The Linguistic Challenge of Arabic Voice-over

Countries in the Gulf region like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain make up the Gulf Cooperation Council or the GCC. Being some of the major strategic locations for trade, investment, business, finance, and tourism in the world. In addition to attracting millions of ex-pats and tourists from all around the world, Gulf is also the preferred region for business headquarters. Many businesses around the world across different industries choose this region to be their headquarters for the whole middle east region. The official language for the region is Arabic with around 420 million speakers worldwide. What’s interesting here is there are some major dialects of the language within the region. Despite having official status in 28 countries, Arabic gets to be one of the trickiest languages when it comes to voice-overs. Being the third most important language for global business with dialects presents a major challenge for marketers to choose the best-suited language for their advertisement voice-overs. Every region has its local traditions attached to the dialect, and when you wish to deliver a direct message to the people you need to have native voices. Let’s have a quick introduction to different standardized dialects that make the selection of voice artists a difficult job –

1. Egyptian dialect spoken by 94 million people in Egypt ranks number one in the list. Due to Egypt’s heavy media influence, other regions also speak this dialect.
2. In countries like Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, & Algeria, Maghrebi Arabic is spoken with the numbers being around 70 million.
3. The Iraqi dialect otherwise known as Mesopotamian Arabic is spoken in Iraq & East Syria with a total number of 32 million speakers.
4. Lebanon, Most of Syria, and most countries in the Levant region speak Levantine Arabic with numbers being around 20-21 million.
5. Sudanese Arabic is spoken by 17 million people in Sudan some other close parts of the region.
6. The Gulf Arabic, spoken by a small number of people in countries near the Persian Gulf. Despite being spoken only by 5 million people; this dialect holds more value due to the economic superiority and influence of the region it is spoken in.

Of course, finding a Gulf Arabic native speaker voice artist would be the first thought that might come to your mind. But choosing to go with only that would limit your reach to 5 million native speakers and a few others who know the language. The sole purpose of voice-overs of all kinds is to speak directly to the audience and deliver the message. For that, before you choose professional voice-over actors, you need to decide the areas that you want to target. Another thing about some of the Arabic dialects is that they are not written only spoken, and used only in a colloquial setting.

Know the broadcast region – Know the audience

It would be very wise and helpful to determine the region which you are targeting and the dialect that the audience speaks. In the Arab world, quite a few people speak English and therefore voice-overs become more crucial when you want to connect to your audience. Now understand that using the Gulf dialect, despite its economic influence, will give you a small reach. On the other hand, due to the popularity of Egyptian media, the Egyptian dialect is spoken and understood by more people. Think it like this, if you are targeting the mass audience of Egypt and surrounding areas, then recording your voice-over in the regional dialect would be more fruitful. However, there might be a situation where your messages are more formal or you want to cover the maximum possible audience, then probably Modern Standard Arabic be your key to it.

Modern Standard Arabic – Can it resolve the voice-over challenges?

Modern Standard Arabic or the MSA is a fairly standardized form of Arabic and derived from classic Arabic. Even many native Arabic speakers see the MSA and Classical Arabic as the same. However, the MSA has more nuances, words, and concepts that post-date the 8th-century Classical Arabic, which actually comes in very handy when doing voice-overs. Additionally, the MSA is mandatory in all the schools throughout the Arabic-speaking countries, gradually making it the lingua franca for the region. So, if you are searching for a professional to do an E-learning voice-over, the MSA might be your dialect. Also,  even for political voice-overs, News, corporate voice-overs, etc., the MSA is widely used.

However, the MSA has not been able to completely resolve the problems of Businesses and Marketers. When it comes to advertising and marketing brands want to make a personalized impact on the audience through voice-overs. But no one, for now, speaks the MSA in their daily language, thus it lacks relatability. However, in the coming future, the MSA is expected to be the local language for most parts of the region.  

Pick your voice-artist carefully

Well, once you have identified your target region and the dialect finding an expert and experienced voice artist is key to making an impact with your projects. As of now, many Arabic speakers understand the MSA, but as said earlier it lacks relatability. While recording for a formal setup like businesses and corporate voice-overs you can make the most by using MSA as it will depict the professionalism and authenticity of the brand. However, when going for a colloquial setting, where you have to connect with the audience directly, using a dialect would be a wise move. So, don’t go for your usual go-to person if he or she is not fluent and native to the dialect. It might get a bit difficult to find a voice artist that matches every expectation but results are worth the effort.

Get Assistance   

There is no simple or another way of overcoming the linguistic challenge of Arabic voice-over, it is inherent with the language. The best move you can make is to ask for help from a professional voice-over agency like Voyzapp. Voyzapp hosts thousands of voice artists across different parts of the globe, speaking different languages and dialects. Our global network of voice artists provides professional, quality, and authentic voice-over services. With our efficient search system, you can even find city native voice artists. So, just check out Voyzapp for all your voice-over-related queries.