Yes Arabic from 1000 years ago is very much understandable today[1].

[1] https://fluentarabic.net/arabic-unchanged-1000-years/

The article doesn't expound on it, but it very much depends on what Arabic means to you. Depending on the answer, it's really a dozen different languages. I know people who only speak their own darija and classical literature is utterly obscure to them.

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asabil 43 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Sorry to disagree, but no, they are not dozens of different languages. The challenge with Arabic is that it has a rather large vocabulary, and different regions use slightly different vocabularies.

That being said, Darija, or rather North African Arabic is a messy mix of Arabic and Tamazight. Which can be difficult for Middle East Arabic speakers to understand.

For reference, I speak Darija and understand both classical and modern Arabic. It would take me a few days to adapt my speech to other regional variations of arabic.

	▲	Bayart 35 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		What's your prior exposure to Classical and Standard Arabic ? The people I'm thinking about only have darija exposure without any formal education in Arabic and little exposure to pan-Arabic media.

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catlover76 31 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

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