Interesting things about Arabic

The language has some really interesting features that I didn't know about till I read this article: http://idlewords.com/2011/08/why_arabic_is_terrific.htm

Two of my favorites: letters change shape depending on neighbor letters, and the language has a template structure that works like a root: words that share the same template have some common meaning, but the word sound and shape changes more than if you just had a common root.