Arabic is a language spoken in more than 20 countries throughout the Arabian Peninsula. It is the first language of over 196 million people and another 35 million people speak it as their second language. Modern Standard Arabic is the official language throughout the Arab world. Its written form is relatively consistent across national boundaries.
Arabic belongs to the Semitic family of languages, and it is written from right to left as Hebrew. It is also the language of Islam, one of the world's major religions, which has a literary tradition that goes back to before the 7th century. In fact, the spread of Islam transformed the regions of Northern Africa and the Middle East into Arabic-speaking areas within a century of its founding. In later centuries, Arabic was even more widespread in parts of Europe and Asia following additional Arab conquests.
HKU is the only university in the territory where students can minor in Arabic.
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| 22 September 2011 | Arabic Information Talk |