Why does Arabic have so many dialects?

K. T.   Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:31 am GMT
"But oral Continental Portuguese and Spanish as are intelligible as Russian and Spanish"

I disagree.
K. T.   Wed Jul 29, 2009 2:34 am GMT
I disagree because they are still romance langauges-in the same group.
Russian is much further afield.
Z.J.J   Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:17 am GMT
May I directly start to learn Gulf Arabic without knowing any Modern Standard Arabic?
rep   Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:32 am GMT
<<But oral Continental Portuguese and Spanish as are intelligible as Russian and Spanish. >> .Not true.Oral Continental Portuguese and Spanish are intelligible as oral Danish and Swedish.
Domine   Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:05 pm GMT
">May I directly start to learn Gulf Arabic without knowing any Modern Standard Arabic?<"

One must learn Standard Arabic in a way to be able to converse with other Arabs from other regions; however, they may converse in their local lingo but if they 'see' you as a foreigner they will most likely used the Classical or Standard Arabic which many quite frankly do not know...it depends I guess.