I’m amazed that people in Arab countries still find the same language mutually intelligible. I’ve found that not only does almost every single country have a significantly different dialect, even sub-state regions and cities have material linguistic differences. On top of that the Arabic taught in schools, written in books, and utilized on news broadcasts is completely different from what anyone actually speaks.

This fragmentation shows that Arabic is gradually following the path of Latin, which gradually broke up across generations into the various Romance languages that we see today in Europe. In the future we might expect to see Egyptian, Saudi, Moroccan, and Syrian all evolve into separate languages, albeit with a shared origin. For the time being the conceit continues that this is all one language, but that is becoming less true everyday.

Writer, podcaster, and commentator on foreign affairs and politics. Runs /dropglobalnews

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Oh yeah the Maghreb is almost its own thing already

Per a friend from Lebanon, not all Arabic is mutually intelligible. At least he says he can hardly understand Arabic from the Maghreb. So perhaps the drift is already well underway?

You've captured the essence of how Arabic is evolving. Despite the growing differences in dialects, it's amazing how they still connect through a shared history, though it’s possible we might see them become distinct languages in the future.