Station
identification: "Idha'at al imarat al Arabiyyah al
Mutahhida min Dubai", meaning "This is United Arab
Emirates Radio in Dubai" Arabic is a Semitic language which is a family of languages spoken in North Africa and the Middle East. The Semitic languages originated in West Asia; they all have throaty hrr sounds.
Semitic languages have a system of building up words from three consonants (eg k, t, b). Vowel sounds can be inserted in any of the possible positions (before, between or after each consonant) to form the required word.
They have a highly complex system of inflections . The ein sound (like the German ) from within the throat is common.
Egyptian and Sudanese Arabic have the English g (as in English game) instead of je (as in English je m). This second form occurs in Iraqi, Arabian, Libyan and other non-Egyptian/Sudanese dialects). In former French possessions (such as Algeria and Morocco), the ge (as in English gara ge) is used. Algerian Arabic has a breathy quality with quite a few French borrowings.
Station
identification: "Idha'at al imarat al Arabiyyah al
Mutahhida min Dubai", meaning "This is United Arab
Emirates Radio in Dubai"
| Name | Where spoken | Language Family | How many (000s) |
| Arabic | North Africa, Middle East, Arabian Peninsula | Afro-Asiatic | 120-150m |
Table source: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, David Ctystal, Cambridge University Press
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