Fun with Arabic

[qatarperegrine]

At my sister's request, I'm going to be posting bits & pieces about Arabic as I learn it. Today's Arabic lesson is simple: English words that we have gotten from the Arabic language. We all know that words like genie and harem are from Arabic, and most of us have heard that algebra and alcohol are from Arabic words -- but some of these may surprise you!

• admiral (amir al-bahr, ruler of the seas)
  
• adobe (al-toba, brick)
  
• alfalfa (al-fasfasah, fodder)
  
• algorithm (al-Khowarazmi, a 9th century mathematician)
  
• alkali (al-qaliy, fried or toasted)
  
• almanac (al-manaakh)
  
• apricot (al-burquq)
  
• arsenal (dar assina'ah, factory -- literally "house of making")
  
• artichoke (al-kharshuf)
  
• assassin (h'ashshaashiin, hasish-eaters)
  
• Betelgeuse (biit al-jauza, shoulder of the giant)
  
• candy (qandi, candied)
  
• chemistry, and alchemy (al-kiimiia)
  
• chess, check and checkmate (shaah and shaah maat, "king" and "the king is dead," respectively -- through Persian, where it means "the king is defeated")
  
• coffee (qahwah)
  
• cotton (qutn)
  
• elixir (al-iksiir)
  
• jar (jarrah)
  
• lemon, lime and orange (laymuun, liimah and naaranj, respectively)
  
• loofah (luufah)
  
• magazine (makhaazin, storehouses)
  
• mattress (matrah, place where something is thrown)
  
• [tennis] racket (rah'et, palm of the hand)
  
• sofa (s'uffah)
  
• spinach (isfaanaakh)
  
• syrup (sharbah, a drink)
  
• tariff (ta'riif, notification)

From http://www.zompist.com/arabic.html.

Comments

nifty!

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

I hadn't realized many of those! Candy, for example. The plants/fruits from warmer climes makes sense, as they would have been introduced to English speakers by Arabic speakers. I thought I had another one for you - pajamas - but that came from Persian by way of Hindi, apparently. Oops.

A fun rule of thumb I was given in a phonology class once was "basically, if a word starts schwa-l in English, it's probably from Arabic". Being as contrary as we were, we then spent ages coming up with counterexamples. Element, ulterior, allow. It was a fun rule till we ripped it to shreds, though, and isn't that really the whole point of linguistics?

Re: nifty!

[qatar.livejournal.com]

I expected lots of "al" and "el" words to be from Arabic (although not "elixir" -- it looks so darn Greek spelled that way).

The ones that I hadn't thought of were the ones like "adobe." In Arabic, the l from the definite article al elides with the first letter of the next word, if the next word starts with a "sun letter." For example, "peace" is written al-salaambut pronounced as-salaam. So "adobe" comes from al-Tobe, which would be pronoucned aT-Tobe -- the definite article is there, but you don't see it the English spelling. (Plus, I thought "adobe" was a Spanish word. :-)

The sun letters, BTW, are t, th, d, dh, r, z, s, sh, S, D, T, Z, and n. Any idea why those are treated differently from other letters, Y_Pestis?

Re: nifty!

[y-pestis.livejournal.com]

Ooh! It's just like a class assignment! Sun letters are alveolars. It looks like that expands as far as interdentals (th) and alveo-palatals (sh). By the way, what's the difference between s and S?
I'd bet that the assimilation of the lateral in the article to the alveolar is standard anticipatory assimilation of homorganic phonemes. Since the l also touches the tongue to the alveolar ridge, it's basically skipped since the next sound is also an alveolar one.
One of the most common examples of anticipatory assimilation in English is nasals. Some people say income as in-come, but most people (especially if you're de-stressing it, as in the compound income tax) will say ing-come. That's because the next sound is a velar stop, so they make the nasal a velar nasal. It's essentially "lazier" than doing an alveolar nasal and then transferring the tongue to a velar stop.
Similarly, you have intolerable, interminable, indifferent, but also impatient, impotent, imbalance. You could say that there are two prefixes that mean "not", and they are in- and im-, but what makes more sense is to say there's an iN- where the nasal assimilates to the next articulator.

OK. I should go do some work now. Thanks for letting me spew linguistics all over you.

Re: nifty!

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Oh, is that what that mess all over me is. ;-)

The difference between s and S is that the S is a harsher sound, according to my Arabic books. They're two separate letters, but our ears hear them both as variations on an s. I looked them up in one of your linguistics books (something thin and paperback about pronunciation that had "Arabic" in the index) and it suggested different tongue placements and such. I forget, though.

I wonder if anyone but the two of us is reading this? :-)

Re: nifty!

[(Anonymous)]

There is a third, but I'm having trouble with language. Could someone tell me what language the following is?

"I'd bet that the assimilation of the lateral in the article to the alveolar is standard anticipatory assimilation of homorganic phonemes."

This glottal must STOP!

(Reply to this), (Parent)