37 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes 
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German
| Message 33 of 37 26 April 2010 at 1:58am | IP Logged |
Raincrowlee wrote:
Smart wrote:
| AFAIK, Arabic gave only a few words to Spanish. And English has nearly a million words, so if we do have anything from Arabic, we also have similar words from other languages. |
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Yeah. Just a few words to Spanish. Hunh.
admiral - ami:r-al-bahr 'ruler of the seas' (and other similar expressions) - amara command
adobe - al-toba 'the brick'
albacore - al-bukr 'the young camel'
alchemy - al-ki:mi:a: - from Greek
alcohol - al-koh''l 'the kohl'
alcove - al-qobbah 'vault' - qubba vault
alembic - al-ambi:q 'the still' - from Greek
alfalfa - alfas,fas,ah 'fodder'
algebra - al-jebr 'reintegration' - jabara reunite
Algol - al-ghu:l 'the ghoul'
algorithm - al-Khowarazmi 'the (man) of Khiva'
alkali - al-qaliy 'calx' - qalay fry, roast
Allah - `allah, from contraction of al-ilah 'the god'
Almagest - al-majisti - from Greek
almanac - (Andalucian Arabic) al-mana:kh, of uncertain origin
amber - `anbar 'ambergris'
antimony - al-íthmid 'antimony trisulphide' - perhaps from Greek
apricot - al-burquq - from Greek
Arab - `arab
arsenal - dar as,s,ina`ah 'house of making', i.e. 'factory' - s,ana`a make
artichoke - al-kharshu:f
assagai - az-zaghayah - from Berber
assassin - h'ashsha:shi:n 'hashish eaters', from the Isma`ili sectarians
attar - `itr 'aroma'
ayatollah - 'ayatu-llah 'miraculous sign of God'
azimuth - as-sumut 'the paths'; see also zenith
azure - al-lazward 'lapis lazuli' - from Persian
barbican - (possibly) bâb-al-baqara 'gate with holes'
berdache - (possibly) bardaj 'slave'
Betelgeuse - bi:t al-jauza:' 'shoulder of the Giant'
bezoar - bazahr - from Persian
bint - bint 'daughter
bled - balad 'vast open country'
borax - bu:raq - from Persian
burka - burqa`
burnouse - burnus
caliber - qali:b 'mold, last' -
calico - Qaliqu:t 'Calicut', city in India
caliph - khali:fah 'successor' - khalafa 'succeed'
camise - qami:s 'shirt' - from Latin
camphor - ka:fu:r - from Malay
candy - short for 'sugar candy', from sugar + qandi 'candied', from qand 'cane sugar' - from a Dravidian language
carat - qi:ra:t 'small weight' - from Greek
caraway - alkarawya: - probably from Greek
carafe - gharra:f - gharafa 'dip'
carmine - qirmazi: 'crimson'
carob - kharrubah
cassock - kaza:ghand 'padded jacket' - from Persian
check - sha:h 'king' - from Persian
checkmate - sha:h ma:t 'the king is dead'
chemistry - see alchemy
chess - from Old French eschecs, plural of check
cipher - s,ifr 'empty'
civet - zaba:d
coffee - qahwah
Copt - quft - from Greek
cork - qu:rq
cotton - qutn
couscous - kuskus - kaskasa pound, bruise
crimson - qirmazi:, related to the qirmiz, the insect that provided the dye
Deneb - danab al-jaja:ja 'tail of the hen'
dhow - da:w
dinar - di:na:r - from Greek
dirham - dirham - from Greek
dragoman - tarjuma:n - tarjama interpret
drub - daraba 'beat'
dura mater - Latin calque on umm al-ghali:dah 'hard mother'
efreet - 'ifri:t 'monster'
El Cid - al-Sayyid 'the lord'
elixir - al-iksi:r 'philosopher's stone' - from Greek
emir - ami:r - amara command
fakir - faqi:r 'poor man' - faqura be poor
fardel - fardah 'load'
Farsi - Fa:rs 'Pars', a province of Iran - from Persian
fatwa - fetwa - fata: instruct by a legal decision
fedayeen - fida:'iyi:n 'commandos' - fida:` redemption
felafel - fala:fil
fellah - fella:h' 'husbandman' - falah'a till
felucca - fulk 'ship' - falaka be round
Fomalhaut - fum u'l-haut 'mouth of the fish'
garble - gharbala 'sift' - perhaps from Latin
gazelle - ghaza:l
genie - jinni: 'spirit'
gerbil - yarbu:`
ghoul - ghu:l 'demon' - gha:la take suddenly
giraffe - zara:fa
hadith - h'adi:t 'tradition'
haj - h'ajj 'pilgrimage' - h'ajja go on a pilgrimage
