Arabic is the official language in 25 countries including some common refugee countries of origin such as Algeria, Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan. The Arabic language has many dialects which vary from the literary form. The most widely spoken is the Egyptian dialect, spoken by about 79 million people in Egypt and the most widely understood variety, due to the popularity of Egyptian-made films and TV shows. The Moroccan and Algerian dialects are each spoken by about 20 million people.
Hello: Marhaba
How are you? Keaf halak? (K fe)
I’m fine, thanks: Ana bekhaer shokra (hey-er shookrah)
What is your name? Ma howa esmek?
My name is… Ana esmey…
Nice to meet you: Saed (sa-eed) be marefatak (marry)
Welcome to… Ahlan
The words in brackets give more of an idea for an English speaker of how these Arabic words should be pronounced, for example (K) is a representation of how we say the letter “K”.
