ABSTRACT
Arabic is by far the Semitic (or indeed Afroasiatic) language with the greatest number of speakers, probably now in excess of 150 million, although a completely satisfying and accurate estimate is lacking. It is the major language throughout the Arab world, i.e. Egypt, Sudan, Libya, the North African countries usually referred to as the Maghrib (such as Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria), Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, the Gulf countries etc., and it is even the major language of non-Arab countries such as the Republic of Chad in central Africa (i.e. more Chadians speak Arabic as their mother tongue than any other language).
