Arabic Listeni/ˈærəbɪk/ (Arabic: العَرَبِية‎, al-ʻarabiyyah [alʕaraˈbijja] ( listen) or Arabic: عربي ,عربى‎ ʻarabī [ˈʕarabiː] ( listen)) is the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century and its modern descendants excluding Maltese. Arabic is spoken in a wide arc stretching across Western Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. Arabic belongs to the Afroasiatic family.