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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Asia > Kuwait

Languages of Kuwait

State of Kuwait, Dowlat al-Kuwait. 2,700,000. National or official language: Standard Arabic. Literacy rate: 71%–79%. Immigrant languages: Egyptian Spoken Arabic (20,000), Najdi Spoken Arabic (200,000), Northern Kurdish, South Levantine Spoken Arabic (85,000). Also includes Languages of India, Pakistan, the Philippines (50,000). Information mainly from C. Holes 1990; B. Ingham 1982; T. Johnstone 1967. Deaf population: 110,285. Deaf institutions: 1. The number of individual languages listed for Kuwait is 3. Of those, all are living languages.

Arabic, Gulf Spoken	[afb] 500,000 in Kuwait (1986).  Alternate names: Khaliji.  Dialects: Kuwaiti Hadari Arabic.  Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic  More information.
Arabic, Standard	[arb]  Middle East, North Africa. Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic  More information.
Mehri	[gdq] 14,400 in Kuwait (2000). Scattered individuals. Alternate names: Mahri.  Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, South, South Arabian  More information.