arabophone

A1R1A1B3O1P3H4O1N1E1

adjective

Arabic-speaking

Scrabble 17

Meanings

arabophone1

adjectivearabophone (not comparable)
  1. not comparableAlternative letter-case form of Arabophone.

    The association serves to portray her as less of a francophone, in the eyes of her colleagues, and she goes rounding up people like me, simply because we are arabophone.

    2008, Andrea Liverani, quoting Mohamed B., “[Algerian associations from voice to loyalty] Patrons and clients in associations”, in Civil Society in Algeria: The Political Functions of Associational Life (Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics; 8), London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 95
    5 more examples

    The French, however, were unsuccessful in their attempt to exploit the Berber-Arab dichotomy. For this failure a French Berberologist blames General Lyautey: “. . . under the impulse of Lyautey, the French succeeded in accomplishing what the Sultan had attempted without success. This was the unification of arabophone and berberophone Morocco.[…]”

    1962, David C. Gordon, “Notes”, in North Africa’s French Legacy, 1954–1962, Cambridge, Mass.: Distributed for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies of Harvard University by Harvard University Press, →LCCN, page 112

    The Mzāb area is well-known as the home of a berberophone khāridjite community. It is, however, also the domain of arabophone nomads, members of the Shanba, a tribe of Hilālī origin.

    1977 January, Roel Otten, “Jacques GRAND’HENRY, Les parlers arabes de la région du Mzāb (Sahara Algérien). […]”, in Bibliotheca Orientalis, volume XXXIV, number 1, Leiden: Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten [The Netherlands Institute for the Near East], page 246, column 2

    The second consideration is that since the Jews of Muslim Spain, like all other arabophone Jews, distinguished צ from ס (Garbell 1954a:669), one would not expect to find them confused in Toldedo until a generation or two after it was reconquered by the Christians (1085 c.e.).

    1982, Richard C. Steiner, “[Hebrew] Christian Spain and Portugal”, in Affricated Şade in the Semitic Languages (The American Academy for Jewish Research Monograph Series; 3), New York, N.Y., page 38

    Whatever its origins, the procedure quickly became part of the standard apologetic arsenal of arabophone Christians of every confessional community, as we see from its use in the writings of Abū Qurrah’s contemporaries Ḥabīb b. Ḫidmah Abū Rā’iṭah, a Jacobite, and ‘Ammār al-Baṣrī, a Nestorian.

    1992, Mark Nathanael Swanson, “[The Crucifixion of "My Lord and My God"] Scandal Transformed into Proof”, in Folly to the Ḥunafā’: the Cross of Christ in Arabic Christian-Muslim Controversy in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries A.D. (dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the PISAI for the degree Doctor of Arabic and Islamic Studies), Roma [Rome]: Pontificio Istituto di Studi Arabi e d’Islamistica [w:Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies], published 1995, page 280

    There was equal frustration in the ranks of arabophone writers such as Abdelhamid Ben Hadouga and Tahar Ouettar. At the core of their work was the issue of Arab identity and they felt that the regime was not doing enough to hasten the whole Arabization process, preferring instead to indulge a narrow francophone intelligentsia.

    2007, Martin Evans, John Phillips, “Black October”, in Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 139
nounarabophone (plural arabophones)

plural arabophones

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Arabophone.

    Leaving the arabophones to pursue their own ideas, he said, was not possible for Berbers, especially Kabyles. In actuality, they are the victims of Arabization since their language is used only marginally in official media.

    2011, David Porter, “[French Anarchist Positions] Organisation Communiste Libertaire (OCL)”, in Eyes to the South: French Anarchists and Algeria, Oakland, Calif.: AK Press, →ISBN, part IV (The Chadli, Boudiaf and Zeroual Regimes (1979–1999): Berber and Urban Revolts, Liberalization and Military/Islamist Civil War), page 230
    2 more examples

    On the other hand, it does not take much to realise that if the dynamics of divergence and exclusion prevail, the result is civil war and repression: for example, in Chad, the political marginalisation of arabophones educated in Egypt and Sudan caused them to join the secessionist Frolinat in the 1960s.

    1993, Jean-François Bayart, translated by Mary Harper, Christopher Harrison, and Elizabeth Harrison, “The Reciprocal Assimilation of Elites: The Hypothesis of an Intermediate Scenario”, in The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, London: Longman, →ISBN, part two (Scenarios in the Pursuit of Hegemony), page 153

    My thesis supervisor asked me to join her association on the study of traditional Arabic poetry. The reason is that she’s not very good, and she knows it, and she knows that others know. She’s the director of the history department, can you imagine? A francophone leading a department of arabophones.

    2008, Andrea Liverani, quoting Mohamed B., “[Algerian associations from voice to loyalty] Patrons and clients in associations”, in Civil Society in Algeria: The Political Functions of Associational Life (Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics; 8), London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 95

Arabophone2

adjectiveArabophone (not comparable)

alternative arabophone

  1. not comparableArabic-speaking
nounArabophone (plural Arabophones)

plural Arabophones · alternative arabophone

  1. A person who speaks Arabic.

Origin

Translations

Arabic مُتَحَدِثُ العَرَبِيَةِ, مُتَحَدِثُةُ العَرَبِيَةِ
  • مُتَحَدِثُ العَرَبِيَةِ (mutaḥadiṯu l-ʕarabiyati)Arabic-speaking
  • مُتَحَدِثُةُ العَرَبِيَةِ (mutaḥadiṯuatu l-ʕarabiyati)Arabic-speaking
Bengali আরবিভাষী, আরবিভাষী
  • আরবিভাষী (arobibhaśi)Arabic-speaking
  • আরবিভাষী (arobibhaśi)Translations
Bulgarian ара́богово́рещ
  • ара́богово́рещ (arábogovórešt)Arabic-speaking
Czech arabskojazyčný
  • arabskojazyčnýArabic-speaking
Dutch Arabischtalig
  • ArabischtaligArabic-speaking
French arabophone
  • arabophoneArabic-speaking
German arabischsprachig, Arabischsprecher
  • arabischsprachigArabic-speaking
  • ArabischsprecherTranslations
  • ArabischsprecherinTranslations
  • ArabischsprachigerTranslations
  • ArabischsprachigeTranslations
Italian arabofono
  • arabofonoArabic-speaking
Norwegian Bokmål arabiskspråklig
  • arabiskspråkligArabic-speaking
Polish arabskojęzyczny
  • arabskojęzycznyArabic-speaking
Portuguese arabófono
  • arabófonoArabic-speaking
Romanian arabofon
  • arabofonArabic-speaking
Russian арабоязы́чный
  • арабоязы́чный (arabojazýčnyj)Arabic-speaking
Spanish arabófono
  • arabófonoArabic-speaking
Swedish arabisktalande, arabiskspråkig
  • arabisktalandeArabic-speaking
  • arabiskspråkigArabic-speaking
Ukrainian арабомо́вний
  • арабомо́вний (arabomóvnyj)Arabic-speaking
Cite this entry
APA

arabophone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arabophone

MLA

“arabophone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arabophone. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “arabophone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/arabophone.

Source: arabophone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.