Is Arabic The Richest Language In Words?

Is Arabic the language with the highest number of words

The response to our blog “Which language is Richest in Words” was so enthusiastic and polarizing that we decided to write a follow-up.

It would be foolish to focus on any language other than Arabic, which generated by far the most feedback.  Arabic is certainly worthy of consideration on its own merits, though.  After all, it is the official language of 28 countries and one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

How many people speak Arabic? Approximately 420 million people speak Arabic, according to World Atlas, making it the fifth most-spoken language in the world behind English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Hindustani.  In 2020, the U.S. Census collected responses in Arabic for the first time.

Arabic is also one of the most borrowed from languages in the world. In fact, Merriam-Webster dictionary explains that Arabic is responsible for the words English speakers use to describe two of their most beloved drinks: coffee and alcohol.

The word coffee derives from the Arabic “qahwa” (it can mean coffee or wine), while the word alcohol stems from the Arabic “al-kuhl” (this referred to a chemical used as eye paint; alcohol did not mean what it does now in English until the 18th century).

Those are just two popular examples of the influence Arabic has had on one language.

Is Arabic the richest language in words?

Its enormous reach and influence on other languages is evident, but, is Arabic the richest language in words? Arabic might be considered the richest language in words based on its complexity.

According to The National – the United Arab Emirates’ leading English-speaking news outlet – on average, a single written word in Arabic has three meanings, seven pronunciations and 12 interpretations.

Arabic has hundreds of words for camel and several words for love, including specific words for each stage of love.

That shows the astonishing depth and versatility of the Arabic language, but the main reason it may be the richest language is this: The majority of people are probably unaware that countless words stem from Arabic and are often found in Latin, Spanish, Italian, Greek, German, and other languages before making their way into English.

It is for that reason that Arabic is regarded by some as ‘the mother of all languages.’

For example, consider the word algebra: No one would blame you if you never gave a second thought about its origin. Most of us never wanted to hear the word algebra again after high school!

Arabic has hundreds of words for camel and words for each stage of love.

Arabic has hundreds of words for camel and words for each stage of love. Is Arabic the richest language in the world?

So there will be no judgment of those who did not know that algebra is a Spanish word with Arabic roots that entered the English language.

Algebra comes from the Arabic “al-jabr,”  which means “reunion of broken parts.” It was coined by medieval Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

A lot of us were probably average or below average in terms of our algebraic skills.  “Average” is another word that we use every day and probably give zero thought (zero is another word derived from Arabic) about where it came from.

Average derives from the Arabic word awār, which evolved into the French “avaria.”  The word “average” didn’t take on its meaning in English until the mid-18th century (the Arabic root word has nothing to do with numbers).

Yet another example of how Arabic has penetrated many languages: The English word “benzene,” which is a chemical in gas and is also found in cigarette smoke, has Arabic roots.

According to the Daily News Egypt, the word benzene is adapted from the German “benzin,” or “gas,” which in turn derives from an Arabic phrase for a balsamic resin similar to frankincense.

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Frankincense is famously featured in the story of Christianity (a religion of which many Arabic speaking-people are followers), but Halloween comes before Christmas, and that brings us to the next word that Arabic has contributed to language.

The English ghoul word stems from the Arabic ghūlwhich in ancient Arabic folklore is a demonic being that inhabits burial grounds and other places. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, ghouls are believed to be the spawn of Iblīs, the prince of darkness in Islam (i.e. Satan in Christianity).

It is clear that Arabic is the basis for hundreds of words across dozens of languages.  As we continue to examine why it may be the richest language in words, let us take a look at the origin of the Arabic language.

What is the Origin of Arabic Language?

Scholars have concluded Classical Arabic originated in the 7th century when it was introduced with the Quran and the teachings of Islam. Its roots go back much farther, however. The earliest example, according to some scholars, is 328 CE (common era), while others suggest it traces to 512 CE.

According to World Atlas, Classical Arabic originated in the Arabian Peninsula and spread through North Africa and the Middle East. Why is the origin of Arabic important? For starters, the Quran is the scripture of the second-largest religion in the world.

There are nearly two billion Muslims worldwide, which means it has enormous reach (it should be noted that about five percent of native Arabic-speaking peoples are not Muslim).

Second, tracing when the language was first used is essential to answering the question of if Arabic is the richest language in words. Why? Arabic’s longevity will lend clues to its pervasiveness.

Unfortunately, the exact timeline of the earlier form of Arabic is unclear for one reason: ancient Arabic was spoken mostly by nomadic people and was passed down orally.

