Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the most commonly spoken dialect of Arabic?
In this case, /fiː/ is most likely to be used as it is not associated with a particular region and is the closest to a dialectical middle ground for this group of speakers. Moreover, given the prevalence of movies and TV shows in Egyptian Arabic, the speakers are all likely to be familiar with it.[8] Iraqi aku, Levantine fīh and North African kayn all evolve from Classical Arabic forms (yakūn, fīhi, kā'in respectively), but now sound very different.
As this area is the homeland of the Arabic language, the language spoken there is closer to Classical Arabic than elsewhere. Some of the local dialects have retained many archaic features lost in other dialects, such as the conservation of nunation for indeterminate noand. They retain most Classical syntax and vocabulary but still have some differences from Classical Arabic like the other dialects.
Hejazi Arabic or Hijazi Arabic ( '), also known as West Arabian Arabic, is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Hejaz region in Saudi Arabia. Strictly speaking, there are two main groups of dialects spoken in the Hejaz region, one by the urban population, originally spoken in the major cities of Jeddah, Mecca and Medina, and another by the Bedouin or rural populations. However, the term most often applies to the urban variety which is discussed in this article.
Iraq's national languages are Arabic and the Kurdish languages. Arabic is spoken as a first language by around 79 percent of Iraqi people, and Kurdish by around 17 percent. The two main regional dialects of Arabic spoken by the Iraqi people are Mesopotamian Arabic (spoken in the Babylonian alluvial plain and Middle Euphrates valley) and North Mesopotamian Arabic (spoken in the Assyrian highlands). The two main dialects of Kurdish spoken by Kurdish Iraqis are Central Kurdish (spoken in the Erbil and Sulaymaniyah Governorates) and Northern Kurdish (spoken in Dohuk Governorate). In addition to Arabic, most Assyrians and Mandaeans speak Neo-Aramaic languages.
The indigenous inhabitants of Khuzestan speak Khuzestani Persian dialects that are unique to Khuzestan, and are rooted in old Persian and Elamite languages. The most widely spoken dialect in Khuzestan is Bakhtiari. Except in Susangerd and Hoveizh, Bakhtiari is found everywhere. Many Khuzestanis are bilingual, speaking both Persian and one of the following languages/Dialects: Khuzi languages such as Dezfuli/Shushtari, Behbahani, Ramhormozi, Ghanavati and Mahshahri or tribal languages such as Bakhtiari dialect, Arabic, Bahmee, and Qashqai. Modern Mandaic (or "Mandaee") language is spoken among minority Mandaeans mainly in Ahvaz and Dezful. It is the ancient Mandaic language mingled by some aspect of Khuzi. The Arabic spoken in Khuzestan is Mesopotamian Arabic, the same dialect as is spoken in Iraq. Ahvaz, Susangerd, Hoveyzeh, Shadegan (Doorak), Omidiyeh and lately Khorramshahr are main cities with people speaking Arabic. But main Arab ethnic groups are in nomadic and rural regions along Iran–Iraq border in southwest of province to the Ahvaz urban areas. The Persian and Bakhtiari groups of western Khuzestan all speak distinct dialects unique to their areas. It is also not uncommon to find people able to speak a variety of indigenous dialects in addition to their own.
The phoneme is represented by the Arabic letter ' () and has many standard pronunciations. is characteristic of north Algeria, Iraq, also in most of the Arabian peninsula but with an allophonic in some positions; occurs in most of the Levant and most North Africa; and is used in most of Egypt and some regions in Yemen and Oman. Generally this corresponds with the pronunciation in the colloquial dialects. In some regions in Sudan and Yemen, as well as in some Sudanese and Yemeni dialects, it may be either or , representing the original pronunciation of Classical Arabic. Foreign words containing may be transcribed with , , , , , or , mainly depending on the regional spoken variety of Arabic or the commonly diacriticized Arabic letter. Note also that in northern Egypt, where the Arabic letter ' () is normally pronounced , a separate phoneme , which may be transcribed with , occurs in a small number of mostly non-Arabic loanwords, e.g., 'jacket'.
An interesting sociolinguistic feature of Bahrain is the existence of three distinct dialects: Bahrani, Sunni and Ajami Arabic. Sunni Bahrainis speak a dialect which is most similar to urban dialect spoken in Qatar.
Lebanese French () is a dialect of French spoken in Lebanon. It is commonly spoken in Lebanon, as French language is taught in schools as a second language following Arabic.
