4 The influence of Arabic on other languages
In Week 1 you learned a bit about the history of the Arabic language, and how its dialects are influenced by other languages. In this section, you’ll learn a bit about how Eastern and Western languages were affected by Arabic. Some of these languages only adapted a few Arabic words, while some languages even adapted the Arabic alphabet in writing. These changes reflect the relationship that Arabs and locals had with each other.
In English for example, words that are used in the realms of politics, religion or law are usually of French origin (e.g., constitution, to baptize, judge – juge) whereas mundane words stayed Germanic (e.g. to say – sagen, hand – Hand), which reflects that following the Norman Conquest of 1066 the ruling class of Britain was French, spoke in French and only very slowly mingled with the locals.
Here are four examples of languages in which you can spot Arabic in the following sections.