused with the locally spoken Coptic language and other languages such as Turkish, Ottoman, French, and Italian.
What languages did Egypt colonize?
Colonization of Egypt facilitated the spread of western languages such as English and French, which are associated with ...
Where is the Nobiin language from?
At a prevalence of 0.3% is the Nobiin language which is native to the Nubian people, concentrated along the banks of River Nile in Egypt and Sudan. The language has been classified as threatened due to the rapid urbanization and consequent spread of other common languages.
What languages did the colonization of Egypt facilitate?
Colonization of Egypt facilitated the spread of western languages such as English and French, which are associated with the elite and affluent in modern Egypt. The Languages spoken in Egypt are discussed below:
What is the most widely spoken language in Egypt?
Egyptian Arabic. Although Modern Standard Arabic is the official language, Egyptian Arabic is the most widely spoken among the languages spoken in Egypt. It is also the de facto national language in the country.
What language is spoken in Egypt?
The primary spoken language and official language of Egypt is Arabic. That’s the short answer. The long answer is a little more complicated, but also a lot more interesting!
The official language of Egypt
The official language of Egypt is Modern Standard Arabic, the formal language that is used in books, newspapers, scripted speeches, and so on. This is the form of Arabic that is used across the Arab World, from Morocco in the West to Iraq in the east.
The spoken language of Egypt
In everyday communication the majority of Egyptians speak Egyptian Arabic , a spoken dialect (well, a group of dialects) that is quite different from Modern Standard Arabic.
The Coptic language
The Coptic language is a direct descendant of the Ancient Egyptian language which was written in hieroglyphics. Coptic is no longer spoken as a native language, but it is used as a liturgical language by the Coptic church. Coptic people make up about 10% of the population of Egypt, but today they speak Arabic as their native language.
What is the official language of Egypt?
A number of languages can be heard in Egypt but the official language is the Modern Standard Arabic. Other languages spoken include Egyptian Arabic which is spoken by 68% of the population, Sa'idi Arabic, Domari, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic, Siwi, Nobiin and Beja among others.
How many people are in Egypt?
Egypt has more than 90 million citizens making it the most populated nation in the north of Africa and also in the Arab world. It is the third most populated country in Africa after Nigeria and Ethiopia, and the fifteenth most populated in the globe.
Where is the majority of Egypt's population located?
The larger areas of the Sahara Desert, which make up the majority of the country’s territory are not that populated. Almost half of the citizens reside in urban regions, with the majority of them spreading across the heavily inhabited towns of Cairo, Egypt’s capital city, Alexandria, and other big towns located in the Nile Delta.
Is Egypt a country?
Egypt is officially referred to as the Arab Republic of Egypt and it links the northeast region of Africa with the Middle East. This is the only Eurafrasian country in the world and most of its territory is within the Nile Valley. Egypt is a Mediterranean nation and it is bordered by Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast.
What is the modern standard of Arabic?
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in Egypt. Drawings and writing on Esna, Egypt Temple Wall, Source This dialect can at times be referred to as Literary Arabic or Modern Arabic. This is the literary and standardized form of Arabic that is used in official speech and writing. MSA is considered to be the literary standard in North Africa, ...
Where did Arabic originate?
Egyptian Arabic was developed in the Nile Delta in the Lower Egypt region near Cairo. It was derived from the spoken Arabic which found its way to Egypt during the Muslim conquest in the 7th-century AD.
Is Egypt a Mediterranean country?
Egypt is a Mediterranean nation and it is bordered by Israel and the Gaza Strip to the northeast. The Red Sea borders it to the south and east, Libya borders it to the west, to the south by Sudan, and to the east by the Gulf of Aqaba. Egypt has more than 90 million citizens making it the most populated nation in the north ...
What is the official language of Egypt?
Modern Standard Arabic . Egypt’s official language is Modern Standard Arabic, which is used in most written documents and schools. However, Modern Standard Arabic mostly describes the literary form of Arabic, which is actually a macrolanguage composed of multiple distinct vernacular dialects.
How many languages are spoken in Egypt?
