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Arabic has had a tremendous influence on Spanish (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on_the_Spanish_language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w
by vowelless 10y ago
Arabic has had a tremendous influence on Spanish (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on_the_Spanish_language https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language_influence_on...) which shows up occasionally in English. My personal favorite is that California is derived from Khalif, a Muslim Ruler (same word that Daesh uses to refer to their leader today).
In 1917, Ruth Putnam printed an exhaustive account of the work performed up to that time. She wrote that both Calafia and California most likely came from the Arabic word khalifa which means steward[6] or leader. The same word in Spanish was califa, easily made into California to stand for "land of the caliph" خلیف, or Calafia to stand for "female caliph" خلیفه .[7]
Maltese is another language that has a surprising amount of Arabic influence. The way they say their numbers is almost exactly the same as Arabic.
- subliminalpanda 10y agoChess in another example. If memory serves, "Checkmate" was derived from the Arabic "Sheikh maat" (the Sheikh has died).
- amyjess 10y agoShah maat, actually, and it came from Farsi/Persian, not Arabic. Shah is Farsi for king. Edit: The word chess itself also derives from shah. According to Wiktionary [0], it comes from Old French eschés, the plural of eschec, which comes from Vulgar Latin (scaccus* being the unattested reconstruction), which comes from Arabic shah, which finally comes from Farsi shah. [0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chess https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chess
- subliminalpanda 10y agoI see thanks for the clarification.
- khedoros1 10y agoThat makes it clearer where the German "Schach" probably came from. I wondered about it when I learned that word.
- abrowne 10y ago> Maltese is another language that has a surprising amount of Arabic influence. The way they say their numbers is almost exactly the same as Arabic. Not too surprising because Maltese is descendant from Arabic and would probably be considered an Arabic dialect except for cultural factors like religion and alphabet.
- b_emery 10y ago"According to another theory, the term could derive from the Old Spanish Calit Fornay, an alteration of the Latin Calida Fornax, meaning hot furnace" This is the one I've always heard, the Khalif origin is new to me - and very interesting. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_California#Alteration_of_Calida_Fornax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_California#Altera...
- lappet 10y agoWow, I did not know that California is derived from Khalif, even though I am familiar with the term.
- amyjess 10y ago> Maltese is another language that has a surprising amount of Arabic influence. The way they say their numbers is almost exactly the same as Arabic. Maltese is a lot like English in that it has so many substrata that you have to look at it very closely to see where it came from. Maltese is actually a direct descendant of Arabic, but it has been so heavily influenced by multiple Indo-European languages that 2/3 of its vocabulary has been replaced by words from Italian, Sicilian, English, and possibly others. Compare this with how English is a West Germanic language but it has multiple substrata from Old Norse, French, and Latin influences.
- supermatou 10y ago> California is derived from Khalif, a Muslim Ruler (same > word that Daesh uses to refer to their leader today). Not really. That was the invention of Edward Everett Hale (a theologian with no linguistic training, who died 100 years ago). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_California
- csomar 10y agoDid you actually check the link you posted. Because he is quoting from there.