Al-Andalus (الأَنْدَلُس) was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states based in modern Portugal and Spain from 711 AD to 1492 AD.
Much of the Arabic influence upon Spanish came through the various Arabized Romance dialects that were spoken in areas under Moorish rule, known today by scholars as Mozarabic. This resulted in Spanish often having both Arabic and Latin derived words with the same meaning.
Examples of Arabic and Latin derived words in Spanish with the same meaning:
aceituna & oliva (olive),
alacrán & escorpión (scorpion),
jaqueca & migraña (migraine),
alcancía & hucha (piggy bank).
The influence of Arabic is more noticeable in the Spanish dialects from regions with a longer history of Muslim rule than those where it was shorter-lived. For this reason, the dialects of the southern half of the country show a higher degree of preference for Arabisms.
Northern Spanish dialects tend to prefer Romance synonyms to terms of Arabic origin. Because Canarian and all Hispanic American dialects are mainly derived from Southern Castilian, Spanish words of Arabic origin are common in most varieties of Modern Spanish.
The Emirate of Sicily (إِمَارَة صِقِلِّيَة) was an Islamic kingdom that ruled the island of Sicily from 831 to 1091. Its capital was Palermo (Bal'harm), which during this period became a major cultural and political center of the Muslim world.
More Spanish words that come from Arabic:
azul (lāzaward, ultimately from Sanskrit)
café (qahwa)
pantalones (bantalon)
camisa (kamis)
alacrán (aqrab)
barrio (barri, from Andalusian Arabic)
cúrcuma (curcum)
jarra (ǧarrah)
fulano (fulan)
rincón (rukn)
almohada (al-makhada)
TheMozarabic/Andalusi Romance language… this is so cool.
Arabic-influenced Romance dialects spoken in the Muslim-controlled areas of Iberia, known as Al-Andalus. It was spoken until around the 13th century when it was displaced, mostly by Spanish, which adopted a lot from it.
Mozarabic vs Spanish:
Mozarabic:
Mío sidi Ibrahim,
ya wemne dolche!
vente mib
de nohte.
non, si non quieres,
iréyme tib:
garreme a ob
legarte
Spanish:
Mi señor Ibrahim,
¡Oh tú, hombre dulce!
Ven a mí
de noche.
Si no, si no quieres,
yo me iré contigo,
dime dónde
encontrarte
“Inshallah” & “Mashallah” around the world & words descended from these terms:
Arabic: إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ (In sha'Allah)
Spanish: Ojalá
Asturleonese & Galician: Oxalá/Ogallá
Portuguese: Oxalá
Maltese: jekk Alla jrid
Persian/Farsi: انشاءالله
Costa Rican Spanish: Machalá
Cypriot Greek: ίσσαλα (ishalla)
1. “In sha'Allah” or “Inshallah” an Arabic language expression meaning “if God wills” or “God willing”.
2. In Cypriot Greek the word ίσσαλα,ishallais used with the meaning “hopefully”.
3. The word “oxalá” in Asturleonese, Galician, & Portuguese; also present in Spanish as “ojalá” all come from the Arabic لو شاء الله law šā’ l-lāh. It means “we hope” or “I hope”.
4. A similar expression exists in Maltese:jekk Alla jrid (if God wills it). Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily and later in Malta between the end of the 9th century and the end of the 12th century.
5. The word “Machalá” descended from the Arabic “Mashallah” is used in Costa Rican Spanish.
In Costa Rica, it means the opposite of “ojalá”, so it means “I hope not” instead of hopefully.
You can say something like:
“Machalá,machalá, toco madera"
in order to keep bad luck away.
End of thread:
I hope you enjoyed and learned something neat about these languages
who doesn’t love languages? or free resources? or free! language! resources!?
i was on duolingo, reading a discussion, and saw a link to a free swedish grammar book! and when i checked the website, there were loads of free language books in downloadable pdf form just waiting to be put in a tumblr post. i even used proper capitalisation for the book names! but that was shortlived, as i have a nonchalant online presence to consider.
obvious disclaimer: i don’t own any of the rights etc etc to any of the above etc etc, i just thought i’d share.
and while i’m here, if you want an actual free online course to do, FutureLearn has some language ones (as well as lots of other disciplines too!) i did a few modules of their Italian For Beginners which i really had fun doing and i learnt a lot of the basics- unfortunately they don’t offer those at the moment, but do check back as they introduce new courses all the time!