halal - h'ala:l 'lawful'
halvah - h'alwa:
harem - h'aram 'prohibited, set apart' - h'arama prohibit
hashish - h'ashi:sh 'dried herbs, hemp'
hazard - yásara 'play at dice'
hegira - hijrah 'departure' - hajara separate, go
henna - h'enna:`
Hezbollah - H'izbulla:h 'party of God'
hookah - h'uqqah 'water bottle (through which smoke is drawn)'
houri - h'u:r al-`ayu:n 'with eyes like gazelles' - h'awura have eyes like gazelles
imam - ima:m 'leader' - amma precede
Islam - isla:m 'submission' - aslama submit oneself
jar - jarrah 'large earthen vase'
jasmine - ya:smi:n - from Persian
jinn - jinn 'spirits', plural of genie
julep - jula:b 'rose water' - from Persian
Kaaba - ka`bah 'square house'
kabob - kaba:b - from Persian
kaffir - ka:fir 'infidel' - kafara conceal, deny
keffiyeh - kaffi:yah
khamsin - khamsi:n 'fifty (days)'
kismet - qisma 'portion, lot' - qasama divide
kohl - koh''l 'kohl' - kah'ala stain, paint
Koran - qura:n 'recitation' - qara`a read
lilac - li:la:k - from Persian
lemon - laymu:n - from Persian
lime - li:mah 'citrus fruit'
loofah - lu:fah a plant whose pods were used as sponges
lute - al-`u:d
macramé - miqramah 'striped cloth'
magazine - makha:zin 'storehouses' - khazana store
Mahdi - mahdi:y 'one who is guided aright' - hada: lead
majlis - majlis 'council'
mancala - mank.ala - nak.ala move
marzipan - mawthaba:n 'coin featuring a seated figure'
mask - perhaps maskhara 'buffoon' - sakhira ridicule
mattress - matrah 'place where something is thrown, mat, cushion' - tarah'a throw
minaret - mana:rah - na:r fire
mohair - mukhayyar 'choice (goats'-hair cloth)' - khayyara select
monsoon - mausim 'season' - wasama mark
mosque - masgid - sagada worship
Mozarabic - musta`rib 'would-be Arab'
muezzin - mu'adhdhin 'criers' - adhana proclaim
mufti - mufti: 'one who gives a fatwa'
mujahedeen - muja:hidi:n 'figher in a jihad'
mullah - mawla: 'master'
mummy - mu:miya: 'embalmed body' - mu:m '(embalming) wax'
Muslim - muslim 'submitter' - aslama submit oneself
muslin - Maus,il 'Mosul'
nadir - nadi:r as-samt 'opposite the zenith'
natron - natru:n - from Greek
nizam - nidam 'government'
orange - na:ranj - from Sanskrit
ottoman - `uthma:n, a proper name
pia mater - Latin calque on umm raqi:qah 'tender mother'
popinjay - babagha:
Primum Mobile - Latin calque on al-muh' arrik al-awwal 'the first mover'
racket - râh'et 'palm of the hand' Ramadan - Ramada:n meaning perhaps 'the hot month' - ramata be heated
realgar - rehj al-gha:r 'powder of the cave'
ream - rizmah 'bundle'
rebec - reba:b
Rigel - rijl 'foot (of Orion)'
roc - rukh
rook - rukh - from Persian
Rubaiyyat - ruba:`i:yah 'quatrain'
safari - safari:y 'journey' - safara travel
saffron - za`fara:n
Sahara - çah'ra: 'desert'
sahib - ça:h'ib 'friend'
salaam - as-sala:m `alaikum 'peace be on you'
saluki - salu:k.i: 'from Saluk'
Saracen - sharqi:yi:n 'easterners' - sha:raqa rise
sash - sha:sh 'muslin'
satin - probably zaytu:ni: 'of Zaytu:n' (a city in China)
scarlet - siqilla:t '(cloth) adorned with images' - from Latin
sequin - sikkah 'die for coinmaking'
Sharia - shari:`a
sheikh - shaikh 'old man' - sha:kha grow old
sherbet - sharbah - shariba drink
Shiite - shiya`i:y, from shiya:` 'following, sect' - sha`a follow
shrub [drink] - shurb 'a drink' - shariba drink
sine - Latin sinus, mistranslation of jayb 'chord of an arc, sine', through confusion with jayb 'fold of a garment'
sirocco - sharq 'east (wind)' - sha:raqa rise
sofa - s,uffah 'raised dais with cushions'
souk - su:k. 'marketplace'
spinach - isfa:na:kh
Sufi - çu:fi: 'man of wool'
sugar - sukkar - from Sanskrit
sultan - sulta:n 'sovereign'
sumac - summa:q
Sunni - sunni: 'lawful', from sunna:h 'rule, course'
sura - su:rah
syrup - shara:b 'beverage' - shariba drink
tabbouleh - tabbu:la
tabby - `atta:biy, a neighborhood in Baghdad where taffeta was made
tahini - - tah'ana crush
Taliban - talib 'student' - talaba study
