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Arabic is a Semitic language within Afro-Asiatic... (Webbook)
Ethnologue lists the classification as: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
It is found not only in the northern third of Africa, where it is generally the de jure national language, but also throughout the entire continent via its daily use in Islamic life as well as a medium of instruction in Islamic schools. (Webbook)
Ethnologue indicates there are 206 million first language speakers of all dialects, and 246 million second language speakers.
There are many varieties of Arabic. Formal, literary (Egyptian) is often considered the standard; so is Modern Standard (based on Cairene Arabic). (Webbook)
According to UCLA-LMP:
"Arabic itself is commonly subclassified as Classical Arabic, Eastern Arabic, Western Arabic, and Maltese. ... Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is a modernized form of Classical Arabic.
"Western Arabic encompasses the Arabic spoken colloquially in the region of northern Africa—often referred to as the Maghrib—from Morocco to western Libya and in adjacent African countries to the immediate south. ...
"Eastern Arabic, sometimes referred to as Mesopotamian Arabic, includes the Arabic dialects spoken in a large region encompassing North Africa (Egypt and Sudan), the Middle East (Syria, Iraq, and the Arabian Peninsula), and Arabic speaking communities in Asia (Bateson 1967). ..."
Dialects of Arabic in Africa as listed in Ethnologue (Mauritania is added):
Arabic is a major world language with standard and classical forms, as well as vernacular forms spoken by majority or minority communities in many countries including over a dozen in Africa (especially the north). It is the language of scripture and religious learning for Muslims. In some places and circumstances it also serves as a lingua franca.
Arabic has a standard orthography and established alternate forms (at least in the Maghreb). See also Arabic Script.
See Arabic Script ("Standard Arabic alphabet").
See also:
There are many fonts for the Arabic alphabet used in Arabic, some in Unicode, some in ISO-8859-6 or Windows 1256.
There exists at least one established computer keyboard arrangement for Arabic [verify if there are variants]
There is significant computer use and internet content in Standard Arabic.
There is a Wikipedia edition in Arabic at http://ar.wikipedia.org/
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has an Arabic version: حاسوب محمول لكل طفل http://laptop.org/index.ar.html
Major proprietary software is localized to Standard Arabic.
There is an OpenOffice project under the "Native Language Confederation" program: http://ar.openoffice.org/
There is a project to translate Debian (Linux) Installer in Arabic: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/edgy/+source/debian-installer/+pots/debian-installer
Need information on other software in Arabic (see also 8.3, below)
Arabic
Arabic, Standard
Arabic, Algerian Saharan Spoken
Arabic, Algerian Spoken
Arabic, Babalia Creole
Arabic, Chadian Spoken / Shuwa
Arabic, Ta'izzi-Adeni Spoken
Arabic, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Spoken
Arabic, Egyptian Spoken
Arabic, Sa
Arabic, Libyan / Western Egyptian Bedawi Spoken
Arabic, Hassaniyya
Arabic, Judeo-Moroccan
Arabic, Moroccan Spoken
Arabic, Sudanese Creole
Arabic, Sudanese Spoken
Arabic, Omani Spoken
Arabic, Tunisian Spoken
Cell phone commands are localized in Arabic.
Google has a version localized in Arabic: http://www.google.com/intl/ar/
The Global Voices project on blogging has an interface translated in Arabic at http://ar.globalvoicesonline.org/
Manal Amin, CEO, Arabize
Arabize Computer Services, Ltd. http://www.arabize.com.eg
Arabeyes Project [FOSS] http://www.arabeyes.org/
The Arabeyes site has information and links to FOSS projects http://www.arabeyes.org/
Virtual keyboard/character pickers
"Arabic computing information" (TLT, Penn State Univ.) http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/arabic.html
Open-Tran.eu supports Arabic http://ar.open-tran.eu
What are the outstanding issues in terms of handling Arabic script that need to be addressed to facilitate FOSS localisation?
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Arabic," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Arabic-root.html )
Omniglot, "Arabic script," http://www.omniglot.com/writing/arabic.htm
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Arabic, Standard," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arb
______, "Arabic, Algerian Saharan Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aao
______, "Arabic, Algerian Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arq
______, "Arabic, Babalia Creole," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bbz
______, "Arabic, Chadian Spoken / Shuwa," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=shu
______, "Arabic, Ta'izzi-Adeni Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=acq
______, "Arabic, Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=avl
______, "Arabic, Egyptian Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=arz
______, "Arabic, Sa ," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aec
______, "Arabic, Libyan / Western Egyptian Bedawi Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ayl
______, "Arabic, Hassaniyya," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mey
______, "Arabic, Judeo-Moroccan," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aju
______, "Arabic, Moroccan Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ary
______, "Arabic, Sudanese Creole," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=pga
______, "Arabic, Sudanese Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=apd
______, "Arabic, Omani Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=acx
______, "Arabic, Tunisian Spoken," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aeb
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
UCLA, Language Materials Project, "Arabic (profile)," http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=210&menu=004
Wikipedia, "Alfabeto árabe," http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfabeto_%C3%A1rabe
______, "Alphabet arabe," http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet_arabe
______, "Arabe," http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabe
______, "Arabic alphabet," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet
______, "Arabic language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language
______, "Língua árabe," http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%ADngua_Arabe
______, "أبجدية عربي" http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%AC%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9
______, "لغة عربية" http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%BA%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B9%D8%B1%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9
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