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Languages of Egypt

Languages of Egypt
Official languages Modern Standard Arabic
Vernaculars Egyptian Arabic (68%) (de facto lingua franca)
Minority languages Sa'idi Arabic (29%), Bedouin Arabic (1.6%), Sudanese Arabic (0.6%), Domari (0.3%), Nobiin (0.3%), Bedawi (0.1%), Siwi, and Coptic (only for Coptic Christian rituals)
Main immigrant languages Greek, Armenian, Italian
Main foreign languages English and French
Sign languages Egyptian Sign Language
Historical language(s) Egyptian and its Coptic descendant

There are a number of languages spoken in Egypt, but Egyptian Arabic is by far the most widely spoken in the country. Arabic was adopted by the Egyptians after the Arab conquest of Egypt.

The official language in Egypt is Modern Standard Arabic, used in most written documents.

Arabic came to Egypt in the 7th century, and Egyptian Arabic has become the modern spoken language of the Egyptians and is understood by almost all Egyptians. In southern Egypt, Saidi Arabic is the main spoken language for most non-urbanized people. 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 throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

A Bedouin Arab minority speaks a variety of Bedouin Arabic mostly in the Sinai Peninsula. Sudanese Arabic is also spoken by the Sudanese minority.

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

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

Approximately 77,000 speakers of Beja live in the Eastern Desert and along the coast of the Red Sea.

Some 234,000 (2004) Dom speak the Domari language (an Indo-Aryan language related to Romany) and are concentrated north of Cairo and in Luxor.


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