Next week Thursday, December 18, 2025 is this year’s World Arabic Language Day (WALD), also known as the UN Arabic Language Day. This annual event was first established by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010. Besides show-casing the global importance of the Arabic language, this yearly event further strengthens cultural connections and shared values. Through the annual activities of the WALD, the world has come to appreciate the power of language to unite people, and inspire future generations.
The theme of the 2025 WALD is “Innovative Pathways for Arabic: Policies and Practices for a More Inclusive Linguistic Future.” The theme seeks to explore how innovation and inclusion can shape the future of the Arabic language; focusing on how education, media, technology, and public policy provide opportunities for driving the socially responsive uses of the language and making it more accessible and dynamic.
It would be recalled that the celebration of the WALD started in 2012. This was after the UN General Assembly had made Arabic one of its official languages at the UN. In 2012, UNESCO celebrated the Day. As we’ve always done on this page on the annual event of the WALD, we find it even more relevant this year to further enrich readers with some interesting facts about the Arabic language.
In the current age of rapid digital transformation, the 2025 theme is apt as it focuses on initiatives that expand Arabic’s presence across education systems, digital platforms, and public discourse, especially in multilingual or under-resourced communities. Discussions by scholars, linguists and academics at various fora to mark the 2025 WALD would indeed help to ensure that Arabic remains a vibrant, adaptable language rooted in its rich cultural heritage.
Because of another major event historically and culturally related to the WALD, the colloquium of academics, scholars, students and stakeholders in the Arabic language industry of Nigeria usually convened by the Nigeria Arabic Language Village (NALV) in Maiduguri to mark the WALD on a national scale has been rescheduled to another date to be announced by the authorities of the NALV. The 40th edition of the National Qur’an Recitation Competition which is featuring participants from all the 36 states of the federation and the FCT is being hosted in Maiduguri, Borno State, from December 12-22, 2025. The event is therefore currently ongoing. To simultaneously host the Qur’anic competition and WALD both in Maiduguri could be a source of major diversion or distraction. However, the rescheduling of the WALD at the NALV should not stop universities and other institutions of higher learning from organising intellectual and cultural activities to celebrate the WALD in Nigeria.
As individuals, we can celebrate the WALD in our own ways. It could be by speaking few Arabic sentences in our homes, schools, mosques, and work places on the Arabic Day. With a few days to the WALD, we could announce a rule at the family level that conversations among family members (as a couple or as siblings), should be in Arabic for most part of the Arabic Day. The same thing could also be done in the mosque we regularly pray.
Of course, doing this involves learning some basic yet simple Arabic words and phrases such as greetings. The acquisition of a set of vocabularies that would ease the use of Arabic shall have to precede the WALD by a few days. Let us start the Arabic Day with Arabic words, sentences or songs. Call a friend on the phone and ask after his family. Ask of what he’s doing or intends to do at a particular time of the day. Ask of when he will take the next meal, and possibly, the type of meal. Make efforts to talk about different issues with people using the Arabic language.
One of the peculiarities of the Arabic language, for instance, is that it has no capital letters. It’s also a language written and read from right to left. Ironically, Arabic numbers are however read and written from left to right. The Arabic language has no contractions. Unlike English, where contractions and abbreviations are common, Arabic does not combine words to shorten them. While some nouns including the lion have dozens of words as synonyms, others such as the camel have hundreds of synonyms; making Arabic the richest spoken language in the world. Today, the total number of words in the Arabic language varies depending on the source. However, it is estimated to be between 90 and 500 million words.
Arabic was once the language of science after the works of early Greek scientists and philosophers were translated into Arabic. This was a period when Europe had no knowledge of the philosophical ideas of Plato and Aristotle. Without Arabic serving as the link through the works of Arab translators, Medieval Europe couldn’t have accessed the works of Greek philosophers; and Europe may consequently not have been brought out of the Dark Ages into the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. The contributions of Arab scholars to the development of mathematics, chemistry, and medicine remain indelible. Many English words, today, derive from Arabic. Over 7,000 words in the English language have Arabic roots, with over 500 of them still in common usage even today.
An inscription on a temple near Aleppo, Syria in the early 6th century is the oldest known record of written Arabic. As the language of the holy Qur’an and worship in Islam, Arabic is used by over a billion Muslims around the world. Because of the unique sound “Ḍād” (a strongly-pronounced letter) that is missing in most languages as if it were exclusive to Arabic, the language is often referred to as “the language of the Ḍād.”
May Allah (SWT) guide all speakers (whether native or non-native) of Arabic, as well as all its users, to preserve the world’s richest language that is spoken both on earth and in the heavens, Amin. Happy 2025 Arabic Language Day!
