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Arabic Influence on the English Language

Visitors from Britain or North America strolling through an Arab city and
listening to the Arabic conversations of passers-by are usually unaware that
the English language includes a good number of words derived from that
strange tongue. Yet, if they are not students of linguistics, they cannot be
blamed.
Many of the Arabic words borrowed by English are so anglicized that, for
the layman, it is difficult to identify their true origin. There are some 3000
basic words and 5,000 of their derivatives which have some connection with
the language of the Holy Qur'an. Upward to 500 of the basic words are
common in the everyday language.
To tell the story of how these Arabic words entered the language of
Shakespeare is a fascinating story. At the dawn of Islam in the 7th century,
the Arabic language and Islam became inseparable. As the Muslim armies
moved through North Africa, then through the Iberian Peninsula, the tongue
of the Arabs as a part of the new religion, spread like wildfire.
The masses of newly-converted Muslims, in many cases, took as their own,
the idiom of the conquering desert men. In a few decades, Arabic became
the intellectual medium which united the new world of Islam.
Eastward, from the Arabian heartland, the Muslim armies occupied countries
which had developed numerous civilizations and cultures. However, unlike a
good number of conquerors before and after, they did not destroy but
preserved the cultures they had overwhelmed.
In the ensuing centuries, they absorbed the learning of these lands to produce
an Arab-Islamic civilization which was to be mankind's beacon for hundreds
of years. From the conquered lands, the Arabs borrowed thousands of
scientific and technical words, greatly enriching their poetic tongue.
Between the 8th and 12th centuries, this enhanced Arabic, with an endless
vocabulary, became the intellectual and scientific language of the entire
scholastic world.

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The men of letters and scientists in both Eastern and Western lands had to
know Arabic if they wished to produce works of art or science. During these
centuries, Arab Andalusia by itself generated more books in Arabic than
were produced in all the other languages of Europe.
The Arabic libraries in Muslim Spain, some containing over half a million
manuscripts, had no match in all the countries of Christendom. Unlike the
remainder of Europe where only the clergy were literate, the majority of
people in Muslim Spain learned to read and write in the schools which were
to be found in almost every town.
European students from the northern Christian lands came to study in these
institutions and when they returned, their vocabularies were enriched with
many Arabic words and phrases. At the same time, the Christians in the
Iberian peninsula living under Muslim rule became proficient in Arabic, in
many cases preferring it to their own Romance languages.
Hence, in both the written and spoken idioms, Arabic words crept into the
linguistic heritage of Spain and these were later adopted by the other
European languages. As they borrowed from the rich repository of Arabic
scientific and technical words, the Christian languages were enhanced and
stimulated. Added to this, the movement of Arabic words into the tongues of
Europe was accelerated by the translation of Arabic books, mostly in Toledo
- captured early in the Reconquista.
Hundreds of Arabic words entered the European languages by way of these
translations. Historians have asserted that the reproduction of Arabic works
from the most advanced civilization in that age transformed European
thinking and put the continent on the road to advancement and prosperity.
Besides the Iberian peninsula, there were two other points from which Arab
influences spread to Europe: Sicily, after its conquest and Arabisation; and
the Middle East by way of the Crusades. As in Spain, the Sicilians borrowed
many words from their conquerors and the 'Men of the Cross" brought back
to the Europe of the Dark Ages many new products, ideas and words
borrowed from Arabic.
The European languages, among them English, were enriched, by the newly
acquired vocabulary of these returning warriors, including a good number of
Arabic words in all fields of human activity. It was only natural that the

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West would borrow words from the Muslim East - the most advanced part of
the world in that era.
In the same fashion, as in our times words from English - the language of
industry and science - creep into foreign tongues, so it was with Arabic at
the time of the Crusades!
In the ensuing years, on a continuing basis, Arabic words began to flow into
English through intermediate languages like French and Portuguese. Later,
from the 18th to the 20th century, when Britain expanded its Empire to the
four corners of the world, a variety of Arabic words entered English by way
of Africa, the Middle East and the sub-continent. Even after colonialism
disappeared, the inflow of Arabic words into English has continued until our
times.
If one leafs through the modern English dictionaries, words of Arabic origin
are to be found under every letter of the alphabet. It will surprise many to
know that in a study made of the "Skeats Etymological Dictionary" it was
found that Arabic is the seventh on the list of languages that has contributed
to the enrichment of English. Only Greek, Latin, French, German,
Scandinavian and the Celtic group of languages have contributed more than
Arabic to the tongue of Shakespeare!
These Arabic loan-words indicate that the Arabs contributed to almost all
areas of Western life. In architecture; food and drink; geography and
navigation; home and daily life; music and song; personal adornment;
cultivation of plants; the sciences; the domain of the heavens; sports; trade
and commerce; the theatre of the macabre; the abode of animals and birds;
the clothing and fabric trade; and in the fields of chemicals, colour and
minerals, one finds Arabic words and Arab transmitted words from other
languages into the European languages.
One can see the immense Arab contribution to English if we examine only
one of these areas "food and drink":
Alcohol is derived from the Arabic al-kuhool; apricot - al-barquq; artichoke
- al-khurshuf; arrack - araq; candy -qand; cane -qanah; caramel - qanh;
caraway - karawy; carob - kharrob; coffee and caf - qahwah; cumin kammun; jasmine - yasmine; kabab or kabob - kabaab; lemon, lemonade and
lime - laymun; mocha - Mukh (port city in Yemen); orange - naranj;

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saffron - z'afaraan; salep - thalab; sesame - simsim; sherbet - sharbah; sherry
- Sherish (the Arab name of the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia);
spinach - sabanikh; sugar - sukkar; syrup - sharab; tamarind - tamrhind;
tangerine - tanjar (Arab name for Tangiers, Morocco); tarragon - tarkhon;
and turmeric - kurkum; are a number of these words which have become as
English as Yorkshire pudding.
Even in our times, the Arabic contribution has not stopped. In most other
fields, as in the domain of food and drink, the flow of Arabic words into
English continues. During the 20th century the words: burghul or burghal,
from the Arabic burghul; couscous - kuskus; falafel - filfil; halvah -halawa;
kibbe or kibbeh - kubbah; are now to be found in most dictionaries as
English words.
This sample of Arabic words in only one area of the English language makes
it clear that the language of the Holy Qur'an has contributed and is
continuing to give enrichment to today's most widespread tongue on the
globe. In today's world, Arabic is the only language in which an ordinary
Arabic speaking person can pick up a 1,500 year old Arabic book and
understand its contents.
All European languages, including English, did not exist at that time; the
older languages such as Greek, Persian and Chinese are, in our time, much
different and the older versions of these tongues are only understood by
scholars.
With such a venerable history, there is no doubt that Arabic, which the
Arabs and, in fact all Muslims, consider to be 'the Language of Paradise,'
will continue its worldly role.

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