Modern Standard Arabic

North American scholars speak about a language called "Modern Standard Arabic", which is supposedly different from the 'alfu.shhaa. The distinction is subtle:

Essentially a streamlined, modernized, form of Classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, of poetry, and of other literature, MSA is used in education, for official purposes, and for written communication within the Arabic-speaking international community

This view is not strictly false. It is about as true as saying that there is a "modernized form" of English called "Modern Standard English". One might say: "Essentially a streamlined, modernized, form of Classical English (the language of Conrad's novel "Heart of Darkness", of poetry, and of other literature), Modern Standard English is used in education, for official purposes, and for written communication within the English-speaking international community".

If anybody challenged this claim, you might just produce a copy of Conrad's novel, some modern newspaper headlines, and point at their differences. Everybody would agree that the style in which that novel is written is not used in education, let alone "for official purposes". And nobody can deny that the kind of English which is used for written communication within the English-speaking international community doesn't sound like Conrad's English. They will have to agree that they sound different.

But that doesn't mean that English speakers will agree that all variants of English they know about may be pigeonholed into two "forms" of the language, "Modern" and "Classical". The speakers have a better, finer classification of the several forms of the language: there's newspaper headlines, poetry, slang, literature, jokes, pop music lyrics... and there's good and bad. Conrad's language may be outdated, but it's definitely good literature and definitely English. Moreover, even if sentences like "Eye drops off shelf" or "prostitutes appeal to Pope" appear in a newspaper headline, most speakers won't agree to call them "modern standard English", they'd rather classify them as bad English, or as no English at all.

Arabic speakers think about Arabic largely along the same lines. They don't see any sharp division between "modern" and "classical", and they don't even have a name for that "Modern Standard Arabic".

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atrás Standard Arabic Vs. Arabic Dialects
arriba a Few Notes on Arabic Culture
'al'islaam