talisman - tilsam - from Greek
tamarind - tamr-hindi: 'date of India'
tambourine - a small tambour, from tanbu:r - from Persian
tandoori - tannu:r 'oven'
tarboosh - tarbu:sh
tare [weight] - tarh'ah 'rejected' - tarah'a reject
tariff - ta`ri:f 'notification' - `arafa notify
tarragon - tarkhu:n - possibly from Greek
tell [mound] - tall 'hillock'
ujamaa - jama:` 'community'
ulema - `ulima: 'the learned ones' - `alama know
Vega - al-nasr al-wa:qi` 'the falling vulture'
vizier - wazi:r 'porter, public servant' - wazara carry
wadi - wa:di:
Waqf - waqf 'religious foundation'
wisdom tooth - from a Latin calque on adra:su 'l h'ikmi - calqued from Greek
zenith - samt 'path'
zero - s,ifr 'empty' |
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If anything that just shows my Spanish teacher was completely unaware. Because she said there were only a few.
Al-Irelandi wrote:
As for a member of the forum who keeps posting in this thread Ad nauseam nonsense that Arabic has never transmitted any kind of culture or benefit for humanity, then I guess he/she is probably of the kind that holds the coming about of the Renaissance in W.Europe, after centuries of Europe dwelling in its Dark Ages, was just spontaneous and happened without any form of catalyst.
Furthermore negating that it had anything to do with the fact that much higher learning and knowledge from other civilizations (Indian, Persian, Greek, Chinese etc.) that was preserved in Arabic, criticised and advanced by Arabic speaking Muslims, Arabic speaking Jews and to a lesser extent Arabic speaking Christians (such as 'Constantine the African'), was then transmitted by way of contact between Christian Europe and Arabic speaking Muslim states such as al-Andalus, Sicily and North Africa, where many universities were frequented by European scholars who returned and translated such works into Latin for Western Christendom.
To name a few concepts which we owe to Arabic for transmitting that we have in our modern civilisation:
Arabic numerals (which improved upon earlier Indian numerals and added the concept of 'zero' (Arabic 'sifr' from which the term 'cipher' derived from),
Algebra,
Algorithms (al-khawaarizmee) and so on. |
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That could have been any language, in fact, had it not been for the arab conquest of Persia, all of that would have been in Old Persian/Farsi. So don't even pretend that was out of coincidence that Arabic gave Western/Modern civilization things.
Edited by Smart on 26 April 2010 at 2:01am
1 person has voted this message useful
| Smart
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5339 days ago
352 posts - 398 votes
Speaks: Spanish, English*, Latin, French
Studies: German
| Message 34 of 37 26 April 2010 at 2:07am | IP Logged |
Saif wrote:
Smart wrote:
As for arabs not having culture, compared to other groups of people on the planet,
there is not all that there. My apologies to any arabs on the board who disagree, I was
only speaking about Arabic, not the arab race or people. |
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Is your problem with the language or the people? I'm not following you. You say you're
only talking about the language, but you also say that the Arab people have no culture.
So I guess you need to provide a better explanation.
Quote:
AFAIK, Arabic gave only a few words to Spanish. And English has nearly a million
words, so if we do have anything from Arabic, we also have similar words from other
languages. |
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Just a few?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_influence_on_the_Spanish _language
35% of Swahili vocabulary comes from Arabic. Farsi and Urdu adopted the Arabic script
with many loanwords from Arabic. So your argument that Arabic has not influenced other
languages is absurd.
