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Languages

Languages of Iraq

BaghdadLocal time

Languages, writing systems and language context

العراق

COUNTRY LANGUAGE PROFILE

العربية

Arabic

Text direction: RTL

Arabic and Kurdish are federal official languages, with Turkmen and Syriac receiving additional official recognition in specified administrative contexts.

Core languages shown

Country-level reference set

Arabic

First listed core language

Not a speaker-share estimate

Writing systems represented

Across the core language set

RTL

Primary text direction

Additional directions noted below

Language Overview

ArabicKurdish

Read the Characters

Arabic · 28 characters

ḥ

ṣ

ḍ

ṭ

ẓ

How to Read the Language Landscape

PolicyLegal and administrative language status may differ between national and subnational government.

Everyday useA language can be socially dominant without being the only language used at home, school, work or in media.

Community diversityIndigenous, minority, migrant and sign languages can remain important even when they are not part of a short national headline list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What languages are used in Iraq?

Arabic and Kurdish are federal official languages, with Turkmen and Syriac receiving additional official recognition in specified administrative contexts.

What writing systems are used in Iraq?

The represented writing system is Arabic, Arabic / Latin and the primary direction shown is right to left.

Sources & methodology

View sources used for this page

Iraqi Council of Representatives: Constitution

Article 4 establishes Arabic and Kurdish as Iraq’s two official languages and defines additional territorial language provisions.

Unicode CLDR: Country/Region Names

Localized country display-name reference. CLDR names are customary UI/display names, not claims about a state’s full constitutional long-form name.

Unicode: Supported Scripts

Reference for the writing-system/script families represented in the character component.

Unicode: Writing Direction and Bidirectional Text

Reference for left-to-right and right-to-left script direction and bidirectional text behavior.

Unicode Character Database: NamesList

Reference for Unicode character names used as small readout labels under selected character samples; these labels are not presented as a complete transliteration standard.