Languages of Egypt

Languages of Egypt
Multilingual sign at an Egyptian hotel; Egypt attracts tourists from all over the world.
Official	Standard Arabic
Vernacular	Egyptian Arabic (66.7%) (de facto lingua franca)
Minority	Sa'idi Arabic (24.1%) Sudanese Arabic (1.8%) Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic (1.2%) Domari (0.3%) Nobiin (0.4%) Western Egyptian Bedawi Arabic (0.4%) Beja (0.08%) Kenzi (0.03%) Siwi (0.02%) Coptic[1][2] (mostly liturgical)
Immigrant	Greek Armenian Italian[3] Russian
Foreign	English (39.98%)[4] French[5] (3.02%)[6][7]
Signed	Egyptian Sign Language
Keyboard layout	bilingual US QWERTY[8] with Arabic keyboard
Historical language(s)	Ancient Egyptian Meroitic[9][10][11][12]

Egyptians speak a continuum of dialects. The predominant dialect in Egypt is Egyptian Colloquial Arabic or Masri/Masry (مصرى Egyptian), which is the vernacular language.^[13] Literary Arabic is the official language^[14] and the most widely written. The Coptic language is used primarily by Egyptian Copts and it is the liturgical language of Coptic Christianity.

Official language

Literary Arabic is the official language of Egypt.^[14]

Main spoken language

Egyptian Arabic is the commonly spoken language, based on the dialect of Cairo, and is occasionally written in Arabic script, or in Arabic chat alphabet mostly on new communication services.

Of the many varieties of Arabic, Egyptian Arabic is the most widely understood first dialect in the Middle East-North Africa, probably due to the influence of Egyptian cinema and music industry throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

Minority languages

In southern Egypt, Saidi Arabic is the main spoken language for most people.

In the far-Southern Upper Nile Valley, around Kom Ombo and Aswan, there are about 300,000 speakers of Nubian languages, mainly Nobiin, but also Kenuzi.

About 30,000 Egyptian Berbers living in the Siwa oasis and its surroundings speak Siwi language,^[15] which is a variety of the Berber language of North Africa. Siwi Berber is well mutually intelligible with neighbouring Libyan Berber dialects.^[16] Beja is spoken in the Eastern desert and along the southern Red Sea coast, including the disputed Halaib Triangle.

Sign languages

The only sign language known to be used in Egypt is Egyptian Sign Language.^[17] It is known to be used in Alexandria and Cairo, and possibly other regions. Regional variation is reported anecdotally but not documented.

Foreign languages

English

Bilingual Arabic-English sign in Cairo.

Most educated people in Egypt study English at school. There are also many English language universities in Egypt including the BUE (British University in Egypt), the FUE (Future University in Egypt), Nile University and the AUC (American University in Cairo). English is the most widely used language in tourism. The majority of the road signs in Egypt are written both in Arabic and English. In addition, many English words have started being used by Egyptians in their daily life. English has a crucial position in Egypt: banknotes and coins, as well as stamps, are bilingual in English and Arabic. There is also an important press in the English language in the country, comprising several weeklies and a daily newspaper, the Daily News Egypt.^[18]

There is generally no preference towards British or American English, however, the younger generations increasingly prefer the American variant, mostly due to their exposure to American media.^[19]

French

Main article: French Language Education in Egypt

Bilingual Arabic-French street sign in Alexandria.

In 2009–2010, about six million people studied French in Egypt, and this number increased to eight million in 2013. As of 2014, most people in Egypt using French have studied it as a foreign language in school.^[20]

The first French-medium schools in Egypt were established in 1836. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had become the dominant foreign language in Egypt and the lingua franca of foreigners; this was especially the case in Cairo.^[21]

French became the primary foreign language in media during the rule of Ibrahim Pasha.^[22] During the period of the British influence, French was actually the medium of communication among foreigners and between foreigners and Egyptians;^[23] the mixed French-Egyptian civil courts operated in French, and government notices from the Egyptian Sultan, taxi stand information, timetables of trains, and other legal documents were issued in French.^[24] In addition, the usage of French in the media was at the greatest extent in this period.^[22] This was partly because some Egyptians had French education and partly because of cultural influence from France.^[23] Despite efforts from British legal personnel, English was never adopted as a language of the Egyptian civil courts during the period of British influence.^[25]

Due to social and political reasons, the role of French in Egypt began to decline in the 1920s.^[21] Two French-language newspapers are still published in Egypt: Al-Ahram Hebdo and Le Progrès Egyptien.

Italian

The primary foreign language during the reign of Muhammad Ali (reigned 1805-1848) was Italian. There was an Italian newspaper established in the city of Alexandria in 1858 and 1859, known as Il progresso.^[22]

Other foreign languages

A market in Hurghada with a Russian language banner (on the right).

German and Russian are also used in tourism.

Historical languages

Main articles: Egyptian language and Coptic language

Other Egyptian languages (also known as Copto-Egyptian) consist of ancient Egyptian and Coptic, and form a separate branch among the family of Afro-Asiatic languages. The Egyptian language is among the first written languages, and is known from hieroglyphic inscriptions preserved on monuments and sheets of papyrus. The Coptic language, the only extant descendant of Egyptian, is today the liturgical language of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The "Koiné" dialect of the Greek language was important in Hellenistic Alexandria, and was used in the philosophy and science of that culture, and was also studied by later Arabic scholars.