Open University offers loads of free courses, including some language ones. i haven’t done any language specific ones through OU, but i have done a few history ones which i enjoyed (although personally, i prefer the format and structure of FutureLearn, if i’m being honest).
Open Culture seems to have lots of language courses (48 languages, to be precise), although i have never personally used their resources they have been recommended to me, and they seem to offer a lot of languages not previously covered by any of the above, so it may be worth a look!
YouTube and Spotify also offer some good visual/aural learning resources which really helps with pronunciation, but you’d have to check for your specific target language. i am currently trying to learn swedish and italian (although i have fallen dreadfully behind in the latter) and i’ve found some useful things on both!
Few other countries call to me the way Spain does - but I’ve been something like 3 or 4 times in the past 5 years. Whenever I am in that part of the world I tend to find little excuses to dip back into the land of flamencoandjamon for a few days.
So in the spirit of branching out, this time I gave Portugal a try, spending 2 nights in Porto and then heading to Lisbon for 3.
Let me tell you - if you are interested in going to Europe but you don’t think you can afford it, you need to put Portugal at the top of your list. It is much less expensive than many other parts of Europe, but the food, art and culture are delicious, unique and captivating.
If you are learning European Portuguese, I highly recommend using DeepL instead of Google Translate. Unlike Google Translate, DeepL lets you decide whether to translate to European Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese. In my experience, DeepL also gives much more accurate translations, probably because of the PT-BR distinction. It is one of the best (if not the best) translators I have used.
Liz from Talk the Streets did a really nice review of how to use the DeepL translator when learning EP. Check out her video!
Here’s an example of DeepL outperforming Google translate with the Portugues expression “bem haja.” Google Translate gives the literal translation “well there”, which is not correct. DeepL provides an equivalent expression in English: “cheers”.
I have said it before, and I’m sure I will say it again. DeepL is way better for European Portuguese than Google Translate. Here’s an example I ran into today with an article from Público. Google Translate is a mess, but DeepL is spot on.
Português com Susana talks about the differences between infinitivo pessoal and futuro de conjuntivo in European Portuguese. I don’t think the futuro de conjuntivo is really used in Brasil, but it is definitely used in Portugal. I don’t know about other countries though, so feel free to add a comment if you know!
She speaks in Portuguese throughout the video. Only auto-generated subtitles are available, which don’t always work well with European Portuguese.
Hi@ipaaciir !!! I’m your Langblr Secret Santa (@langblrsecretsanta2021), so I thought I’d put together a list of youtube channels related to linguistics and fashion with a few extras thrown in! I hope you enjoy them! <3
Língua - Vidas em Português: This is just a documentary about the Portuguese language and the many places it’s spoken that I remember really liking when I had first seen it.
Professor Noslen: He has a ton of videos on a lot of school related topics, but he has specific playlists dedicated to linguistics, here’s the one for phonology!
LeveLetras: The channel is dedicated to linguistic theory and I thought it was super helpful for explaining concepts I wasn’t quite getting that are a bit more out there.
Museu da Língua Portuguesa: If you’re looking for long talks, this channel is perfect, since it goes over a lot of topics related to the Portuguese language. Here’s one I particularly enjoyed on pluricentrismo.
MOPC Linguística: This channel gives me sort of a Langfocus vibe, it just gives little overviews of various languages, but I admittedly haven’t watched it extensively.
Tus clases de portugués: You might already know this channel! It was really helpful for me when I started learning Portuguese, and the more recent lessons are still helpful even now. It’s great for spot-checking your skills.
Descomplicando a Moda: This channel talks about famous fashion figures and brands. I truthfully am not that knowledgeable on fashion history but I believe this channel is more about the history and the industry rather than what to wear.
Leitura ObrigaHISTÓRIA: This one is a podcast on a ton of different humanities and history topics, and I saw quite a bit of anthropology videos as well! I really like the deep dives into topics like this, so I hope you do too.
Learn European Portuguese - Learn PT-PT made a 12 video playlist about European Portuguese pronunciation. She goes through all the tricky sounds like ão and lh, but she also has four videos dedicated to the surprisingly difficult pronunciation of the letter X. She speaks in European Portuguese throughout the videos, but she speaks slowly and very clearly. Subtitles are not available, but the video itself includes the text in Portuguese and the English translation.
