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Kailash Kumar

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Ranked: The 100 Most Spoken Languages Around the World

February 15, 2020

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https://www.visualcapitalist.com/100-most-spoken-languages/
 
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Egypt Pop 100Mil... But only 64Mil speaks it...

Egyptian Arabic, locally known as the Egyptian colloquial dialect, Masri, is the most prestigious and most spoken dialect in Egypt.

Egyptian Arabic has no official status and is not officially recognized as a language. Modern Standard Arabic, a modernized form of Classical Arabic (also called Qur'anic Arabic), is the official language of Egypt.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Arabic

So, Egyptian Arabic is spoken by a majority of Egyptians (~ 64 %) and a minority (~ 36 %) speaks Modern Standard Arabic. I think however that those who speak Modern Standard Arabic probably also know how to speak Egyptian Arabic (but to a lesser degree) and vice-versa.
 
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Egyptian Arabic, locally known as the Egyptian colloquial dialect, Masri, is the most prestigious and most spoken dialect in Egypt.

Egyptian Arabic has no official status and is not officially recognized as a language. Modern Standard Arabic, a modernized form of Classical Arabic (also called Qur'anic Arabic), is the official language of Egypt.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Arabic

So, Egyptian Arabic is spoken by a majority of Egyptians (~ 64 %) and a minority (~ 36 %) speaks Modern Standard Arabic. I think however that those who speak Modern Standard Arabic probably also know how to speak Egyptian Arabic (but to a lesser degree) and vice-versa.

No... Egyptian Arabic IS the language that every Egyptian understand and speak...
MSA is not a day to day language, it's used in formal exchange/studies, like in the media/international etc...
That data doesn't take into account "Primary" language... but separate dialect as if "ppl" can't speak more than one...

This data is false for Egypt... Every single Egyptian CAN speak MAsri and understand it... But a minority of Egyptian CAN ALSO speak other dialects in addition to Masri.
 
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No... Egyptian Arabic IS the language that every Egyptian understand and speak...
MSA is not a day to day language, it's used in formal exchange, like in the media/international etc...
That data doesn't take into account "Primary" language... but separate dialect as if "ppl" can't speak more than one...

This data is false for Egypt... Every single Egyptian CAN speak MAsri and understand it... But a minority of Egyptian CAN ALSO speak other dialects in addition to Masri.

The above figure of ~ 64 million speaker is given for Egyptian Arabic.
The Wikipedia page shows the same number of ~ 64 million speakers of Egyptian Arabic but it also says that Egyptian Arabic and Masri are the same.

I did find however a page where they talk about the different Egyptian Arabic dialects of which Masri is one of them.
  • Masri: This is the most widely-spoken Arabic dialect, and is spoken mainly by the inhabitants of Egypt’s capital city, Cairo, and the surrounding cities. This dialect was derived from the spoken Arabic form that came to Egypt with Islam and was later influenced by the local Coptic language and other foreign languages such as Italian, Turkish, English and French.

  • Saidi: This is the dialect spoken by Saidi people who live in Southern Egypt near the Sudan border. It differs slightly in the cities along the Nile and gets more complicated farther south, where it has some similarities with Sudanese Arabic.

  • Bedawi: This is the dialect spoken by the Bedouins in the Sinai Peninsula and the eastern parts of Egypt. It is also spoken in neighboring countries like Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. Bedawi is made up of several dialects including Levantine Bedawi Arabic and Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic.
https://www.globalizationpartners.com/2017/05/31/egypts-spoken-arabic-dialects/

It could be possible that they thought that Masri was the same as Egyptian Arabic, even though it is a sub-dialect. It could also be possible that the figure of ~ 64 million speakers only counts for the Masri sub-dialect of Egyptian Arabic, but not for the Saidi and Bedawi sub-dialects.
I think if you would add up the number of speakers of the Masri, Saidi and Bedawi sub-dialects together, you would come to a figure of 100 million, in other words, the whole population of Egypt.
 
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The above figure of ~ 64 million speaker is given for Egyptian Arabic.
The Wikipedia page shows the same number of ~ 64 million speakers of Egyptian Arabic but it also says that Egyptian Arabic and Masri are the same.

I did find however a page where they talk about the different Egyptian Arabic dialects of which Masri is one of them.
  • Masri: This is the most widely-spoken Arabic dialect, and is spoken mainly by the inhabitants of Egypt’s capital city, Cairo, and the surrounding cities. This dialect was derived from the spoken Arabic form that came to Egypt with Islam and was later influenced by the local Coptic language and other foreign languages such as Italian, Turkish, English and French.

  • Saidi: This is the dialect spoken by Saidi people who live in Southern Egypt near the Sudan border. It differs slightly in the cities along the Nile and gets more complicated farther south, where it has some similarities with Sudanese Arabic.

  • Bedawi: This is the dialect spoken by the Bedouins in the Sinai Peninsula and the eastern parts of Egypt. It is also spoken in neighboring countries like Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia. Bedawi is made up of several dialects including Levantine Bedawi Arabic and Eastern Egyptian Bedawi Arabic.
https://www.globalizationpartners.com/2017/05/31/egypts-spoken-arabic-dialects/

It could be possible that they thought that Masri was the same as Egyptian Arabic, even though it is a sub-dialect. It could also be possible that the figure of ~ 64 million speakers only counts for the Masri sub-dialect of Egyptian Arabic, but not for the Saidi and Bedawi sub-dialects.
I think if you would add up the number of speakers of the Masri, Saidi and Bedawi sub-dialects together, you would come to a figure of 100 million, in other words, the whole population of Egypt.

I see where they may come from, you may be right.

Such pattern is the same in Every Arabic country. Per exemple in Tunisia, the official language is Arabic (ie MSA), that is used for studies/formal etc... and the Tunisian, is the colloquial language, A Mixture of Arabic and Berber language. (Arabic being 80ish% predominante).
But we also have Sub-Tunisian "Dialects/variation", mostly btw the Northern part with the use of "Kh" instead of "Ga" for the Southern part. And with other minor difference in pronunciation.
So they appear slightly different on paper, but both are perfectly intelligible... Since North or South understand or even speak each other "Sub-Tunisian".
But the Northern Tunisian, is the only Tunisian "variation" that you hear on TV/radio/internet etc... So a Southern Tunisian can speak perfectly the Northern Tunisian, despite having the possibility to use his Southern variation in day to day aspects.
That's why my "take" comes from on "Everyone Can speak Masri", based on that logic.
 
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