Afro-Asiatic · ISO 639-3 arb
Standard Arabic Language
Standard Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 335 million people.
Countries that speak Standard Arabic
No country-level speaker figures — see the map.
Language family
- Afro-Asiatic
- Semitic
- West Semitic
- Central Semitic
- Arabian
- Arabic
- Standard Arabic
Related languages
About the Standard Arabic language
Standard Arabic is spoken by about 335 million people, which makes it the 5th most spoken language in the world — just behind Spanish (485 million) and ahead of Bengali (300 million). It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and, more precisely, to the Arabic group within the West Semitic branch.
Where is Standard Arabic spoken?
Standard Arabic is used in 0 countries.
Standard Arabic is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Algerian Arabic, Sudanese Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Saidi Arabic and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 arb.
Frequently asked questions about Standard Arabic
How many people speak Standard Arabic?
What language family does Standard Arabic belong to?
Is Standard Arabic an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.