Uyghur,
Uzbek,
Visayan
Visayans ( Visayan: ''mga Bisaya''; ) or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. When taken as a single ethnic group ...
and
Wolof
Wolof or Wollof may refer to:
* Wolof people, an ethnic group found in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* Wolof language, a language spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania
* The Wolof or Jolof Empire, a medieval West African successor of the Mal ...
as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken. Other languages such as
Maltese and
Nubi
The Nubi language (also called Ki-Nubi, ar, كي-نوبي, kī-nūbī) is a Sudanese Arabic-based creole language spoken in Uganda around Bombo, and in Kenya around Kibera, by the Ugandan Nubians, many of whom are descendants of Emin Pasha' ...
derive from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary.
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
has one of the largest Arabic-influenced vocabularies of any European language, around 8 percent, due to Muslim rule mainly in the Southern
Iberia
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
from 711 until 1492 known as
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...
, however Spain's re-Christianization and resulting loss of contact with Arabic culture has led to a significant shift in both meaning and pronunciation of Spanish words of Arabic etymology.
The terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like Berber ''taẓallit'', "prayer" <
salat
(, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba wit ...
), academic terms (like
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
''manteq'', "logic"), to everyday conjunctions (like Hindi/Urdu ''lekin'', "but"). Most Berber varieties (such as
Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow some numbers from Arabic. Most religious terms used by Muslims around the world are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as ''ṣalāt'', 'prayer' and ''imām'', 'prayer leader'. In languages not directly in contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are often mediated by other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic; for example many older Arabic loanwords in
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:
* Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa
* Hausa language, spoken in West Africa
* Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states
* Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse
See also
...
were borrowed from
Kanuri.
Outside the
Islamic world, there are more limited borrowings from Arabic, usually to denote vegetables and other articles in commerce, such as "
aubergine
Eggplant ( US, Canada), aubergine ( UK, Ireland) or brinjal (Indian subcontinent, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa) is a plant species in the nightshade family Solanaceae. ''Solanum melongena'' is grown worldwide for its edible fruit.
Mo ...
", "alcohol" and also some other terms like "admiral". Among European languages, these mostly were transmitted through
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Turkish.
Bengali
The
Bengali language
Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...
, spoken by the Muslim-majority
Bengalis
Bengalis (singular Bengali bn, বাঙ্গালী/বাঙালি ), also rendered as Bangalee or the Bengali people, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the ...
, has gained
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
vocabulary both directly, as the language of
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
and its
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, but also indirectly as a consequence of Arabic-influenced
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
being an official language in
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
for over 500 years. During the late medieval period, a number of Bengali Muslim writers also wrote Bengali using the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
.
In the coastal
Chittagonian dialect
Chittagonian ( ''saṭgãia'' or ''siʈaiŋga'') is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Chittagong Division in Bangladesh. Its speakers identify with Bengali culture and the Bengali language, but Chittagonian and Bengali are not m ...
, the Arabic influence is magnified with researchers considering half of the dialect's lexicon to be of
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
origin.
Catalan and Valencian
Arabic has notably influenced the
Valencian language
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catala ...
spoken in Spain south of Catalonia, more than Catalonia itself although it also left influences in the language of Catalonia. Due to almost eight centuries of Arabic dominion in the Iberian Peninsula (
Al-Andalus
Al-Andalus DIN 31635, translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label=Berber languages, Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, ...
), hundreds of words from many fields (including Arabic inventions) have been adapted into Catalan; among many are ''séquia'' ("irrigation ditch"), ''nòria'' ("waterwheel,
noria
A noria ( ar, ناعورة, ''nā‘ūra'', plural ''nawāʿīr'', from syr, ܢܥܘܪܐ, ''nā‘orā'', lit. "growler") is a hydropowered '' scoop wheel'' used to lift water into a small aqueduct, either for the purpose of irrigation or to s ...
"), ''algorfa'' ("loft"), ''magatzem'' ("warehouse"), ''alfàbia'' ("earthenware jar"), ''barnús'' ("bathrobe"), ''aladroc'' ("anchovy"), ''dacsa'' ("corn"), ''safanòria'' ("carrot"), ''carxofa'' ("artichoke"), ''albergínia'' ("aubergine"), ''xirivia'' ("parsnip"), ''alfals'' ("alfalfa"), ''albercoc'' ("apricot"), ''tramús'' ("lupin"), ''corfa'' ("bark, peel"), ''xara'' ("thicket"), ''matalaf/matalàs'' ("mattress"), ''alacrà'' ("scorpion"), ''fardatxo'' ("lizard") ''alfàb(r)ega'' ("basil"), etc. and expressions such as ''a la babalà'' ("randomly, to God's will") and ''a betzef'' ("abundance, plenty").
