Many wonder about the difference between Classical Arabic and Standard Arabic.
In short, Classical Arabic is a “descriptive” term of the language used by the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula (exluding South Arabia) around the dawn of Islam.
Standard Arabic is a “prescriptive” term of the language which ancient Arab grammarians considered “Classical”. While Modern Standard Arabic is a “descriptive” term of the realisation of Standard Arabic by modern day Arabs!
Such realisation depends heavily on the dialectal background, level of education and mastery of the prescriptive grammar of Standard Arabic. It’s no secret that many Arabs today, struggle with the inflections of Standard Arabic (because modern colloquial Arabic lacks inflections for the most part), many of them just opt to drop it, speaking in a pausal type of Standard Arabic, while some are quite masterful when it comes to the inflections, but are quite rare. That is why one would find such statements along the lines of “Modern Standard Arabic isn’t inflected, or uses inflections haphazardly”, which isn’t true, even from a descriptive point of view.
What complicates the matter is that many would get the impression that Modern Standard Arabic is the language which naturally developed from Standard Arabic, or even Classical Arabic.
Modern Standard Arabic, from a naming point of view, is a misnomer! There isn’t/wasn’t a modern standardization of the Arabic language. Nor did it develop from (an older) Standard Arabic. Another common misconception is that: Modern Standard Arabic = Standard Arabic + modern register of vocabulary (of innovated or borrowed words for items Arabs didn’t have)!!
Unlike English, where one would find: Old English, Middle English and Modern English, showing the evolution of the language, and all are descriptive terms, the terms used for Arabic might be quite misleading!
You see, “Classical” here is more a function of time, rather than form or style (quite contrary to what ancient Arab grammarians would view as fusha فصحى). That’s why to Arabs, only familiar to the Arab use of fusha فصحى, there is no difference between Classical Arabic and Standard Arabic.
Certainly, the terms Classical Arabic & Standard Arabic are western (linguistic) terms describing this ancient descriptive/prescriptive divide, many fall into the idea that the difference is in form, grammar and style. While in reality, Standard Arabic is the (ancient) attempt to preserve and saveguard the form, grammar and style of “Classical Arabic”.
Arabic of course went through development and evolution, but also unlike English, there are many missing links between Classical Arabic dialects (or even Ancient North Arabian dialects) and the real modern Arabic, which are the modern colloquial varieties of Arabic. The dialects have remained for the most part unwritten, as such it’s difficult to demonstrate different phases of development. This can be done though through retrospective and comparative means.
From time immemorial, the ancient Arabian tribes have been quite widespread in the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and Mesopotamia, one would (and should) expect differences in the dialects of those ancient tribes. From a classical point of view, these (North Arabian) tribes spoke Classical Arabic dialects, considered sometimes flawed by ancient Arab grammarians, which considered the language of the Quran to be the prime form of Arabic; they did go into the effort of describing them, though tediously at times! (hopefully that’s the topic of an upcoming thread)
Indeed, Classical Arabic isn’t limited to the Quran, nor for that matter, is the Quran limited to Standard Arabic.
In fact, the Quran exhibits (rarely though) some grammatical features which deviate from prescriptive Standard Arabic. More deviations become apparent in the different ancient readings of the Quran (still well alive today), which basically reflect ancient Classical Arabic dialects. You might wonder why ancient grammarians would dismiss/ignore what they would subjectively perceive as non-standard features occuring in Quranic Arabic from Standard Arabic grammar. Such dismissal happened progressively through time, when in the other hand, the prevailing grammar was becoming more and more standardized. They can still be found in advanced books on Arabic grammar, rarely found in English unfortunately!
The Quran is considered to be the literary language of the Quraish tribe which has inhabited Mecca long before the rise of Islam, and to which the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, belonged. Even there, ancient grammarians describe “faulty” features of the Quraish dialect, which would seem to indicate that even in ancient times, there was a form of diglossia, where a tribe would have it’s spoken dialect, and literary dialectal form.
One of the interesting things in Pre-Islamic poetry, is that even though Arab poets came from distant tribes, they avoided using heavy dialectal featrures, and instead, presented their poetry in a “neutral” literary form of Arabic, sometime referred to as “Poetic Koine” by linguists.
On a different note, for those interested in learning Arabic:
Many Arabic language learners would actually learn Standard Arabic (not Modern Standard Arabic) or probably a simplified version of it (that also wouldn’t make it Modern Standard Arabic). The idea is that now you don’t have to worry as much that what you’re learning is a different language from Classical Arabic, if you were worrying you won’t be able to read a Classical text. Well at least as well as a beginner in English would approach Shakespeare (also Modern English in case you didn’t know)!
Furthermore, Standard Arabic is the language used in newspapers and the written media in general, news broadcasts, many TV shows (including childrens’ cartoons), debates…etc. So it’s widely used for those worrying they’re attempting to learn a dead language! And no it’s not like the situation of Classical Latin and the modern Romance languages. Learning Standard Arabic would get you around just fine with native Arabs, even around those who haven’t received a formal education! (also an upcoming thread on that)
Learning Standard Arabic would also help in learning modern Arabic dialects as a first step. It’s easier than learning a dialect first, since it’s more standardized, predictable, and has lots of material (learning or otherwise) availabe. It’s rare to find colloquial Arabic dictionaries, while Classical dictionaries are available online and for free. Even when it comes to the dialects, the more formal and higher the register, you’d mostly find Standard Arabic vocabulary. A good example is the Egyptian Arabic Wikipedia!
Going for an Arabic dialect only, though also useful and immersive, one is limited to the spoken form, and would find difficulty in understanding other dialects of Arabic and even the dialect itself!
A good approach if you have your eyes set on a specific dialect, is to start with learning the dialect, then from there to Standard Arabic, that would give you some interesting insights into the dialect you’re learning, and help you in understanding different dialects.
You’ve probably noticed that I’ve stressed upon the importance of being able to understand different dialects a few times, I think this can’t be overstated, especially for those interested in REALLY learning and fully experiencing Arabic. Luckily it’s not that hard! The importance of which arises from the fact that the Arab world is becoming closer. Arab singers are singing in different dialects, talkshows host Arabs from different countries, there are more and more Arabs of different backgrounds in any location in the Arab world, and in the diaspora. It’s common to hear a non-Egyptian saying a joke in Egyptian Arabic, or a non-Lebanese quoting a Lebanese song. It’s like the situation in English between American English and British English, and the different varieties of English!
Best of luck in your endeavor in learning Arabic
And for those not learning Arabic, thanks for reading 🙂
3arabic 