It makes sense then that the word Arabic is derived from an ancient form of the language and translates to “nomadic.”  The nomadic nature of Arabic speaking peoples led to the Moors (see, Muslim) conquering the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal) in the middle of the 7th century, which in turn caused Arabic to spread throughout Europe.

This also explains the enormous influence Arabic has on English, which is in the Indo-European language family.

The mixing of Arabic and European languages after the Muslims conquered the Iberian Peninsula  gave us Lingua Franca, which was “a common language consisting of Italian mixed with French, Spanish, Greek, and Arabic that was formerly spoken in Mediterranean ports,” according to Merriam-Webster.

Today, the most common usage of lingua franca means “something resembling a common language.”

What language family is Arabic?

Arabic is a Semitic language, which Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as being a “subgroup of the Afro-Asiatic language family that includes Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Amharic.”

Modern Standard Arabic was introduced with the teachings of the Quran in the 6th century

Classical Arabic was introduced with the teachings of the Quran.

Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, is taught in school, but it is a rarely spoken, “formal” version of the Arabic language.

Speaking MSA in the modern Muslim world would be the equivalent of speaking Latin in Europe.

How long does it take to learn Modern Standard Arabic?

According to a 2014 study by the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. Department of State, it takes 1.69 years to learn Arabic, or 88 weeks and 2,220 hours of instruction to reach fluency in reading and speaking Arabic.

 To put that in perspective, the FSI estimates that the easiest languages to learn should take around 480 hours. That might lead you to wonder ‘is Arabic the hardest language to learn?’ World Atlas claims Arabic is the second hardest language to learn behind Mandarin.

What Makes Learning Arabic so Hard?

Arabic is hard to learn because it has unique grammatical and phonetic characteristics.  For example, Arabic nouns are masculine by default – unlike Spanish, which uses ‘el’ to denote masculinity and ‘la’ for femininity. Arabic nouns need one of four signs to take on the feminine form.

Thus, Arabic differs from most European languages in this aspect because verbs assume the gender of the noun. That’s not the case in English: A person “kicked” the ball, regardless of their gender, in the English language.

Arabic can be difficult phonetically because some words are pronounced by forcing air from the back of the throat, a very guttural sound that isn’t found in English pronunciations.

Meanwhile, the Arabic alphabet, which is the second-most used behind only Latin, isn’t so much the issue as the fact that Arabic is written from right to left.  The lack of short vowels in Arabic writing is another big obstacle to learning the language.

In addition, most letters take on four different forms, depending on where they are in a word. The four factors that cause letters to change form are isolated (standalone), initial (at the beginning of a word), medial (somewhere in the middle), and final.

The English word coffee derives from the Arabic language

The English word coffee derives from the Arabic language

Another distinctive characteristic that makes learning Arabic hard? It is written solely in cursive, a seldom-used script. The writing style was adapted from Aramaic and was used in ancient times to write on papyrus – a thick paper-like material used for scrolls.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to becoming fluent in Arabic is that MSA is not spoken colloquially and there are many “dialects,” none of which are very similar.

Thus, the first thing to know about Arabic dialects is that they are not dialects. Ethnologue, which bills itself as the “comprehensive reference work that catalogs all the known living languages in the world today” says many so-called Arabic “dialects” are actually separate languages.

The Ethnologue website lists 33 different types of Arabic spoken around the world, all of which have distinctly different grammatical rules.

What kind of Arabic should I learn?

Arabic is hard enough to learn, so you want to ensure you are making the best use of your time.

To that end, the first thing that needs to be asked is ‘What type of Arabic should I learn?’  Modern Standard Arabic is the official language used in schools and various other forms of communication.

That said, Egyptian Arabic is the most common dialect, with more than 54 million speakers worldwide, according to Ethnologue.  Egyptian Arabic is used in television, movies, and music and is mostly understood by all Arabs.

While it is less common colloquially, MSA  is the best version of Arabic to learn because it is used in literature and is understood at the most basic level by all Arabic-speaking peoples. You can always learn the dialect of your choice later. Think of it like building a house: The foundation must be laid before doing anything else.

Is Arabic the richest language in words? Let us know what you think in the comments below. If not, tell us what language you think is and why. Maybe it will be the focus of our next blog!

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51 Comments

  • Samir ERRAHMANI October 3, 2020

    Arabic is my first Language.
    #Proud

    • Carl Carchia October 5, 2020

      Thanks for reading, Samir! It was a fun blog to write. Be on the lookout for more like this!