Toponymy
Most places of the
Land of Valencia
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...
have retained their name in Arabic, such as
Alicante/Alacant,
Alzira Alzira may refer to:
* ''Alzira'' (opera), an opera by Giuseppe Verdi
*Alzira, Valencia
Alzira ( es, Alcira) is a city and municipality of 45.088 inhabitants (62,094 floating population) in Valencia, eastern Spain. It is the capital of the ''coma ...
,
Almassora
Almassora (; es, Almazora) is a town and municipality in the ''comarca'' of Plana Alta, Valencian Community, Spain.
Urbanized areas
* Almassora
* La Platja
* L'Horta
* El Secà
* Polígon industrial
History
There are ancient Iberian remain ...
, etc. Also, a great number of places have the Arabic roots ''Beni'', ''Bena'' and ''Bene'', which mean "son of" or "sons of":
*
Benidorm,
Benimuslem
Benimuslem () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Ribera Alta in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most ...
,
Benilloba
Benilloba (, ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Comtat in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most popu ...
,
Benillup
Benillup (Valencian and Spanish: ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Comtat in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is ...
,
Benimantell
Benimantell (, ) is a Valencian town and municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Marina Baixa, in the province of Alicante, Spain. Benimantell has an area of 37.9 km2 and, according to the 2002 census, a total population of 378 inhabitant ...
,
Benimarfull
Benimarfull (, ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Comtat in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most po ...
,
Benicàssim,
Benissa
Benissa (, es, Benisa) is a small town in Spain in the province of Alicante, 275 m above sea level, and one of the oldest towns on the Costa Blanca.
The municipality of Benissa has 4 km of coastline linking the towns of Moraira and C ...
,
Benissoda
Benissoda ( es, Benisoda) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Vall d'Albaida in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is t ...
,
Benirredrà
Benirredrà (, es, Benirredrá) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Safor in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the ...
,
Benaguasil
Benaguasil is a municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain, situated in the Camp de Túria ''comarca''.
Geography
Benaguasil is situated at the left side of the Túria or Guadalaviar river, 25 km from Valencia. Bordering cities: Llíri ...
,
Benasau
Benasau (; ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Comtat in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populo ...
,
Beneixama,
Benaixeve,
Beneixida,
Benetússer
Benetússer is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Comarques of the Valencian Community, ''comarca'' of Horta Sud in the Valencia (autonomous community), Valencian Community, Spain. At the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain), 2 ...
,
Beniflà,
Beniardà
Beniardà (, es, Beniardá) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Marina Baixa in the Valencian Community, Spain.
The economy of Beniardà is exclusively based on agriculture. The most important monument in the town is the Catholic church
...
,
Beniarrés
Beniarrés (, ) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Comtat in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most pop ...
,
Beniatjar,
Benicarló
Benicarló () is a city and municipality in the north of the province of Castelló, part of the Valencian Community, in the Mediterranean Coast between the cities of Vinaròs and Peníscola, not too far south from the Ebre River.
Tourism, ag ...
,
Benicolet,
Benicull de Xúquer,
Benidoleig
Benidoleig () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain.
Benidoleig is located in the Girona Valley of the Marina Alta area in Spain's Costa Blanca
The Costa Blanca (, , literally meaning "White Co ...
,
Benifaió
Benifaió is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Ribera Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain. In the central plaza, it contains a tower built by the Moors.
Main sights
* Tower of la Plaça: It was part of a defensive structure, palace-cas ...
,
Benifairó de la Valldigna
Benifairó de la Valldigna () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Safor in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fou ...
,
Benifairó de les Valls,
Benifato
Benifato () is a Valencian town and municipality located in the ''comarca'' of Marina Baixa, in the province of Alicante, Spain. Benifato has an area of 11.9 km² and, according to the 2002 census, a total population of 164 inhabitants. The ...
