The codified supra-regional standard used across the Arab world in education, media, literature, and formal speech. Derived from Classical Arabic, it has no native speakers and no single regional home — it is acquired as a formal register layered above the spoken vernaculars. Cairo, as the historical center of Arabic publishing, broadcasting, and scholarship, serves as its conventional locus.
The Arabic of central Saudi Arabia around Riyadh. Closely related to Gulf Arabic but with distinct vowel and consonant features rooted in the bedouin Najd plateau.