      • Kelvin May 28, 2022

        I just went on a wild goose chase to find the most spoken language and this article helped out a ton!
        Thank you

        • Aalijah January 4, 2023

          The best information on Arabic language. Thanks indeed ,

  • Mulki October 25, 2020

    Wow nice article

    • Carl Carchia October 26, 2020

      Thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed it!

  • Amir December 29, 2020

    Great article…truly enjoyed reading it!

    How about Persian language…why that language constantly being chosen as the science and governmental language instead of Arabic in the Islam glory area?

    • admin December 30, 2020

      Thanks for reading Amir! We are happy to hear you enjoyed it. You make an interesting point, one that could serve as inspiration for a future blog.

  • sophia January 8, 2021

    very interesting blog. thanks for your effort in writing this useful and interesting information.

    • Annie Pagano January 8, 2021

      Thanks for reading. Glad you enjoyed it!

  • Duha January 28, 2021

    Well what about the word “cigarette” which is written in this article? Derived from Spanish “cigarro”, it has a clear resemblance with the Arabic root “sajara” , one of its meanings is to light a fire

    • admin January 28, 2021

      Hi Duha! Thanks for reading. Yes, we referenced cigarette in the story in reference to another word. It’s very possible that it did stem from Arabic, but we haven’t seen evidence of that. As we mentioned, a lot of European languages borrowed from Arabic. Stay tuned for our next blog on this subject.

    • Naseem Akel Eid February 22, 2022

      There are 40% of Spanish language from Arabic Language ,
      thank you for cigarette’ to Arabic

      here we say facts , not matter of arguments , let we consider this

  • Sarah April 29, 2021

    Hi! Do you have any sources for the number of words and the complexity of Arabic?

  • Ahmad May 5, 2021

    That was quite informative, nice effort, however, perhaps I missed something but i can’t see the part where it says if Arabic is the language with the most words or not !

    • admin May 6, 2021

      Hi Ahmad! Thanks for reading! We are glad you enjoyed it. That was never the goal of the article, however, because it’s almost impossible to say which language has the most words. We will be doing more of these on different languages. They are fun and thought/conversation provoking pieces. Let us know what language you think we should do next!

  • Ahmed Herzallah May 7, 2021

    Hi,
    The word Kuhl is different from kohool
    Alcohol is derived from kohool while kuhl is eye paint .
    Hope that helps.

    • Carl Carchia May 7, 2021

      Hi Ahmed, Thanks for reading. I’m confused by what you mean. The sentence reads “while the word alcohol stems from the Arabic “al-kuhl” (this referred to a chemical used as eye paint; alcohol did not mean what it does now in English until the 18th century).” … The word you reference isn’t mentioned. This sentence is correct.https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/words-from-arabic/alcohol. Thanks again for reading and be on the lookout for more of this type of blogs. We will be talking about other languages as well.

      • Nader Al-Khateeb August 9, 2021

        I’m think Ahmad is wrong and mixing two words in Arabic

        Al kohl, is something used on the eye, meaning similar to eyeliner.
        While, Al Kohoul, means alcohol in English.

        • Maamar August 17, 2021

          Hi ,
          I Can say that nader 100% correct

        • Martin Stubdal Thoresen August 23, 2021

          It’s more likely to has it’s origin in Mayan language, compare Yucatec Maya siyar (“to smoke tobacco leaves”), Q’eqchi sik’ar (“to smoke”)

    • Carl Carchia May 7, 2021

      Hi Sarah,

      Thanks for reading! There are some estimates, but nothing concrete that I would say is absolute. It’s very hard to quantify words in languages, though everyone would like to say theirs has the most, lol!

  • S H Riyad May 28, 2021

    Great Article,Thanks!

    • admin May 28, 2021

      Thanks for reading! We are thrilled you found it worth your time! There will be more like this in the near future.

  • Adam June 26, 2021

    really good article, really informative!

    • admin July 6, 2021

      Thanks for reading Adam! We appreciate the kind words and we’re glad you liked it!

  • SAEED M August 6, 2021

    Thank you very much for the article.

    I just need to point out that the picture at the very top is not written in Arabic. It might be either Persian or Urdu, but DEFINITELY not Arabic. ❤

    Many thanks!

  • ND August 30, 2021

    Wow. I rarely am pleased with an article all the way through. This was great and seriously took into consideration non Muslim Arabic speakers and the big issue of dialects in the Arab countries.