,
Benigànim,
Benigembla
Benigembla ()Spanish exonym ''Benichembla'' () is a town and municipality located in the Pop Valley within the district of Marina Alta in eastern Spain. The town is 314 m above sea level. It is only 50 km away from Benidorm, 88 km from A ...
,
Benimodo,
Benimassot
Benimassot (, es, Benimasot) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Comtat in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the f ...
,
Benimeli,
Beniparrell
Beniparrell is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Horta Sud in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most pop ...
,
Benavites
Benavites is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Camp de Morvedre in the Valencian Community
The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth mo ...
,
Benafigos,
Benitatxell, etc.
English
Like other European languages,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
contains many words derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
. Among them is every-day vocabulary like "
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
" (''sukkar''), "
cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
" (''quṭn'') or "magazine" (''
''). More recognizable are words like "
algebra
Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics.
Elementary a ...
" (''al-jabr''), "
alcohol" (''al-kuhūl''), "
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
" ("al-kimiya"), "
alkali
In chemistry, an alkali (; from ar, القلوي, al-qaly, lit=ashes of the saltwort) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a ...
", "
cypher" and "
zenith
The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction (plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The zenith is the "highest" ...
" (see
list of English words of Arabic origin
Arabic is a Semitic language and English is an Indo-European language. The following words have been acquired either directly from Arabic or else indirectly by passing from Arabic into other languages and then into English. Most entered one or mo ...
).
A more indirect form of influence is the use of certain Latinate words in an unclassical sense, derived from their use in Latin translations of medieval Arabic philosophical works (e.g. those of
Averroes
Ibn Rushd ( ar, ; full name in ; 14 April 112611 December 1198), often Latinized as Averroes ( ), was an
Andalusian polymath and jurist who wrote about many subjects, including philosophy, theology, medicine, astronomy, physics, psy ...
), which entered the
scholastic vocabulary and later came into normal use in modern languages. Examples are "information" to mean the imparting or acquisition of knowledge (Arabic ''taṣawwur'', mental impression or representation, from a root meaning "form") and "intention" (Arabic ''ma
cnā'', meaning). These words may almost be regarded as
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language wh ...
s.
French
French is widely spoken as a second language in France's former colonies in the Maghreb. Therefore, the list of words that are used or incorporated into the French spoken in this region (as a result of code-switching, convenience or lack of an equivalent term in standard French) is potentially endless. Such arabisms, are accepted within the local context but would not normally be known by non-maghrebi French speakers.
Arabic-derived words have entered standard or metropolitan
French from two main sources. As is the case for many other European languages, one principal source was Spanish. The other was directly from
Maghrebi Arabic
Maghrebi Arabic (, Western Arabic; as opposed to Eastern or Mashriqi Arabic) is a vernacular Arabic dialect continuum spoken in the Maghreb region, in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Western Sahara, and Mauritania. It includes Moroccan, Al ...
as a result of the occupation and colonisation of the Maghreb, particularly Algeria, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Examples of the latter include 'bled', a slang term for place of origin, following this word's usage in the Maghreb, as opposed to the Standard Arabic ''balad'', 'country', along with the Maghrebi term 'kif kif' and 'tabeeb', a slang term for 'doctor'. A small number of Arabic terms have entered mainstream French as a result of immigration from North Africa which began after the independence of Algeria. Other slang terms such as "niquer" (to have sex) were taken from Oriental Arabic during Napoleon's occupation of Egypt.
Interlingua
Dozens of Arabic words occur in
Interlingua
Interlingua (; ISO 639 language codes ia, ina) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) developed between 1937 and 1951 by the American International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA). It ranks among the most widely used IALs and is t ...
, frequently because their co-occurrence in such languages as English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese can be used to
verify their internationality. Many of these words entered Interlingua's vocabulary through Spanish. Arabic words in Interlingua include "algebra", "alcohol", "cifra" (cypher), "magazin", "sucro" (sugar), "zenit", and "zero".
Javanese
There are far fewer Arabic loanwords in
Javanese than Sanskrit loanwords, and they are usually concerned with Islamic religion. Nevertheless, some words have entered the basic vocabulary, such as ''pikir'' ("to think", from the Arabic fikr), ''badan'' ("body"), ''mripat'' ("eye", thought to be derived from the Arabic ''ma'rifah'', meaning "knowledge" or "vision"). However, these Arabic words typically have native Austronesian or Sanskrit alternatives: ''pikir'' = ''galih'', ''idhĕp'' (
Austronesian) and ''manah'', ''cipta'', or ''cita'' (from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
); ''badan'' = ''awak'' (Austronesian) and ''slira'', ''sarira'', or ''angga'' (from Sanskrit); and ''mripat'' = ''mata'' (Austronesian and Tagalog
hilippines and ''soca'' or ''netra'' (from Sanskrit).
