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Arabic is 1 of the world’s astir wide spoken languages with astatine slightest 400 cardinal speakers, including 200 cardinal autochthonal speakers and 200 cardinal to 250 cardinal non-native speakers.
Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) serves arsenic the ceremonial connection for government, ineligible matters and education, and it is wide utilized successful planetary and spiritual contexts. Additionally, much than 25 dialects are spoken chiefly crossed the Middle East and North Africa.
Every twelvemonth connected December 18, the United Nations commemorates World Arabic Language Day, celebrating Arabic arsenic “the pillar of the taste diverseness of humanity”. The day was chosen to people the time successful 1973 connected which the UN General Assembly adopted Arabic arsenic 1 of its six authoritative languages.
In the pursuing ocular explainer, Al Jazeera lists immoderate of the astir communal words successful today’s English connection that originated from Arabic oregon passed done Arabic earlier reaching English.
(Al Jazeera)How Arabic words entered different languages
As the astir spoken of the Semitic languages, a radical of languages that originated crossed Southwest Asia and Africa, Arabic has influenced societies and different languages for centuries.
Linguists accidental the beingness of Arabic words successful different languages reflects agelong histories of interaction done trade, assistance and taste exchange.
English, Spanish, French, Turkish and galore different languages crossed the globe person borrowed hundreds to thousands of words from Arabic that are utilized successful mundane language.
Muntasir Al Hamad, a linguist and prof of Arabic astatine Qatar University, says this benignant of borrowing is simply a “natural phenomenon” and languages person borrowed from 1 different for centuries.
“Arabic is nary antithetic successful that sense. This is reflected successful vocabulary, science, exertion and civilisation,” helium tells Al Jazeera.
An alphabet with galore forms
Arabic uses an alphabet of 28 letters and is written from close to left. The publication is cursive, and its letters alteration signifier depending connected their presumption successful a word. Short vowels are typically omitted successful mundane writing.
(Al Jazeera)These features, unneurotic with Arabic’s extended vocabulary, person contributed to the cognition that the connection is hard for non-native speakers to learn.
However, Al Hamad says this cognition is acold from close for galore people.
“One of the biggest misconceptions astir Arabic is that it is among the astir hard languages successful the world,” helium said. “In reality, it is simply a connection with systems that disagree from English oregon from galore European languages.”
He added that portion the Arabic publication whitethorn look unfamiliar to immoderate learners, it is “quite familiar” to speakers of different languages, specified arsenic Urdu and Farsi. Speakers of those languages, Al Hamad says, often find Arabic easier to work portion Turkish speakers whitethorn find its vocabulary easier to memorise owed to the thousands of Arabic words Turkish has absorbed.
From A for algebra to T for tariffs
One of the biggest contributions the Arabic connection has made to the satellite is successful the fields of mathematics and science.
Over time, immoderate of these words entered different languages successful shortened oregon adapted forms, becoming truthful acquainted that their origins are often forgotten.
One illustration is algebra, a cornerstone of mathematics. The word comes from the Arabic connection al-jabr, meaning “restoration” oregon “reunion”. It primitively appeared successful the rubric of a ninth-century enactment connected solving equations by the Baghdad-based Persian student Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, aft whom the connection “algorithm” is derived.
Other Arabic words underwent much melodramatic transformations. Carat, the portion utilized to measurement the value of gemstones, traces its roots to the Arabic connection qirat.
(Al Jazeera)According to Al Hamad, these changes uncover however English and different languages accommodate unfamiliar sounds. “Because English has comparatively fewer words opening with Q,” helium explains, “Arabic words specified arsenic qirat were reshaped utilizing much acquainted sounds similar C, G oregon K, producing forms specified arsenic carat.”
The aforesaid process tin beryllium seen successful mundane vocabulary beyond subject and mathematics. The connection giraffe, for instance, comes from the Arabic zarafa, and went done a akin translation arsenic English and different European languages reshaped the archetypal sounds to acceptable their ain phonetic patterns, overmuch arsenic they did with words opening with the Arabic missive Q.
On the different hand, words specified arsenic tariff, which is derived from the Arabic connection ta’rif, meaning “to notify” oregon “to announce”, entered English done interaction with different languages progressive successful trade.
Al Hamad says these words “most apt entered the English connection via Romance languages” though not needfully successful the forms we recognise today. He adds that they besides passed done Turkish, which “borrowed heavy from Arabic” and influenced the medieval satellite done commercialized and warfare. Later, during the British assemblage era, English some borrowed from and contributed words straight to Arabic.
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