[Latest] How old is Arabic now?

Living Person

Arabic
is

As of April 13, 2026

15 years old
approximately!

* Calculated from Wikipedia data.
Accuracy is not guaranteed.

Arabic
اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ (al-ʿarabiyyah)
al-ʿarabiyyah in written Arabic (Naskh script)
Pronunciation	[ˈʕɑrɑbiː] [æl ʕɑrɑˈbɪj.jæ]
Native to	Arab world and surrounding regions
Ethnicity	Arabs, and other ethnic groups of the Arab world
Speakers	411 million native speakers of all varieties (2020–2024) 70 million L2 users of all varieties (2020–2024)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic
Early forms	Proto-Afroasiatic Proto-Semitic Proto-Arabic Old Arabic Pre-classical Arabic
Standard forms	Modern Standard Arabic
Dialects	Central Asian Chadian Egyptian Levantine Maghrebi Mesopotamian Peninsular Saʽidi Shirvani Sudanese
Writing system	Arabic alphabet Other official scripts Latin script (Maltese alphabet)
Official status
Official language in	24 states and territories Algeria Bahrain Chad Comoros Djibouti Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Libya Mali Mauritania Morocco Oman Palestine Qatar Saudi Arabia Somalia Sudan Syria Tunisia United Arab Emirates Yemen States and territories with limited recognition Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Somaliland Zanzibar (Tanzania) International Organizations African Union Arab League Organisation of Islamic Cooperation United Nations Special status in Constitution Iran Pakistan
Recognised minority language in	List Cyprus Israel Mali Niger Philippines Senegal South Africa
Regulated by	List Algeria: Supreme Council of the Arabic language in Algeria Egypt: Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo Israel: Academy of the Arabic Language in Israel Iraq: Iraqi Academy of Sciences Jordan: Jordan Academy of Arabic Libya: Academy of the Arabic Language in Jamahiriya Morocco: Academy of the Arabic Language in Rabat Saudi Arabia: Academy of the Arabic Language in Riyadh Somalia: Academy of the Arabic Language in Mogadishu Sudan: Academy of the Arabic Language in Khartoum Syria: Arab Academy of Damascus (the oldest) Tunisia: Beit Al-Hikma Foundation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ar
ISO 639-2	ara
ISO 639-3	ara – inclusive code Individual codes: arq – Algerian Arabic xaa – Andalusi Arabic abv – Bahrani Arabic avl – Bedawi Arabic shu – Chadian Arabic acy – Cypriot Arabic adf – Dhofari Arabic arz – Egyptian Arabic acm – Gelet Iraqi Arabic afb – Gulf Arabic ayh – Hadhrami Arabic mey – Hassaniya Arabic acw – Hejazi Arabic apc – Levantine Arabic ayl – Libyan Arabic ary – Moroccan Arabic ars – Najdi Arabic acx – Omani Arabic ayp – Qeltu Iraqi Arabic aao – Saharan Arabic aec – Saʽidi Arabic ayn – Sanʽani Arabic ssh – Shihhi Arabic sqr – Siculo-Arabic arb – Standard Arabic apd – Sudanese Arabic acq – Taʽizzi-Adeni Arabic abh – Tajiki Arabic aeb – Tunisian Arabic auz – Uzbeki Arabic
Glottolog	arab1395
Linguasphere	12-AAC
Sole official language, Arabic-speaking majority   Co-official language, Arabic-speaking majority   Co-official language, Arabic-speaking minority   Not an official language, Arabic-speaking minority
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• Use American English from July 2025
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• Languages attested from the 9th century BC
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