Malay
In
Indonesian
Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to:
* Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia
** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago
** Indonesian ...
and
Malaysian
Malaysian may refer to:
* Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia
* Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia
* Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
, the loanwords from Arabic are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with Islam, but to a lesser extent Christianity. Words of Arabic origin include ''dunia'' (from Arabic: دنيا dunya = the present world), ''Sabtu'' (from Arabic: السبت as-sabt = Saturday), ''khabar'' or ''kabar'' (خبر ḵabar = news), ''selamat''/''salam'' (سلام salām = a greeting), ''Jumaat'' or ''Jumat'' (الجمعة al-jumʿa = Friday), ''ijazah'' (إجازة ijāza = vacation), ''kitab'' (كتاب kitāb = book), ''tertib'' (ترتيب tartīb = orderly) and ''kamus'' (قاموس qāmūs = dictionary).
Christian usage
Ilah (Arabic: إله) is the word for God even in Christian Bible translations.
Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual Hebrew words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations this practice is discontinued. They now turn to Greek names or use the original Hebrew Word. For example, the name Jesus was initially translated as 'Isa (Arabic: عيسى), but is now spelt as Yesus. Several ecclesiastical terms derived from Arabic still exist in Indonesian and Malaysian clerical use.
The Malay word for bishop is ''uskup'' (from Arabic: اسقف usquf = bishop, ultimately from Ancient Greek ''episkopos''). This in turn makes the derived term for "archbishop" ''uskup agung'' (literally great bishop), which is combining the Arabic word with an Old Javanese word. The term imam (from Arabic: امام imām = leader, prayer leader) is used to translate a Catholic priest, beside its more common association with an Islamic prayer leader. Some Protestant denominations refer to their congregation as ''jemaat'' (from Arabic: جماعة jamā'a = group, community). Even the name of the Bible in Indonesian translation is ''Alkitab'' (from Arabic: كتاب kitāb = book), which literally means "the Book".
Persian
The
Arab conquest of Iran lasted for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th CE.
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
gradually replaced
Middle Persian
Middle Persian or Pahlavi, also known by its endonym Pārsīk or Pārsīg () in its later form, is a Western Middle Iranian language which became the literary language of the Sasanian Empire. For some time after the Sasanian collapse, Middle Per ...
as an official language and Arabic became the language of the Persian intellectuals during
Golden Age of Islam
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of cultural, economic, and scientific flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 14th century. This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign ...
. During this period, many Arabic words were imported into the Persian language. Persian words of Arabic origin especially include Islamic terms. Arabic has had an extensive influence on the Persian lexicon, but it has not greatly affected the structure of the language. Although a considerable portion of the lexicon is derived from Arabic roots, including some of the Arabic plural patterns, the morphological process used to obtain these lexical elements has not been imported into Persian and is not productive in the language.
These Arabic words have been imported and lexicalized in Persian. So, for instance, the Arabic plural form for ''kitāb'' (كتاب)
book"is ''kutub'' (كتب) obtained by the root derivation system. In Persian, the plural for the lexical word ''ketâb'' is obtained by simply adding the Persian plural
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
''hā'': ''ketāb+hā'' → ''ketābhā'' (كتابها). Also, any new Persian words can only be pluralized by the addition of this plural morpheme since the Arabic root system is not a productive process in Persian. In addition, since the plurals formed by the Arabic
morphological system constitute only a small portion of the Persian vocabulary (about 5% in the
Shiraz corpus
Shiraz (; fa, شیراز, Širâz ) is the List of largest cities of Iran, fifth-most-populous city of Iran and the capital of Fars province, Fars Province, which has been historically known as Pars (Sasanian province), Pars () and Persis. As o ...
), it is not necessary to include them in the morphology; they are instead listed in the dictionary as irregular forms.
