Tips to Consider Before Learning Arabic Dialects Online

The Arabic is an Afro-Asian language, which is steadily rising in popularity all over the world. As a result, an increasing number of people, from all corners of the globe are anxious to learn this ancient language. While learning this oriental language, you’ve to keep your focus on certain factors, to make your effort easy and fruitful. These factors are:

• What Arabic is and what are its standard dialects?
• Is it worth learning a dialect or learning the Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)?

Classical Arabic vs. Modern Standard Arabic (MSA)

In this ongoing age of the Internet, there are many domains to learn Arabic online for free. But these online domains will not clear out your perception on the factors mentioned above. If you ask an Arabian, what is Arabic, he’ll probably give you the following reply.

Quranic Arabic and Classical Arabic are simply the two sides of the same coin and the language itself along with the culture have their origin from the holy religious text.

On the other hand, MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) is something that is closest that you can get to any official version of the Arabic language. If you watch the news on the television set or pick up an Arabic newspaper, you’re going to taste the Modern Standard Arabic. In certain government offices too the officials will speak to you in this particular version of the language.

MSA and its origin

If you want to learn Arabic dialects online, it is relevant to tell you that, the MSA has been derived from Classical Arabic. This truth becomes obvious from the grammar and the vocabulary that both the versions of the language have in common.  Along with that, MSA has also borrowed from the dialects that are spoken around the Arabic world. Thus, as compared to Classical Arabic, MSA has a more modern structure and approach.

As many as 27 nations across the Middle East and North Africa have Modern Standard Arabic as their official language. These 27 nations are home to a little below 300 million people. So, if I want to learn Arabic, it is better to learn the Modern Standard Arabic, right? If this is what you’re thinking, then you should keep on reading further.

Speaking and interaction in Arabic

If you want to speak and interact in the Arabic language on daily basis, then the MSA won’t be much help. It sounds weird, but that is how it is. To interact with the common man on a regular basis, you need to learn the Syrian Arabic, Egyptian Arabic and likewise. If it’s still not clear to you, here we take a different approach. If you ask an Arabian, does he speak Modern Standard Arabic, he’ll reply in negative. Yes, he doesn’t speak the MSA but rather the Egyptian, Syrian, Sudanese or any other dialect of the Arabic language, depending upon his nationality.

These versions or dialects are very closely related to the Modern Standard Arabic, but  that apart, they have their own indigenous vocabulary, a slightly different grammar and obviously a strongly varying accent.