Saudi Arabia Languages

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Description

The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic.
The three main regional variants spoken by Saudis are:

  • Najdi Arabic - about 14.6 million speakers.
  • Hejazi Arabic - also known as Hijazi Arabic & West Arabian Arabic - about 10.3 million speakers.
  • Gulf Arabic - about 0.96 million speakers.

Faifi language is also spoken by about 50,000 people along the Saudi border.

Word List(s)

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Alphabet

Pronunciation

Language Aids and Dictionaries

Dictionaries

  • Wehr, Hans. A dictionary of modern written Arabic. n.p.: Snowball Publishing, 2020. Available at: WorldCat.
  • Awde, Nicholas and K Smith. Arabic dictionary : [Arabic-English ; English-Arabic]. London: Bennett & Bloom, 2004. Available at: WorldCat.
  • HarperCollins (Firm). Everyday Arabic dictionary : English-Arabic, Arabic-English. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. Available at: WorldCat.
  • Qafisheh, Hamdi A. NTC's Gulf Arabic-English dictionary. Lincolnwood, Ill: NTC Pub. Group, 1997. Available at: WorldCat.

Online Dictionaries

Language Aids

  • Green, Arthur Octavius. A practical Arabic grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1915. Available at: WorldCat.
  • Salib, George A. Arabic grammar. Brunswick West, Vic: G.A. Salib, 2011. Available at: WorldCat.
  • Ingham, Bruce. Najdi Arabic:central Arabian. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 1994. Available at: WorldCat.
  • Holes, Clive. Gulf Arabic. London; New York: Routledge, 2011. Available at: WorldCat.
  • Alfaife, Saleem Mohammed. A grammar of Faifi. Long Beach, California: California State University, 2018. Available at: WorldCat.

Additional Resources

References