Is religious affiliation a key factor of language variation in Arabic-speaking countries?

• State of the arts of religious dialectal variation in Arabic.
• Comparison between Arabic dialectal and sociolinguistic studies.
• Diversity of sociolinguistic situations in terms of the extent of religious differentiation.
• Analysis of factors that led to religious differentiation.
• Religion per se is not the main factor of sociolinguistic variation.

This paper presents a state of the Arts of religious/sectarian dialectal differentiation and sociolinguistic variation in the Arabic-speaking countries. It is based on the studies that have been conducted so far in the fields of dialectology and sociolinguistics to investigate this issue. The first section reminds the reader of the diversity of sociolinguistic situations in the region in terms of the extent of religious differentiation within a city/area. The second section summarizes the trigger of situations of major religious/sectarian differentiation and the factors that led to their stability for many decades or centuries. It also presents three contemporary evolution processes observable in the areas with major differentiation and some contemporary loci of observation of sectarian/religious variation in areas of minor differentiation.