In fact, among Iranians there have been sporadic
efforts as far back as the
Safavid Empire to revive Persian and diminish the use of Arabic loanwords in their language. Both
Pahlavi Shahs supported such efforts in the 20th century by creating the
academy of Persian Language and Literature
The Academy of Persian Language and Literature (APLL) ( fa, فرهنگستان زبان و ادب فارسی, ''Farhangestân-e Zabân-o Adab-e Fârsi'') is the regulatory body for the Persian language, headquartered in Tehran, Iran. Formerly know ...
. In 1934, Reza Shah ordered to rebuild
tomb
A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called ''immureme ...
of
Ferdowsi
Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi ( fa, ; 940 – 1019/1025 CE), also Firdawsi or Ferdowsi (), was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a sin ...
, who is regarded as the savior of Persian language, and set up a ceremony in
Mashhad, celebrating a thousand years of
Persian literature
Persian literature ( fa, ادبیات فارسی, Adabiyâte fârsi, ) comprises oral compositions and written texts in the Persian language and is one of the world's oldest literatures. It spans over two-and-a-half millennia. Its sources h ...
since the time of Ferdowsi, titled ''
Ferdowsi Millenary Celebration
The Ferdowsi millennial celebration ( fa, جشن هزاره فردوسی) was a series of celebrations and scholarly events in the year 1934 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of Ferdowsi's birth. The Ferdowsi millennial was held at the ...
'' ( fa, جشن هزاره فردوسی).
Academy of Persian language and literature after the Iranian revolution continued its striving to protect the integrity of the Persian language. However, the attention of the academy has been turned towards the persistent infiltration of Persian, like many other languages, with English words, as a result of the globalization process. Since the 1980s, the academy constantly campaigns for the use of the Persian equivalents of these new English loanwords. It also has the task of linguistically deriving such words from existing Persian roots if no such equivalents exist, and actively promoting the adoption of these new coinages instead of their English equivalents in the daily lives of the
Persian-speaking people
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken and u ...
in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
,
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and
Tajikistan
Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
.
Portuguese
Between the 9th century and up to 1249 when the Arabs were expelled from the Algarve,
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
acquired words (between 400 and 600 estimate) from Arabic by influence of
Moorish Iberia. Although the native population spoke the Lusitanian-
Mozarabic
Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...
, they kept some Mozarabic-derived words. These are often recognizable by the initial Arabic article ''a''(''l'')''-'', and include common words such as ''aldeia'' "village" from ''aḍ-ḍī
cah'', ''alface'' "lettuce" from ''al-khass'', ''armazém'' "warehouse" from ''al-makhzan'', and ''azeite'' "olive oil" from ''az-zayt''. From Arabic came also the grammatically peculiar word
''oxalá'' "God willing", fallen into disuse. The frequency of Arabic toponyms increases as one travels south in the country.
Sicilian
In AD 535, Emperor
Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
made Sicily a
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
province, and for the second time in Sicilian history, the
Greek language
Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...
became a familiar sound across the island (
Hull, 1989). As the power of the Byzantine Empire waned,
Sicily was progressively conquered by
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
s, from the mid 9th to mid 10th centuries. The
Arabic language
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
influence is noticeable in around 800 Sicilian words, many of which relate to agriculture and related activities (
Hull and
Ruffino
Ruffino is a wine producer based in the Tuscany region of Italy. Founded in 1877, the winery was purchased by the Brescia
Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and ''comune'' in ...
).
Sicilian words of Arabic origin include ''azzizzari'' (to embellish, from ''
cazīz''; precious, beautiful), ''cafisu'' (measure for liquids, from ''qafiz''), ''gebbia'' (artificial pond, from ''gabiya''), ''giuggiulena'' (sesame seed, from ''giulgiulan'', ''ràisi'' (leader, from ''ra'īs''), ''saja'' (canal, from ''saqiya''), and ''zibbibbu'' (a type of grape, from ''zabib''). (
Giarrizzo)
Spanish
The
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
has been influenced by
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
as a result of the long
Islamic presence within the Iberian Peninsula, beginning with the Islamic conquest in 711-718 AD until the conquest of the last Islamic kingdom in 1492 AD. Modern day Spanish, also called Castilian, gradually evolved from
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...
centuries after the Muslim conquest and was thus influenced by Arabic from its inception. Arabic influence increased when the expanding
Kingdom of Castile
The Kingdom of Castile (; es, Reino de Castilla, la, Regnum Castellae) was a large and powerful state on the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages. Its name comes from the host of castles constructed in the region. It began in the 9th cent ...
spread southward, conquering territory from Muslim kingdoms during the Christian
Reconquista
The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...