    I have one small comment though regarding speaking MSA is like speaking Latin. I’m not sure that’s a fair analogy seeing how MSA is used in speeches, books, dubbing, subtitles and television shows, it’s very different in that regard but like you pointed out, most Arabic speakers would be able to understand what you’re saying if you do it right in MSA. On that note, I’d like to point out I hope countries and people recognize the dialects they have are unique languages that represent their identity. MSA is a burden at this point and people mostly praise it over the dialect they speak which is a huge issue for literature and language learners. It’s nice that Arabs can understand each other despite the different languages, but i feel MSA creates conflict with the spoken language which imo should stop for the unique dialects and cultures to truly flourish.

    Many thanks,
    Nour

  • admin August 30, 2021

    Thanks, we are glad you enjoyed it so much. And point taken on Latin. It’s an imperfect analogy, for sure.

  • Masnsen September 5, 2021

    thanks for this informative article. indeed, the “moores” or all the inhabitants of the countries from Morroco to Lybia are called the moores, the amazigh, or the berbers, have their own dialects which have the same roots. mainly, in berber countries, we find the berber language
    ( similar dialects), also we can find the most common dialect that sounds like arabic, that the arabs do not understand (a mixsture of the berber and arabic called Daridja); we can find also the scholar arabic that is taught in school, which the official arabic, used only in formal official speeches or when we communicate with oriental countries that speak arabic.

    • admin September 7, 2021

      We are glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for adding some perspective as well.

  • Waleed October 31, 2021

    The Arabic language contains about 12 million words without repetition

  • ⴼⴰⵔⵓⵇ November 4, 2021

    Hi, that was a wonderful article, I hope you write a similar article about my mother language ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ Thamazighth or in English berber.
    Thank you.

  • Ali November 21, 2021

    Very balanced article!
    However some points should be made:

    Comparison to Latin:
    It is a common mistake to compare the daily used Modern Standard Arabic with the Latin language, that is seldom if used at all. Examples: Modern Standard Arabic is used in most news channels, almost all news papers and daily usage in in schools. But I see that the author already noted this in the comment section.

    Regarding dialects:
    1: Formal Arabic is not negatively affected because some dialects are harder to understand by some. We could exclude those “harder to understand” dialects. Spoken Arabic might then be more unified. But it would not that change Modern Standard Arabic itself. The dialect discussion is therefore another topic.
    2: Native Arabs do not actually find the different dialects as a problem. One of the main reasons for this is that Modern Standard Arabic is used as a communication tool between speakers of different dialects. Standard Arabic is used to fill in dialectal gaps or simply to switch between dialect and standard form. Such linguistic switch is rather an interesting phenomena and students of Arabic should hear about this instead of being discouraged.
    3: Dialects are not “unified” themselves. Dialects lacks words, rules, borders and above all they lack written form, making them unsuitable as independent languages. Especially if the dialect is a local “slang” or a local mix of Arabic and some another language. If Arabic is somehow discredited because of such language mix, why is the other “mixed in” language almost never discredited by such critics. This tells you that such comments are political rather than lingustic.
    4: The “mixed dialects” in parts of North Africa are the recurring examples of “harder to understand”/”mixed” Arabic dialects. Speakers of such dialects avoid using mixed dialects or slang when talking to other Arabs. Instead they use what they call their clear dialect.

    You will rarely hear about these facts by the political (anti-Arab) critics, disguised as linguistic commentators.

    Thanks for a balanced article.

    • Laura February 26, 2022

      Your points on communication among those with varied dialects are extremely interesting to me. As a an American native speaker of English I realize how unusual the American experience is in the world. Most US born Americans speak the same language at home as the official language here, but your comments make me reflect that this might be quite rare.
      When I think of the people I know around the world, many use a different language at home than for official communication. Sometimes this is a product of European colonialist history, but it the case of Arabic could also be a common situation where there are a variety of languages spoken but one that is used for government and commerce for a larger region.
      I’m interested to hear what are the experiences of readers of this post? Do most people worldwide speak a different home language than the one they use for official communication in their country?

  • Rosie December 2, 2021

    Useful post. Thanks for sharing this informative post with us.

  • Leo April 12, 2022

    12 million words! Wow. That’s amazing.
    I have to disagree with one thing though – just because the origin of a (any) word from language X may have come from language Y, it doesn’t mean it is not a word of language X.
    Any words that are used and understood by language X, are language X words. It doesn’t matter where they came from!

