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Scientists from the University of Sharjah believe they have created an artificial intelligence system that can automatically identify which Arabic dialect someone is speaking. The work is published in IEEE Xplore.

They say their system unravels the rich and complex tapestry of Arabic dialects which hitherto conventional speech systems fall short of accurately interpreting and identifying.

"Arabic is a rich language with many regional dialects, and each one has its own unique vocabulary, expressions, and pronunciation. This diversity makes it challenging for technology to accurately understand and differentiate between them," said Ashraf Elnagar, Professor of Computer Science and Intelligence Systems.

"To address this, we developed a system that can automatically identify which Arabic dialect someone is speaking."

The official language in 22 countries spanning the Middle East, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Arabic is one of the most spoken languages globally with more than 370 million people having it as their mother tongue. It is also one of the world's most immersed languages in culture and those having it as a mother tongue or learning it as a second or foreign language find themselves learning about Islam and its culture as well.

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