What language is spoken in Egypt?

Almost all Egyptians speak Arabic as their mother tongue. Egyptian Arabic is at home in Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta, and it is understood across the whole country. Further south along the Nile, in Upper Egypt, Arabic sounds different: people there speak Sa'idi Arabic.

In the far south around Aswan, Nubians speak their own Nubian languages alongside Arabic. In the Siwa Oasis near the Libyan border you will hear Siwi, a Berber language. In Sinai and the deserts to the west and east, Bedouin communities have their own Arabic dialects. Tap a region to hear it.

Egypt is the most populous Arabic-speaking country in the world. Its official language is Arabic, but daily life uses two forms of it. Modern Standard Arabic is used in writing, newspapers, the news and government offices. What people actually speak is Egyptian Arabic, called “Masri” in Arabic. It is a distinct spoken variety with its own pronunciation and many words of its own.

Native English speakers can think of it as a spoken language that sits next to a formal written standard, with a gap far wider than between, say, British and American English.

Egyptian Arabic is unusually well understood across the Arab world. The reason is that Egyptian films, TV series and music have been popular everywhere from Morocco to Iraq for decades. Many Arabs simply pick Masri up along the way.

Two sounds stand out in Cairo. The letter jim is pronounced as a hard G, so “gamil” means beautiful. And qaf usually becomes a glottal stop, the catch in the middle of “uh-oh”: “qalb” (heart) turns into “'alb”. Typical everyday words are “Ezzayak?” (How are you?, to a man; to a woman “Ezzayek?”), “Aiwa” (yes) and “Ma'alesh” (never mind, no problem).

In the Nile Valley south of Cairo, roughly from Beni Suef to Luxor, people speak Sa'idi Arabic. It is another Egyptian dialect, but it sounds noticeably different from Cairo Arabic. The best-known difference is qaf: where Cairenes say “'alb”, you will often hear “galb” in Upper Egypt. Travellers to Luxor notice this quickly, but Cairo Arabic is still understood there without trouble.

In the south around Aswan live the Nubians, who speak Nubian languages such as Nobiin and Kenzi alongside Arabic. They do not use a script of their own in daily life, and the languages are passed on mainly by word of mouth. When the Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s, many Nubians were resettled because their villages disappeared under the reservoir.

In the Siwa Oasis in the Western Desert, people speak Siwi. It is not an Arabic dialect but a Berber language, related to the Amazigh languages of North Africa. In Sinai and in the deserts to the west and east, Bedouins speak their own Arabic dialects, which differ from the Arabic of the Nile Valley.

Coptic is the last stage of Ancient Egyptian, the language spoken in the time of the pharaohs. Hieroglyphs were used to write earlier stages of the same language, while Coptic is written with Greek letters. Nobody speaks it as an everyday language any more, but it lives on as the liturgical language of the Coptic Church, where parts of prayers and hymns are still sung in Coptic.

In hotels, at the major sights and in resorts such as Hurghada or Sharm el-Sheikh, usually yes. English is the most important foreign language in Egyptian schools, and French also has a long tradition, especially at certain schools and among the educated elite. Away from tourism, English becomes harder to rely on. A few words of Arabic such as “Shukran” (thank you) are greatly appreciated everywhere.

For Egypt, Arabic is the language to learn. On Langula you can learn Modern Standard Arabic for free, with audio for every word and sentence. Egyptian Arabic is not offered as a separate course. Standard Arabic helps you read signs, menus and the news. For conversations, it is worth adding a few typically Egyptian words such as “Ezzayak?”, “Aiwa” and “Ma'alesh”.