Today's diverse Arabs are unified by a common language—Arabic—spoken in many dialects from Morocco into East Africa, throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and into the Persian Gulf region.

Arabic is a Semitic language, related to Hebrew and Aramaic. The Semitic language family belongs to an even larger family called Afro-Asiatic. The languages of ancient Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, and Palestine belonged to this family.

Classical Arabic is the sacred language of Muslims, because it is believed to be the language in which God spoke to Muhammad. Well-educated Muslims and religious scholars speak and read classical Arabic, and its use in radio and on television has increased its comprehension among less educated listeners.

Every Arab speaks at least one of the many conversational forms of Arabic, which may be quite different from one another. Moroccan Arabic, for example, is almost incomprehensible to an Arab of the Persian Gulf area. In recent times, movies and television soap operas have helped familiarize Arabs with other dialects.

Unlike English, Arabic includes many guttural sounds. All words begin with a consonant followed by a vowel.

The English language contains many words with Arabic origins, such as "checkmate," "mummy," and "sherbet."