Omani Arabic (also known as Omani Hadari Arabic) is a variety of Arabic spoken in the Al Hajar Mountains of Oman and in a few neighboring coastal regions. It is the easternmost Arabic dialect. It was formerly spoken by colonists in Kenya and Tanzania, but most or all of them have shifted to Swahili. There are several distinct dialects of Omani Arabic, such as Dhofari Arabic and Shihhi Arabic.
Even during Muhammad's lifetime, there were dialects of spoken Arabic. Muhammad spoke in the dialect of Mecca, in the western Arabian peninsula, and it was in this dialect that the Quran was written down. However, the dialects of the eastern Arabian peninsula were considered the most prestigious at the time, so the language of the Quran was ultimately converted to follow the eastern phonology. It is this phonology that underlies the modern pronunciation of Classical Arabic. The phonological differences between these two dialects account for some of the complexities of Arabic writing, most notably the writing of the glottal stop or "hamzah" (which was preserved in the eastern dialects but lost in western speech) and the use of ' (representing a sound preserved in the western dialects but merged with ' in eastern speech).
Arabic is the official, and most widely spoken, language. Arabic speakers make up 85% of the population. Several modern Arabic dialects are used in everyday life, most notably Levantine in the west and Mesopotamian in the northeast. A report published by the UNHCR points out that "while the majority of Syrians are considered Arabs, this is a term based on spoken language (Arabic), not ethnicity." 
The dialects spoken in Malabang vary by location and by barangay. Maranao is however the prominent language in Malabang, as they are the original inhabitants of Malabang. Cebuano is spoken in some barangays with Bisaya immigrant populations. Some descendants of Chinese settlers in China Town (Poblacion) speak Mandarin. English is also a commonly spoken language due to American settlers in Matalin and European missionaries. Arabic is used in Arabic school and by Arab professionals. Settlers from the Maguindanao, Samal and Tausūg ethnic groups in barangay Bunkhouse still use their tribal dialects. Although there are no settlers from the Tagalog region in Lanao del Sur, Tagalog is still used in schools, being the national language of the Philippines.
Palestinian Arabic is a Southern Levantine Arabic dialect, spoken by most Palestinians in Palestine and israel and in the Palestinian diaspora populations. Together with Jordanian Arabic, it has the ISO 639-3 language code "ajp", known as South Levantine Arabic. Further dialects can be distinguished within Palestine, such as spoken in the northern West Bank, that spoken by Palestinians in the Hebron area, which is similar to Jordan and south-western Syria. 
Palestinian Arabic is the primary language spoken by Palestinians and has a unique dialect. A Levantine Arabic dialect subgroup, it is spoken in Palestine by Arab citizens of Israel (mostly Palestinians) and in most Palestinian populations around the world. However, Palestinian refugees in other parts of the world may have a different dialect from Palestinian Arabic. In the West Bank, there are many Israeli settlements in which, since the early 20th century, Hebrew has become more common. However, Russian and Amharic has also started to appear resulting from aliyah from Ethiopia. Other Jewish migrants have also brought other European languages.
Also referred to as the sedentary Hejazi dialect, this is the form most commonly associated with the term "Hejazi Arabic", and is spoken in the urban centers of the region, such as Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. With respect to the axis of bedouin versus sedentary dialects of the Arabic language, this dialect group exhibits features of both. Like other sedentary dialects, the urban Hejazi dialect is less conservative than the bedouin varieties in some aspects and has therefore shed some Classical forms and features that are still present in bedouin dialects, these include gender-number disagreement, and the feminine marker "-n" (see Varieties of Arabic). But in contrast to bedouin dialects, the constant use of full vowels and the absence of vowel reduction plus the distinction between the emphatic letters and is generally retained.The Arabic of today is derived principally from the old dialects of Central and North Arabia which were divided by the classical Arab grammarians into three groups: Hejaz, Najd, and the language of the tribes in adjoining areas. Though the modern Hejazi dialects has developed markedly since the development of Classical Arabic, and Modern Standard Arabic is quite distinct from the modern dialect of Hejaz. Standard Arabic now differs considerably from modern Hejazi Arabic in terms of its phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon, such diglossia in Arabic began to emerge at the latest in the sixth century CE when oral poets recited their poetry in a proto-Classical Arabic based on archaic dialects which differed greatly from their own.
Al-Husri paid particular attention to questions of language, a difficult issue in the Arab world due to widespread diglossia. He considered that a language reform was necessary given the situation whereby most Arabs were unable to use Classical Arabic, the universal Arab written language, yet could not communicate successfully with each other in the greatly differing spoken dialects of the Arab world. His proposal was that, at least as a temporary measure pending improved education, a somewhat simplified form of Classical Arabic should be developed which would be to some degree closer to the spoken dialects, yet retain its position as a universal language common to all Arabs.
