Arabic is a member of the Semitic group of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Arabic and its varieties are spoken by a total of 240 million (native speakers) and another 50 million as their second language. It is an official language in all Arab countries. Arabic is one of the six UN official languages, a language of the Islam and Quran, its Sacred Book.

Modern Arabic splits into two languages: classical (modern standard) and colloquial dialects spoken by the population of a certain region in daily life. Modern Standard Arabic is used in these Asian countries: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Yemen) as well as across North and Central Africa: Egypt, the Sudan, Lybia, Tunisia, Algeria, Western Sahara, Morocco, Mauritania, Chad, Somalia, Djibouti. Basically, it is typical of Modern Standard Arabic vocabulary to be primarily original Arabic. Some words are of General Semitic origin, but the loanwords from other languages are few. 

Colloquial Arabic may be subdivided into five groups of dialects that actually prove to be individual languages: 
– Maghrebi Arabic 
– Egyptian Arabic 
– Mesopotamian Arabic 
– Gulf Arabic 
– Central Asian

Maghrebi Arabic belongs to the Western group, the rest to the Eastern group of Arabic languages and dialects. 

The first translations from Arabic date back to the 7th century. Over centuries, there have been a lot of literary works translated from Arabic, but the principal book Quran was translated by the Muslims only in the 12th century, such first language to be Latin. Thing is, there was a continued taboo over reading Quran in other languages but Arabic. It is only centuries later that it was translated into Italian, French and other languages.

With a mere knowledge of Classical Arabic, you will hardly be able to talk to the native speakers on an equal footing. In such cases, what you need is interpreters. The Tallinn-based ATCG Agency is always ready to provide its experts for business meetings, workshops, conferences with officials from the Arab countries. Our interpreters will ensure the highest-quality simultaneous or consecutive interpretation which will guarantee your success in the negotiations. We are also ready to handle a translation, whatever its difficulty and your deadlines, put together a notarized translation of a document, and localize your website.