Varieties of Arabic
There are many varieties of Arabic (also called dialects of Arabic or vernacular languages) in existence. Arabic is a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. It is classified as a macrolanguage comprising 30 modern varieties, including its standard form. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. Some varieties of Arabic in North Africa, for example, are not easily comprehensible to an Arabic speaker from the Levant or the Persian Gulf. Within these broad regions further and considerable geographic distinctions exist, within countries, across country borders, even between cities and villages.
List of diglossic regions
The situation with the Literary Arabic (الفصحى "al-fuṣ-ḥā") versus spoken varieties of Arabic (العامية "al-`āmmiyya" or الدارجة "ad-dārija") differs from country to country, but every Arab country's official language is "standard Arabic" (MSA). Certain dialects have obtained a level of prestige. There is no consensus on which variety of Arabic should be taught to foreigners, although generally MSA is, since nearly all written Arabic texts exist in that variety.