Most spoken dialects have monophthongized original to in most circumstances, including adjacent to emphatic consonants, while keeping them as the original diphthongs in others e.g. . In most of the Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian (except Sahil and Southeastern) Arabic dialects, they have subsequently merged into original .
Baghdad Jewish Arabic () is the Arabic dialect spoken by the Jews of Baghdad and other towns of Southern Iraq. This dialect differs from the dialect spoken by the Jews in Northern Iraq, such as Mosul and 'Ana. The Baghdadi and Northern dialects may be regarded as subvarieties of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. As with most Judeo-Arab communities, there are likely to be few, if any, speakers of the Judeo-Iraqi Arabic dialects who still reside within Iraq. Rather these dialects have been maintained or are facing critical endangerment within respective Judeo-Iraqi diasporas, namely those of Israel and the United States. In 2014, the film "Farewell Baghdad" (Arabic: مطير الحمام; Hebrew: מפריח היונים, lit. "The Dove Flyer"), which is performed mostly in Jewish Baghdadi Arabic dialect, became the first film to be almost completely performed in Judeo-Iraqi Arabic.
The local Mongolian dialect spoken in the area is Khorchin Mongolian; most people in the district speak Mandarin Chinese (the most commonly spoken dialect is Northeastern Mandarin).
The official language of Saudi Arabia is Arabic. The three main regional variants spoken by Saudis are Hejazi Arabic, Najdi Arabic, and Gulf Arabic. There are approximately 2 million Gulf Arabic speakers in Saudi Arabia, and the dialect is only spoken in the Eastern Province. The remaining Arabic speakers in the province speak one of the other two dialects, more commonly the Najdi dialect. Saudi Sign Language is the principal language of the deaf community. The large expatriate communities also speak their own languages, the most numerous of which are Indian languages, Filipino/Tagalog, Egyptian Arabic, Indonesian, Rohingya, and Urdu.Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil producing company of Saudi Arabia, is based in Dhahran, which is located in the Eastern Province, and most decisions on oil policy and production that affect the global economy are made there. The kingdom's main oil and gas fields are mostly located in the Eastern Province, onshore and offshore. Notable among these are the Ghawar Field and the largest crude increment in the world. Petroleum from the fields is shipped to dozens of countries from the oil port of Ras Tanura and is also used as feedstock in numerous industrial plants in Jubail.
Hassaniya, primarily spoken at home, is dominated by the Moroccan dialect spoken in the streets, workplace, and schools. This is because the great majority of the population consists of Moroccans who settled in Western Sahara. French is also commonly used by the Moroccan administration. In the urban areas Moroccan Arabic is now spoken, as Morocco controls and administers most of the territory of Western Sahara and all of its cities, and considers it an inseparable part of the country. The Moroccan constitution stipulates two official languages for the Kingdom of Morocco, including Western Sahara: Berber (Tamazight) and Arabic.
"Peripheral" varieties of Arabic – that is, varieties spoken in countries where Arabic is not a dominant language and a lingua franca (e.g., Turkey, Iran, Cyprus, Chad, and Nigeria) – are particularly divergent in some respects, especially in their vocabularies, since they are less influenced by classical Arabic. However, historically they fall within the same dialect classifications as the varieties that are spoken in countries where Arabic is the dominant language. Because most of these peripheral dialects are located in Muslim majority countries, they are now influenced by Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic, the Arabic varieties of the Qur'an and their Arabic-speaking neighbours, respectively.
Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic has been infused with words from the Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialect of Zakho. This occurred due to the close proximity of the speakers of Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic and the dialect Zakho. This dialect is the most commonly spoken variant of Aramaic spoken in Jerusalem. This dialect is seen as more prestigious by the speakers and is most commonly understood.
The most widely spoken language in Iraq is the Arabic language (specifically Mesopotamian Arabic); the second most spoken language is Kurdish (mainly Sorani and Kurmanji dialects), followed by the Iraqi Turkmen/Turkoman dialect of Turkish, and the Neo-Aramaic languages (specifically Chaldean and Ashuri). 
Arabic, with all its dialects, are the most widely spoken languages in the Middle East, with Literary Arabic being official in all North African and in most West Asian countries. Arabic dialects are also spoken in some adjacent areas in neighbouring Middle Eastern non-Arab countries. It is a member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Several Modern South Arabian languages such as Mehri and Soqotri are also spoken Yemen and Oman. Another Semitic language such as Aramaic and its dialects are spoken mainly by Assyrians and Mandaeans. There is also a Oasis Berber-speaking community in Egypt where the language is also known as Siwa. It is a non-Semitic Afro-Asiatic language.