Influence of Arabic on other languages

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Arabic has had a great influence on other languages, especially in vocabulary. The influence of Arabic has been most profound in those countries visited by Islam or Islamic power.

Arabic loanwords have made into many languages as diverse as

Iberia from 711 until 1492 known as Al-Andalus
, 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), academic terms (like Persian manteq, "logic"), to everyday conjunctions (like Hindi/Urdu lekin, "but"). Most Berber varieties (such as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow 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 were borrowed from Kanuri
.

Outside the

aubergine", "alcohol" and also some other terms like "admiral". Among European languages, these mostly were transmitted through Spanish and Turkish
.

Bengali

The

Chittagonian dialect, the Arabic influence is magnified with researchers considering half of the dialect's lexicon to be of Arabic origin.[3]

Berber languages

Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing and influence from the Arabic language, as well as from other languages.[4] For example, Arabic loanwords represent 35%[5] to 46%[6] of the total vocabulary of the Kabyle language, and represent 51.7% of the total vocabulary of Tarifit.[7] Almost all Berber languages took from Arabic the pharyngeal fricatives /ʕ/ and /ħ/, the (nongeminated) uvular stop /q/, and the voiceless pharyngealized consonant /ṣ/.[8]

The influence of Arabic, the process of

spirantization, and the absence of labialization have caused the consonant systems of Berber languages to differ significantly by region.[9] Berber languages found north of, and in the northern half of, the Sahara have greater influence from Arabic, including that of loaned phonemes, than those in more southern regions, like Tuareg.[9][10] Many Berber languages have lost use of their original numerals due to the influence of Arabic, such as Tarifit which lost all except one.[11]

Catalan/Valencian

See also: Catalan language

Arabic has notably influenced the Catalan language, and especially the southern dialects (including the Valencian ones). Due to almost eight centuries of Arabic presence in the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus), hundreds of words from many fields (including Arabic inventions) have been adapted into Catalan; among many are séquia ("irrigation ditch"), nòria ("waterwheel, noria"), 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

Many places of the

Land of Valencia, and also a few from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, have names of partial or total Arabic origin, such as Algemesí, Alzira, Almassora
, etc.

A large number of places have the Arabic roots Beni, Bena and Bene, which mean "son of" or "sons of":

Benitatxell
, etc.

English

Main article: List of English words of Arabic origin

Like other European languages, English contains many words derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish. Among them is every-day vocabulary like "sugar" (sukkar), "cotton" (quṭn) or "magazine" (maḫāzin). More recognizable are words like "algebra" (al-jabr), "alcohol" (al-kuhūl), "alchemy" ("al-kimiya"), "alkali", "cypher" and "zenith" (see list of English words of Arabic origin).

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), 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 macnā, meaning). These words may almost be regarded as calques.

French

Main article: List of French words of Arabic origin

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 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

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

Sanskrit
); badan = awak (Austronesian) and slira, sarira, or angga (from Sanskrit); and mripat = mata (Austronesian and Tagalog [Philippines]) and soca or netra (from Sanskrit).

Malay and Indonesian

In

Malaysian Malay
, 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[12]). 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

Golden Age of Islam
. 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 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), 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

Ferdowsi Millenary Celebration (Persian
: 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 in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan
.

Portuguese

Between the 9th century and up to 1249

oxalá
"God willing", which is an archaism. The frequency of Arabic toponyms is more evident in the south of the country.

Sicilian

See also: Sicilian language

In AD 535, Emperor

Arabic language influence is noticeable in around 800 Sicilian words, many of which relate to agriculture and related activities (Hull and Ruffino
).

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

Main article:
Arabic influence on the Spanish language

The

Kingdom of Granada in the time of the Nasrid dynasty
.

In many cases, both Arabic and Latin derived words are used for the same meaning in Spanish. 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 and Valencian.[15]

The Arabic influence can be seen in hundreds of

ojalá (if God wills; I wish, from لو شاء الله law šaʾ allāh), and hasta
(until, from hatta).

Turkish

See also:
Replacement of loanwords in Turkish

Following the adoption of

Ottoman Turkish
.

After the foundation of the

Republic of Turkey, and following the 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 replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents.[17]
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

References

  1. ^ Maltese language - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
  2. ^ Dil, Afia (2012). "Impact of Arabic on Bengali Language and Culture". Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  3. OL 30677644M
    . Retrieved 17 April 2024.
  4. ISBN 978-0-02-865769-1
    . Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing from Arabic, as well as from other languages.
  5. ISBN 978-1-84769-011-1
    .
  6. ISBN 978-90-04-25309-4
    .
  7. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5
    , retrieved 2023-05-30
  9. ^
    OCLC 795895594
    .
  10. OCLC 858861608
    .
  11. OCLC 795895594
    .
  12. ^ "bishop | Origin and meaning of bishop by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  13. ^ David, Henrique; de Sottomayor Pizarro, José Augusto (1989). "A conquista de Faro: o reavivar de uma questão" (PDF). Revista de História (in Portuguese). 09: 63–76.
  14. ^ Infopédia. "Influência Árabe na Evolução da Língua Nacional - Infopédia". Infopédia - Dicionários Porto Editora (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  15. ^ "Catalan language | History, Grammar & Dialects | Britannica". 5 January 2024.
  16. ^ "Arabismos en el Español Actual: Traducción, Lengua e Imagen". Nueva Revista del Pacífico (69): 1. 2018.
  17. ^ See Lewis (2002) for a thorough treatment of the Turkish language reform.
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