- Alicia Hernandez
- BBC News World
image source, Getty Images
Arabisms are the words that are born from loans from Arabic in another language
¡Alabín alabán alabín bon ban!
Surely you have heard or said this expression at some time to encourage your team during a match.
What you may not have known is that it has several centuries behind it, it comes from the Arabic alla’ibín áyya ba’ád alla’ib bón bád and it means “players, come on, the game is going well”.
That same origin has a multitude of words and expressions that we use on a daily basis: arabismos.
They are the product of the cultural and linguistic exchange that took place in the Península Irent between Arabic, Semitic language and Spanish, Romance language with origins in Latin.
Is very hard know how many arabisms there are exactly. And it has to do with the number of derived words there are, Ángel Vicente, full professor in the area of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Zaragoza (Spain), tells BBC Mundo.
For example, oil and olive come from Arabic, but it is not clear whether they should be counted as aceitunero or aceitoso, which are derived words. “It’s best not to make the mistake of saying a number. But yes make it clear that the influence(from Arabic into Spanish) it’s huge“.
image source, Getty Images
The Kingdom of Granada was the last territory under the power of the Arabs in Spain.
A little history
In the year 711 the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula began.
They entered through the south of Spain, an area which they later named Al-Ándalusand that today retains the name with the place name of Andalusia.
Under different administrative figures and dynasties, the Arabs remained in power until the capture of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, in the so-called Reconquest.
There was an Arab-speaking population in the peninsula until 1609-1612, after the expulsion edicts of Philip III.
Historians agree that a small part of the invaders spoke Arabic, while most spoke Berber, a North African language.
“It is a miracle that perhaps a few hundred, a few thousand Arabs with a larger number of Berbers managed to Arabize a population between five Y six millions of people“, said the late Arabist Federico Corriente in his entrance speech at the Royal Spanish Academy.
But those few who spoke Arabic were the eliteThey had the power. And, therefore, it went from being a minority language, sharing space with Low Latin and Proto-Spanish, to becoming the language of prestige.
“The Arabization of the language does not happen overnight. In some two centuries the Arab is imposed from the political and religious point of view“, says Angeles Vicente.
Not only the power influenced the language, also the mixed marriages between Arabs and autochthonous converts to Islam, something that happened, in part, to obtain privileges at the time of work or tax exemption.
image source, Getty Images
Arabisms appear and disappear over the years.
When do Arabisms appear?
Arabisms were not incorporated into Spanish at the same time, nor were they all maintained.
Some appeared, disappeared andthey took a new shape over the years, as it happens with the word with which we denominate that yellowish or red powder that is used for the hair or hands, thehenna (from classical Arabic ḥinnā‘). This Arabism has evolved within Spanish. Before was more frequent talk about alena (from the Hispanic Arabic alḥínna).
The first contact for adopt the arabisms, explains Vicente, it was between the 8th century and the 11th century, “with the very strong coexistence between two languages, proto-Castilian/Roman-Andalusian, very early Romance of Al-Andalus, and Andalusian Arabic”.
“It’s a time of very strong interaction and where the Mozarabs (Hispanic population with Muslim cultural elements) are very numerous”.
The second contact is during the conquests of the Christian kingdoms over the Muslims, where there is a new coexistence of the Arabic and Spanish languages.
The most abundant are the nouns, although there are also the occasional adjective and some verb.
Vicente explains that there are many words in the lexicon field of agriculture (ditch, waterwheel), from the earth (bean or carob), of mathematics (algebra, zero) or military (ensign).
The ones that we all surely identify quickly are the words that start with “al”“.
They are loans that happened with the definite article that, in Arabic, is unique, “al”, as opposed to “el/la/los/las” in Spanish.
So it happened with pillow (al mihaddah) or mason (al banna’). A good part of those that start with “a” have the same origin, only that the “l” of the article “al” is assimilated, as is the case with saffron (al za’farān).
image source, Getty Images
Humpback, one of the many Arabisms in Spanish.
Words and expressions that come from Arabic
In a quick glance at “dictionary of the leel eSpanish“ we find countless words with their origin in Arabic written at the beginning. Together with professor angels vincent We review some.
Boast. Nowadays, when someone brags, they are bragging about something. But the origin of this word has little to do with its current meaning. It didn’t even exist as a verb. What has come down to us is the derivation of a noun, “boast” (al’árḍ), which was to review the troops.
Azimut and zenith. Science owes a great deal to Arab scholars and, for that matter, to astronomy, as they gave names to many terms in use today. Two of them are azimuth (assume) and zenith (samt [arra’s]), which serve to indicate specific points of the celestial vault.
Figure. They were also good at math, so it’s no wonder we’ve been left with words like this, cipher (open), which originally meant “empty” and today we use to refer to a number.
In vain. If you ever put a lot of effort into something but it was useless, your effort will have been in vain (bāṭil), in short, it will be a futile effort, in vain or worthless, precisely the original meaning of this Arabism.
Elixir. When looking in the dictionary of the Royal Academy of Language, the first meaning that will give us for this word is that of “philosopher’s stone”.“, that if you’re a fan of Harry Potter you’ll understand perfectly, but if not, maybe it sounds like something strange and distant. But this was not invented by JK Rowling, it comes from classical Arabic al’iksīr.
There is another definition that is more tangible in today’s world and refers to the liquid resulting from mixing various medicinal substances and dissolve them in alcohol.
so-and-so. Surely you have heard this more than once: “If so-and-so tells you that he is going to jump off a ravine, do you do it too?” Well, whoever told you is using an Arabism. With so-and-so or so-and-so we refer to someone whose name we do not know or whom we do not want to name, and it comes from flun.
what of mdeception and withutano are later inventions from Castilian.
Feat. When someone does something heroic or illustrious we say that he has done a feat (asanah), although originally it referred to a good deed.
Job. The one with the famous bell ringer of Notre Dame or what camels have, that protuberance on the back that can also be that thing that annoys us and humps us (adabah).
Mohíno. It’s the first Monday after a spectacular vacation and it’s your turn to go to work. You may make him sad, melancholic or upset, in short, sulky (mahīn). In the original Arabic it meant “offended, vilified”. Mondays at that time must have been terrible.
It is also widely used to refer to a horse or cattle that has very black hair and muzzle.
Sorbet. Ice cream, flash, ice cream, chupichupi… Depending on where you are from, you will use different words to refer to sorbet (Sharbach), that delicious frozen dessert made with water or milk and with different flavors, with a wafer or on a stick. So you will be using an arabism. Or better yet… Eating it!
image source, Getty Images
The name of the tamarind, a very common fruit in Latin America, is an Arabism.
TamarindThe. Every time you sing that song that Celia Cruz made famous, the one about “tamarind pulp, say it again! Tamarind pulp, tasty,” you’re also saying an Arabism. It turns out that this fruit from which a delicious juice comes out is native to Asia and its name comes from the Arabic tamr hindī, literally “Indian date”.
Puppeteer. That person who handles the marionettes, or puppets owes his name to a very curious expression in Arabic, which is tiríd tirí and means “do you want to come?”.
Zafio. That rude man who doesn’t even say good morning, that one without any manners, that’s a boor. The origin is in the expression falláḥ ṣáfi, which means ‘mere farmer’.
Backpack. Cousin brother of the so-and-so, who is a coarse, is the dickhead, who is a fake and a traitor; that is, a chestnut. An unpleasant, unpleasant and indigestible being, which is precisely what the word originally means zahím.
But also zaíno it can refer to a horse or mare that is dark chestnut in color or to a steer that is completely black.
Now you can receive notifications from BBC World. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss out on our best content.