Arabic

Arabic is a Central Semitic language whose classical form, fixed by the text of the Quran in the seventh century, remains the liturgical and literary standard across the Arab world, while everyday spoken Arabic exists as a continuum of regional vernaculars, from Moroccan to Gulf Arabic, that differ from one another by roughly as much as separate Romance languages do. Modern Standard Arabic, the form used in formal writing, broadcasting and education across the Arab world, is a direct descendant of Classical Arabic rather than of any one spoken vernacular. It is written right to left in the Arabic script, an abjad in which short vowels are normally left unwritten.