The languages of the Middle East

There are several
misconceptions about the Middle East, especially when it comes to
culture. 

A typical example is a
popular stereotype about all the people from the Middle East being Arab when in
the real sense, it does not reflect the reality.

In fact, only a little
more than half (60%) of the total population of the Middle East consider
themselves Arab or even speak Arabic!!!

The Middle East is a
region that has rich history and diversity with many ethnic groups and
languages. And in this week’s post, we would be covering some of these
languages.

Where is the Middle East?

Getting to know more
about the languages and culture of the Middle East requires some knowledge
about its geography, and a good place to start from would be to discern what
part of the world is actually called the Middle East. 

Geographically, the
Middle East cuts across three continents; Parts of Northern Africa, West Asia,
and South-Eastern Europe. 

A total of 18 countries
in these three continents make up the Middle East. But lately, the concept of The
Greater Middle East, which spans a more sizable portion of these continents
is gradually catching on. 

While some of these
nations may be homogenous in terms of their language and culture, the same
can’t be said for others. That said, let us explore some of the most spoken
languages in the Middle East.

What are the main
languages spoken in the Middle East?

• Arabic

As we mentioned earlier,
Arabic is the most spoken language in the Middle East by a long shot, with over
60% of people from the region speaking it as a first or second language. It is
also the fifth most spoken language in the world, with 313 million
speakers.   

Arabic is part of the
Semitic languages and has relations to Hebrew and Aramaic. The language
consists of two forms; Classical Arabic — the form in which the
Quran (Holy book of the Islamic religion) was written — and Modern Standard Arabic.

Both forms are similar in
terms of language structure, but they differ in their groupings, word use, and
context.

North African and Asian
countries like Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia have some of the most
Arabic speakers, but it is possible to find the language spoken in other
regions.

Check out our previous post on Arabic to know more
about this historic language.

• Persian

Commonly known as Farsi,
Persian is the language spoken by the people of Parsi, referred to as
modern-day Iran. Farsi is also spoken in some of Iran’s neighboring countries
like Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and parts of Uzbekistan, although in different
dialects (Dari and Tajik).

Farsi belongs to the
Indo-European family but was heavily influenced by Arabic due to the Muslim conquest of Persia, with many of the Arabic
wordings being localized. The language on its own has also left its mark on
several Indo-Aryan languages. Farsi has over 70 million native speakers spread
across the Middle East and 110 million speakers worldwide.

• Turkish

As the name implies,
Turkish is the language spoken in Turkey but also in other countries like
Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria, which were all part of the Ottoman Empire. Modern
Turkish had a lot of inspiration from Persian and Arabic due to the invasion of
Anatolia by Turkish tribes way back in the eleventh century. 

In fact, Turkish used to
be written in an Arabic form before the switch to Latin alphabets in
1928. 

Interestingly, some words
like; kayak, kiosk, and yogurt are actually of Turkish origins, which have now
been borrowed by English.

• Kurdish

Kurdish is yet another
language that hails from the Indo-European family, with origins dating as far
back as 4000 years ago. It has three main dialects (Northern, Southern, and
Central Kurdish) that spread across Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and Armenia.
Most of these main languages (Arabic, Persian, and Turkish) in these regions
have left an impression on the way Kurdish is spoken and written. 

Today, Kurdish has
approximately 30 million speakers around the world.

• Hebrew

Hebrew is an ancient
Semitic language just like Arabic, but it is the official language of Israel.
Classical Hebrew was the version spoken during the biblical times, but the capture of Jerusalem by
the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the 2nd Century CE almost brought an end to the
language. 

Various movements in the
nineteenth century began the revival of the language, with Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
leading the charge to modernize the Hebrew language to what we know today.

Presently, there are over
9 million speakers of Modern Hebrew. Although a significant portion is
domiciled in Israel, you can still find trace amounts of speakers in Europe and
North America.

Other languages spoken in
the Middle East include; English, Greek, Russian, Azerbaijani, Urdu, Malayalam,
Cherchen, Kazakh, Punjabi, and many more.

Conclusion

Although the five
languages covered in this post make up a significant portion of the languages
spoken in the Middle East, there are a whole lot more out there, which
demonstrates the diversity of this historic region.