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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.
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 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
café - qahwah; cumin - kammun; jasmine - yasmine; kabab or kabob
- kabaab; lemon, lemonade and lime - laymun; mocha - Mukh (port
city in Yemen); orange - naranj; 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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