Arabic is the official language of over 20 countries with approximately 313 million native speakers in the world. In the Arab world, there are a variety of dialects spoken, these include Maghreb Arabic (North Africa), Egyptian Arabic (Egypt and Sudan), Levantine Arabic (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine) and Iraqi/Gulf Arabic. It is important to note that these dialectical differences pertain specifically to spoken or colloquial Arabic. Modern Standard Arabic is the official form of Arabic that is used for written documents and formal speech in order to guarantee the language can be understood by all.