Quote:
I made no claim to speak for all polyglots, I was speaking for myself and four
other people I am in constant contact with, none of them have interest in the Arabic
language. Also, Arabic is rather easy, I already know some Arabic, so do not think i am
judging a language I know nothing of. |
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What's your point? No one cares that you have no particular interest in a certain
language. That does not make the language useless. You're providing anecdotal evidence.
And how much Arabic do you really know? A few words you heard on TV that you can poorly
pronounce does not mean you know the language. You might want to argue with the folks
at the Defense Language Institute on the easiness of Arabic. I'm sure they'd love to
hear your reasons on why Arabic is an easy language. It's considered a Category 4
language FYI.
Quote:
if English is supposed to be our tongue, the introduction of Spanish will kill
off English, we see this in border states. I speak from experience, being in Southern
California. |
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I'm from Miami, Florida. English is alive and well despite the many Spanish speakers
here. The introduction of Spanish will not kill off English in the United States.
That's xenophobic garbage. |
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Initially, I was speaking about Arabic, but I was forced to comment on arab culture, because the user above my last post felt I was insulting arabs. Which is false.
Farsi and Urdu would have NO influence from Arabic had it not been for the conquests, again, you bash colonialism and "colonial" languages like French yet have no issue with Arabic being spread through conquest? Yeah, love the hypocrisy.
And no, I know several 100 words of Arabic from my studies, you're right in that I have no personal interest in the language, but I am forced to learn the language, for my studies.
As for your rejection of the obvious that Spanish is becoming the majority language here, I hope you live to see when it becomes a federal language.
Raincrowlee wrote:
Smart wrote:
| Of course, this won't happen, since our President is an avid Anglophone. |
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Except for the Indonesian he picked up as a kid. |
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And when has he spoken it before? Just because he lived there, doesn't mean he knew the language. Just like he he probably does not know Hawaiian.
Edited by Smart on 26 April 2010 at 2:10am
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Saif
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5612 days ago
122 posts - 208 votes
Speaks: English*, Arabic (Levantine)*, French
| Message 35 of 37 26 April 2010 at 2:24am | IP Logged |
Quote:
Initially, I was speaking about Arabic, but I was forced to comment on arab
culture, because the user above my last post felt I was insulting arabs. Which is
false. |
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I think claiming that Arabs have no culture is an insulting comment.
Quote:
Farsi and Urdu would have NO influence from Arabic had it not been for the
conquests, again, you bash colonialism and "colonial" languages like French yet have no
issue with Arabic being spread through conquest? Yeah, love the hypocrisy. |
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Perhaps you're confusing posters. I did not bash French. I'm a French speaker. I love
the language, but quite frankly if it's dying out in Africa, I won't lose sleep over
it. If it can't compete in the region, there's no point in enforcing its usage.
Quote:
And no, I know several 100 words of Arabic from my studies, you're right in that
I have no personal interest in the language, but I am forced to learn the language, for
my studies. |
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I know hundreds of words in Greek, Persian, Turkish and Russian, that doesn't mean I
know the languages. Far from it. Your characterization of Arabic shows how little you
know about it. You're going to need a lot more than vocabulary. If all you know is 100
words in Arabic, then you do not know Arabic. I hope you understand this.
Quote:
As for your rejection of the obvious that Spanish is becoming the majority
language here, I hope you live to see when it becomes a federal language. |
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It's not obvious at all. It may look that way in some areas in the US, but there is no
proof that it's going to knock off English as the lingua franca here.
Edited by Saif on 26 April 2010 at 2:27am
6 persons have voted this message useful
| Spanky
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 5956 days ago
1021 posts - 1714 votes
Studies: French
| Message 36 of 37 26 April 2010 at 8:27am | IP Logged |
Raincrowlee wrote:
Smart wrote:
| Of course, this won't happen, since our President is an avid Anglophone. |
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Except for the Indonesian he picked up as a kid. |
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That, and what I understand to be an excellent attitude toward the importance of foreign language learning:
“We should have every child speaking more than one language. It’s embarrassing when Europeans come over here, they all speak English, they speak French, they speak German. And then we go over to Europe and all we can say is merci beacoup, right?”
2 persons have voted this message useful
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newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
Joined 6379 days ago
1598 posts - 2174 votes
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
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| Message 37 of 37 26 April 2010 at 8:42am | IP Logged |
This thread is getting pretty heated so I'm closing it.
3 persons have voted this message useful
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