    You could use the “attribution logic” of this article on Arabic to Latin, and claim that all romance languages, and languages that have borrowed from those, are all just branches of Latin, or continuations of the Latin language. Clearly they’re not, and it’s more obvious in the instance of Latin as it’s a dead language.

  • Hani April 23, 2022

    Fantastic article – balanced and purposeful. I speak a few languages and love how each one of them opens a world of possibilities to meet new people and connect on a deeper level. Arabic is my favorite because it touches the soul in a melodic and omnipotent way. The reason why so many non-native speakers know Arabic is because how Islam spread by integrating into societies not destroying them.

  • JAKMARK April 29, 2022

    Hai Carla.. did you know “Cover”? Its derived from Kafir in Arabic.. means thing close you from the light

  • Ziyyara May 2, 2022

    Thanks for the content, it is very useful. Passionate about the best online Arabic language learning classes? then choose Ziyyara today. Some of the amazing features of our online Arabic language course are – Customized classes, Well-structured classes, Whiteboard sessions, etc. So, you can enroll in any of the Arabic online language classes.

  • abcde July 28, 2022

    1) Arabic is not the richest language for many linguistic reasons, such as the inability to have syllables like the following:
    A) Consonant +long vowel (a,i, u) + consonant + consonant
    b) Consonant + consonant + vowel + consonant
    poo ….
    2) Having male and female pronouns is ridiculous and funny. For pronouns with gender, for pronouns, when a group includes men and women, it causes a problem, which of them, the masculine ones or the feminine ones, should be used. It is also gender discrimination to have male and female pronouns; Whether it is Arabic or English

    3) and…..

    • Hadi August 6, 2022

      It’s more accurate to use male and female pronouns + the rules say if it’s a group of men and women the male form “pronoun” should be used. the male pronoun is used for both male and female and if the gender is unknown again you’ll use the male form ” pronoun”.

    • Kanak August 13, 2022

      Yes, In India this is very common. Any literate person can speak at least 3 languages. This includes any of the 22 officially recognised languages(mostly English or Hindi or Tamil for official use), the official language of their state (which differs state wise which is 28 in all with 9 union territories for communicating with other people ) moreover a person can also speak his/her mother tongue which can be any of the 270 widely spoken languages and hundreds of regional dialects or thousands of lesser-known tribal languages which they use at home. It is also home to the oldest language in the world ‘Sanskrit’ which is still taught in schools and has whole universities dedicated to it.
      And by the way the Article was superb and interesting all throughout .Just a request could you please write something on Indian language.
      P.S: India has no national language. After independence, it became too hard to select one from the thousands spoken.

    • King Key December 10, 2022

      alsalam alaykum…. yea youre right, the language is not arabic but the writings are! just like spanish, english and a few more different languages but the writings are Latin. Also Arabic writings have changed too! example the Sabian’s spoke some form of arabic but writings were different! also heard that arabic is the mother language … i think its been mentioned here? theres a reason The Great One and only God with his wisdom chose arabic for the final testament… ie, The Quran!

  • Sayed January 18, 2023

    the pic that you put on your site is a Farsi/Dari language not Arabic, and it is a poetry.
    and that is the only language in the world that you can make a sentence only with verbs.
    it has the alphabet with the Arabic alphabet but, there is only 4 more character in that language.
    these are the ones, and I will right them in the Farsi/Dari character.
    گ,چ,,پ,ژ

    • admin January 18, 2023

      Thank you! We update these images from time to time — it might be time for a new one.

    • Mahmoud January 24, 2023

      Although the photo at the beginning of the article uses the Arabic alphabet, it is Persian Persian calligraphy, and its text and content are Turkish-Azeri related to the Iranian ethnic group. Thanks for your effort on the article

      • Mohamed Hilal February 5, 2023

        That’s not correct! It’s in Arabic using a type of calligraphy called Thuluth. It’s a supplication to Allah to make things easier and not harder and to complete matters in goodness. “رب يسر ولا تعسر، رب تمم بالخير…”
        The red dots are used as a scale for the artist to know the distance and size of each line and letter.

      • Mobina March 2, 2023

        Great and valuable information, thanks a million

  • Ahmed March 9, 2023

    I am Egyptian, and I can tell you for sure that at least 140 million speak Egyptian dialect of Arabic. Simply because the Egyptian population alone is 110 million, so where did you come up with that 54 million only who speak Egyptian dialect?
    Thanks.
    For Arabic language, you clearly pointed out that Arabic is the richest language, but sounds like you can’t admit it!

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