Calling all language lovers!

[Gauchita]

I'll shamelessly plug a friend's blog here because it's great!

If you're interested in language, etymology, linguistics, etc, head this way.

She's an etymology addict (and doesn't mind me saying so ) and is teaching the rest of us a lot, so thank you Alex

alexpolistigers.wordpress.com/

Such an interesting blog! Thank you for sharing Guachita, and thank you to Alex for writing!

Horry, thanks for that link, added to wish list!

I liked today's post, Alex re 'book' and its origin. Interesting how it was on beech trees and not others.

Yes, I've been wondering about that myself, Gauchita. There were plenty of oak trees growing in Europe, and other trees, too, obviously, but for some reason, beech was used for writing purposes. Perhaps it held some kind of religious significance?

Fascinating blog. I find it fascinating how many Spanish (and Portuguese) words come from Arabic as a result of the Moors being in the Iberian peninsular for so long....some have even come through into English, like pantalones/pantaloons, alcove (and pretty much all al...words in Spanish).

I agree with your point about Spanish and Portuguese having Arabic words, but I'm fairly sure that "pantaloons" is not Arabic at all, but comes from Italian and possibly went to there from Greek

Oh, maybe. It's just that I have a friend who's first language is Iraqi arabic (IYSWIM) and she studied a little bit of basic Spanish and said there's a very similar word in Arabic.

The Arabic word probably came from the Italian too in that case. Other words, like "algebra" are from Arabic, however

כן אני יכולה אבל מי מבין את זה?

Oh dear
Lets try it in english letters.
ken, ani y'chola, aval mi mevine et ze?

Sara What language is that? (Second post btw)

I think Alex mentioned the other day not being able to post in Greek as it came up as gobbledygook, but saw other posts in Greek here?

Interesting re. SP PT & Arabic, I didn't know that.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on_the_Spanish_language

I didn't realise there were quite so many....

We then get some too in English like alchemy, alcohol, algebra, alcove etc..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on_the_Spanish_language

That's quite a list on the Wiki link GoodtoBetter, but I wonder at the accuracy. I saw it had "atacar" listed as being from Arabic, but surely it's linked to "attach" in English? and according to Google it is "attaccare" in Italian too.

Also, "rabida". I remember this as meaning "angry" - wouldn't it be related to "rabid"?

I'm not an expert, though, these are just my thoughts!

No idea to how accurate it is but it is true that there are a lot of words in SP and PT that are Arabic in origin and I find that interesting. DH is Spanish and has an interesting surname, which is possibly a corruption of something Arabic and certainly when we were in Morocco, the Moroccans were amazed he wasn't one of them

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that there weren't lots of Spanish words that derive from Arabic, just that a couple on that list didn't seem to me like they were of Arabic origin!

Perhaps there's someone more knowledgeable on the thread who can clear it up? Alex?

Must be funny for your DH, though!

His name sounds like a corruption of Bin something or other and then in Morocco, people thought he looked very Moroccan.
I expect some of the words are inaccurate, but still fascinating all the same. I had always heard that ojalá was from Arabic and naranja (and laranja in Portuguese). But I also have a vague memory about reading about orange being the same route and originally being a norange from the Arabic/Spanish naranja and then eventually becoming AN orange in English. Might be bollocks though.....

I think norange is right. Words that were new shortly before publishing began to take off (so late 1400s to mid 1500s) were brutalised by early editors' guesses. Nadre to adder is another example.

I don't mind admitting that Spanish etymology is not my area of expertise, I'm afraid!

However, I know that English "attach" is from a Germanic root (perhaps via French), and that "rabid" is from Latin "rabidus". I would expect the Spanish "rabida" to come from there too.

I would have to investigate a bit more for "atacar"

and yes, that's right, re a norange

Very pleased with myself that I wasn't misremembering nonsense about a norange then Love languages (only speak Eng and Sp), endlessly fascinating. Would love to know a bit more about Basque as it's quite different altogether.

DH speaks 5 languages, including Spanish and Portuguese. He was most surprised to see that the only two words of Turkish he understood in Turkey were:

Zeytin ~ Azeitona (Portuguese) ~ Zaytoon (Arabic)
... which all mean "olive"

and

Sharap ~ Xerope (Portuguese) ~ Sharab (Arabic)
... which are pronounced the same but means "wine" in Turkish & Arabic while it means "medicine" in Portuguese. This caused a fair bit of hilarity at dinner table when DH first met my parents

This might have something to do something to do with shurup ("shouroup") meaning "liquid medicine" which has entered Portuguese from Arabic but was maybe mispronounced.

sirope in Spanish and syrup in English?

My point was that sharap (wine) has become the word for medicine in Portuguese, although it is not pronounced the same as syrup.

yy, was just pondering about if sirope and syrup were of the same root.

That colour blog is quite fascinating.

I can recall discussing the precise shade of green wool that my mother had bought to make a cardigan for the baby. 'It is a light green, but not as bright as grass green or apple green, more of a sage green. Actually, I think I would call it moss green...'

After 10 mins of this, DH roared across the room, 'FFS, it is GREEN'.

Not sure if that is his German green-blindness or male blindness, or even a bit of colour blindness.

Psammead
Poor DH also has to endure me laughing at him when he asked if I wanted more a-spar-agus