Languages of Saudi Arabia
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, al-Mamlaka al-’Arabiya as-Sa’udiya. 23,612,000. National or official language: Standard Arabic. Literacy rate: 79%, 85% men. Immigrant languages: Bengali (15,000), Egyptian Spoken Arabic (300,000), English (60,000), French (22,000), Indonesian (37,000), Italian (22,000), Korean (66,000), Rohingya (100,000), Somali (42,700), Sudanese Spoken Arabic (86,000), Tagalog (700,000), Urdu (382,000), Uyghur (5,920), Western Cham (100), Western Farsi (102,000). Also includes Chinese (58,000), and languages of India (120,000), the Philippines (700,000), and Nigeria. Information mainly from M. Bateson 1967; B. Comrie 1987; C. Holes 1990; B. Ingham 1994; T. Johnstone 1987; A. Kaye 1987, 1988. Blind population: 140,000. Deaf population: 1,103,284. The number of individual languages listed for Saudi Arabia is 5. Of those, all are living languages.
| Arabic | [ara]
A macrolanguage.
Population total all countries: 221,002,544.
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| Arabic, Gulf Spoken | [afb]
200,000 in Saudi Arabia. Northern and southern Eastern Province.
Alternate names: Gulf Spoken.
Dialects: Al-Hasaa.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
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| Arabic, Hijazi Spoken | [acw]
6,000,000 in Saudi Arabia (1996). Population total all countries: 6,023,900. Red Sea coast and adjacent highlands. Also in Eritrea.
Alternate names: Hijazi, West Arabian Colloquial Arabic.
Dialects: North Hijazi, South Hijazi, Valley Tihaamah, Coastal Tihaamah. North Hijazi has 4 subvarieties, South Hijazi has 16.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
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| Arabic, Najdi Spoken | [ars]
8,000,000 in Saudi Arabia. Population total all countries: 9,977,000. Also in Canada, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, United States.
Dialects: North Najdi (Shammari, Bani Khaalid, Dafiir), Central Najdi (Rwala, Haayil, Al-Qasiim, Sudair, Riyadh, Hofuf, Biishah, Najraan, Wild ’Ali, ’Awaazim, Rashaayda, Mutair, ’Utaiba, ’Ajmaan), South Anjdi (Aal Murrah, Najran). Some dialects are spoken by Bedouins.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
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| Arabic, Standard | [arb]
206,000,000 L1 speakers of all Arabic varieties (Wiesenfeld 1999). Middle East, North Africa. Also in Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
Alternate names: Al-’Arabiyya, Al-Fusha, Literary Arabic.
Dialects: Modern Standard Arabic (Modern Literary Arabic), Classical Arabic (Koranic Arabic, Quranic Arabic). Preserves the ancient grammar.
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Semitic, Central, South, Arabic
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| Saudi Arabian Sign Language | [sdl]
Classification: Deaf sign language
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