Notes

1. "Egypt". Ethnologue. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
2. "StackPath". 10 December 2005.
3. Perugi, Rossella (30 June 2023). "Italiano in Egitto. Fra storia e attualità" (in Italian). Retrieved 14 October 2024.
4. "The Benefits of the English Language for Individuals and Societies: Quantitative Indicators from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen" (PDF). Britishcouncil.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2014. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
5. "Egypt", The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 11 January 2023, retrieved 25 January 2023
6. Estimation des populations francophones dans le monde en 2022 (PDF) (in French). Observatoire démographique et statistique de l’espace francophone. 2022. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
7. "Portail de l'Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)".
8. "A List of Local Keyboard Layout in 24 Countries/Regions. (updated in September 2013) - brightmeasurement". sites.google.com. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
9. Claude Rilly (2011). Recent Research on Meroitic, the Ancient Language of Sudan. http://www.ityopis.org/Issues-1_files/ITYOPIS-I-Rilly.pdf. Under the sub-heading - The original cradle of Proto-NES: chronological and palaeoclimatic issues. p. 18
10. Claude Rilly (2007). La langue du royaume de Méroé, Un panorama de la plus ancienne culture écrite d’Afrique subsaharienne, Paris: Champion (Bibliothèque de l’École pratique des hautes études, Sciences historiques et philologiques, t. 344)
11. Claude Rilly (2004). THE LINGUISTIC POSITION OF MEROITIC. http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/projets/clhass/PageWeb/ressources/Isolats/Meroitic%20Rilly%202004.pdf Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine. p. 1
12. Ahmed Abuelgasim Elhassan. Religious Motifs in Meroitic Painted and Stamped Pottery. Oxford, England: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2004. xii, 176 p. BAR international series. p.1.
13. "The rise and fall of Egyptian Arabic". The Economist. 31 January 2018. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
14. "Constitutional Declaration: A New Stage in the History of the Great Egyptian People". Egypt State Information Service. 30 March 2011. Archived from the original on 27 April 2011. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
15. Siwi (siwi or žlan n isiwan) is a Berber language spoken at the oasis of Siwa in western Egypt (Matrūħ Province), about 500 km west of the Nile and 250 km south of the Mediterranean coast, by a little less than 15,000 people, forming a majority of the oasis' population. The nearest Egyptian oasis, Bahariyya, is some 350 km east of Siwa. Siwi is also spoken at the tiny oasis of Gāra near Siwa, and I was told of a multigenerational Siwi community at nearby Jaghbūb in Libya. page 16 of the book GRAMMATICAL CONTACT IN THE SAHARA: Arabic, Berber, and Songhay in Tabelbala and Siwa, August 2010, by: Lameen Souag. [1]
16. "Eastern". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
17. Exploring Egyptian and American sign languages
18. Daily News Egypt Official Website
19. Schaub, Mark (2000). "English in the Arab Republic of Egypt". World Englishes. 19 (2): 235. doi:10.1111/1467-971X.00171.
20. La langue française dans le monde 2014 (PDF). Nathan. 2014. pp. 216–217. ISBN 978-2-09-882654-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015. "Pour la majorité des locuteurs actuels, le français n’est plus une langue maternelle ou une langue seconde ; il est devenu une langue étrangère qui s’apprend à l’école ou dans les centres culturels. Aujourd’hui, précédant l’allemand et suivant l’anglais (répandu à partir des années 1930), le français est la deuxième langue étrangère en Égypte et compte 8 millions d’apprenants en 2013, soit 2 millions de plus qu’en 2009-2010."
21. La langue française dans le monde 2014 (PDF). Nathan. 2014. p. 216. ISBN 978-2-09-882654-0. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015. "À partir de 1836 sont fondés des établissements employant le français comme langue d’enseignement. [...] C’est à partir des années 1920 que le français commence à perdre du terrain pour des raisons politiques et sociales."
22. Kendall, Elisabeth. "Between Politics and Literature: Journals in Alexandria and Istanbul at the End of the Nineteenth Century" (Chapter 15). In: Fawaz, Leila Tarazi and C. A. Bayly (editors) and Robert Ilbert (collaboration). Modernity and Culture: From the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. Columbia University Press, 2002. ISBN 0231114273, 9780231114271. Start: p. 330. CITED: p. 331.
23. Mak, Lanver. The British in Egypt: Community, Crime and Crises 1882-1922 (Volume 74 of International Library of Historical Studies). I.B.Tauris, 15 March 2012. ISBN 1848857098, 9781848857094. p. 87.
24. Mak, Lanver. The British in Egypt: Community, Crime and Crises 1882-1922 (Volume 74 of International Library of Historical Studies). I.B.Tauris, 15 March 2012. ISBN 1848857098, 9781848857094. p. 87-88.
25. Mak, Lanver. The British in Egypt: Community, Crime and Crises 1882-1922 (Volume 74 of International Library of Historical Studies). I.B.Tauris, 15 March 2012. ISBN 1848857098, 9781848857094. p. 89.

References

• Badawi, Mohamed; Caroli, Christian A. (2011), As-Sabil: Grundlagen der arabischen Grammatik (in German), Konstanz
• Bateson, Mary Catherine (2003), Arabic Language Handbook, Georgetown University Press, ISBN 0-87840-386-8
• Durand, Olivier; Langone, Angela D.; Mion, Giuliano (2010), Corso di Arabo Contemporaneo. Lingua Standard (in Italian), Milan: Hoepli, ISBN 978-88-203-4552-5
• Gregersen, Edgar A. (1977), Language in Africa, CRC Press, ISBN 0-677-04380-5
• Grigore, George (2007), L'arabe parlé à Mardin. Monographie d'un parler arabe périphérique, Bucharest: Editura Universitatii din Bucuresti, ISBN 978-973-737-249-9, archived from the original on 27 September 2007

External links

• Ethnologue page on "Languages of Egypt"
• PanAfriL10n page on Egypt
• Linguistic situation in Egypt (in French)
• Egyptian Language History