. The
Mozarabs, that had lived under Muslim rulers and had spoken their own varieties of Arabic-influenced romance (known today by scholars as the
Mozarabic
Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...
languages), probably had a formative influence on the language and indirectly contributed Arabic vocabulary.
The presence of Mozarabic refugees can explain the presence of Arabic toponyms in areas of Northern Spain where Islamic rule was shorter.
The only Iberian Muslim kingdom in which Arabic was the sole language at all levels of society was the
Kingdom of Granada
)
, common_languages = Official language:Classical ArabicOther languages: Andalusi Arabic, Mozarabic, Berber, Ladino
, capital = Granada
, religion = Majority religion:Sunni IslamMinority religions:Roman ...
in the time of the
Nasrid dynasty
The Nasrid dynasty ( ar, بنو نصر ''banū Naṣr'' or ''banū al-Aḥmar''; Spanish: ''Nazarí'') was the last Muslim dynasty in the Iberian Peninsula, ruling the Emirate of Granada from 1230 until 1492. Its members claimed to be of Arab ...
.
In many cases, both Arabic and Latin derived words are used interchangeably by Spanish speakers. For example, ''aceituna'' and ''oliva'' (olive), ''alacrán'' and ''escorpión'' (scorpion), ''jaqueca'' and ''migraña'' (headache) or ''alcancía'' and ''hucha'' (piggy bank). The influence of Arabic, whether directly or through Mozarabic, is more noticeable in the Spanish dialects of southern Spain, where the Arabic influence was heavier and of a much longer duration. The same difference also exists between
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
and Valencian; and in some cases, between Galician and Portuguese.
The Arabic influence can be seen in hundreds of
toponym
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
s but with a few minor exceptions, its influence on Spanish is primarily lexical. It is estimated that there are over two thousand Arabic loanwords and three thousand derivatives in the Spanish dictionary. In the Middle Ages, Spanish was the main route by which Arabic words entered other West European languages. The majority of these words are nouns, with a more limited number of
verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s,
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
s,
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s and one
preposition
Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
. Everyday Arabic loanwords include ''
rincón'' (corner, from ''rukkan''), ''
aceite'' (oil, from ''az-zayt''), ''
alcalde'' (mayor, from ''al-qādī''), alubia ''
azafata'' (stewardess, from سَفَط ''safaṭ''), ''
ahorrar'' (to save, from ''hurr''),
tarea (task, from ''tariha''),
ojalá
''In sha'Allah'' (; ar, إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ, ʾIn shāʾ Allāh ), also spelled In shaa Allah, InshAllah, Insya Allah and İnşAllah is an Arabic language expression meaning "if god wills" or "god willing". It was mentioned i ...
(Praised Be God, from ''inshallah'' (ما شاء الله).), from and ''
hasta'' (until, from ''hatta'').
Turkish
Following the adoption of
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
c. 950 by the
Kara-Khanid Khanate
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek ...
and the
Seljuq Turks
The Seljuk dynasty, or Seljukids ( ; fa, سلجوقیان ''Saljuqian'', alternatively spelled as Seljuqs or Saljuqs), also known as Seljuk Turks, Seljuk Turkomans "The defeat in August 1071 of the Byzantine emperor Romanos Diogenes
by the Turk ...
, regarded as the cultural ancestors of the
Ottomans, the administrative and literary languages of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic (usually by way of Persian), as well as non-Arabic
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
words: a leading example of a Perso-Arabic influenced Turkic language was
Chagatai, which remained the literary language of Central Asia until Soviet times. During the course of over six hundred years of the Ottoman Empire (c. 1299–1922), the literary and official language of the empire was a mixture of Turkish, Persian and Arabic, which differed considerably from the everyday spoken Turkish of the time, and is termed Ottoman Turkish language, Ottoman Turkish.
After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey, and following the Turkish language#Writing system, script reform, the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1932, with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to List of replaced loanwords in Turkish, replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents.
[See Lewis (2002) for a thorough treatment of the Turkish language reform.] By banning the usage of replaced loanwords in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language, thus diminishing but by no means erasing the Arabic influence on Turkish.
See also
* List of Arabic star names
* List of Arabic place names
References
{{Arabic language
Arabic language
Historical linguistics
Language contact