Arabic is the mother tongue of 300 million speakers in the Middle East and North Africa, and the liturgical language for over a billion Muslims throughout the world. It is the language of the Qurʾan and Islam, as well as the bearer of a vibrant literary tradition and an expansive body of learning, in philosophy, historiography, and the sciences.
Arabic speakers use one language for reading/writing and all formal communication, and another for their everyday speech. The first, “Modern Standard Arabic” (in Arabic fuṣḥa), is shared by Arabic speakers throughout the Arab world. It is the language of literature, much of the media, and of formal address. The second, “colloquial” or “spoken” Arabic (ʿāmiyya) differs from region to region, and consists of many very different dialects.
Most Arabic courses at Carleton concentrate on the study of Modern Standard Arabic, but we also offer a course in spoken Levantine Arabic (the language of Syria/Palestine/Lebanon/Jordan), and reading courses in Classical Arabic.