According to Ethnologue, there are 16 individual living languages spoken in Egypt. Among these: the Nobiin language of the Nubian people, the Bedawi language (spoken mainly by the Bedouin people), Mattokki and Siwi. Egypt also has its own sign language.
When did Arabic come to Egypt?
Arabic first came to Egypt during the Arab occupation of the 7th century, and it blended with existing local Semitic languages like Syriac, Berber and Assyrian, creating the basis for some of the other types of Arabic spoken in Egypt today.
What languages do Egyptians speak?
Additionally, educated Egyptians tend to speak English and/or French as second languages. There are more than 3 million French speakers in Egypt.
Where did the Arabic language come from?
Modern Standard Arabic came from Classical (medieval) Arabic, and it has a grammar and syntax that’s remained largely fixed since the 7th century.
Is spoken language a lingua franca?
Additionally, it serves as a living reminder that spoken languages can vary drastically from their written standard versions, with the spoken languages more accurately reflecting regional differences and the written standard serving as a sort of official lingua franca that unifies the whole.
Overview
Official language
Literary Arabic is the official language of Egypt, which is the liturgical language of Islam, the majority religion and state religion of Egypt.
Main spoken language
Egyptian Arabic is the commonly spoken language, based on the dialect of Cairo, and is occasionally written in Arabic script, or in Arabic chat alphabet mostly on new communication services.
Of the many varieties of Arabic, Egyptian Arabic is the most widely understood first dialect in the Middle East-North Africa, probably due to the influence of Egyptian cinemaand music industry thr…
Minority languages
In southern Egypt, Saidi Arabic is the main spoken language for most people.
In the Upper Nile Valley, around Kom Ombo and Aswan, there are about 300,000 speakers of Nubian languages, mainly Nobiin, but also Kenuzi-Dongola.
A Bedouin Sinai minority speaks a variety of Bedouin Arabic mostly in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt's Asian lands.
Sign languages
The only sign language known to be used in Egypt is Egyptian Sign Language. It is known to be used in Alexandria and Cairo, and possibly other regions. Regional variation is reported anecdotally but not documented.
Foreign languages
Most educated people in Egypt study English at school. There are also many English language universities in Egypt, the BUE (British University in Egypt), the FUE (Future University in Egypt), Nile University, the AUC (American University in Cairo) and more. English is the most widely used language in tourism. Nowadays, the majority of the road signs in Egypt are written both in Arabic an…
Historical languages
Other Egyptian languages (also known as Copto-Egyptian) consist of ancient Egyptian and Coptic, and form a separate branch among the family of Afro-Asiatic languages. The Egyptian language is among the first written languages, and is known from hieroglyphic inscriptions preserved on monuments and sheets of papyrus. The Coptic language, the only extant descendant of Egyptian, is today the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
External links
• Ethnologue page on "Languages of Egypt"
• PanAfriL10n page on Egypt
• Linguistic situation in Egypt (in French)
• Egyptian Language History
The Official Language of Egypt
The Spoken Language of Egypt
- In everyday communication the majority of Egyptians speak Egyptian Arabic, a spoken dialect (well, a group of dialects) that is quite different from Modern Standard Arabic. The most popular variety of Egyptian Arabic is the dialect of the capital city Cairo, which for many decades was the most common form of Arabic spoken in movies and music because Cairo was the center of the …
Minority Languages of Egypt
- In Upper Egypt there are not only speakers of Sa’idi Arabic, but also of Nubian languages, which are completely separate from Arabic. There are around 300,000 speakers of Nubian languages in Egypt, in particular Nobiin. In the area of the Siwa Oasis near the Libyan border, a Berber language known as Siwi Berberis spoken. Travellers visiting the beautiful Siwa Oasis can hear the sounds …
The Coptic Language
- The Coptic language isa direct descendant of the Ancient Egyptian languagewhich was written in hieroglyphics. Coptic is no longer spoken as a native language, but it is used as a liturgical language by the Coptic church. Coptic people make up about 10% of the population of Egypt, but today they speak Arabic as their native language.