2069: Arabic Influence in Spanish & Portuguese Aug 14, 2020

The Iberian peninsula was under Muslim control to varying degrees for 7 centuries. The linguistic effects are less extreme than the French effect on English, with only about 8% of modern Spanish vocabulary from Arabic as opposed to about 30% of English's vocabulary from French, but it is still noticeable. In both however, disproportionately these are words for foods, legal terms, high culture, academia, and interjections. Examples from each in Spanish include 'arroz' (rice) and 'azeite' (olive oil in Portuguese), alcalde (mayor), 'cero' (zero), and ojalá ('let it be...') originally 'may Allah want...'. Many scientific and mathematical words eventually entered English.

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