2770: Guadalajara, Guadalupe, and Whisky Jul 21, 2024
Spanish does not have [w] as the first sound of a word, and in spelling Spanish only uses W in foreign words, predominantly from English, but there are older loanwords that look differently. In the middle of a word, the sound exists, such as in ‘agua’ [ˈa.ɣ̞wa] (water) but occurs with U after a consonant, so around Iberia, namely around former Andalusia, there are places:
Guadalajara, Guadalupe, Guadix, Guadalcanal, Guadalquivir, Guadalperal Dolmen, some referring to cities, some waterways, but all come from the Arabic وَادِي (wadi) or … وَادِي الْ (wadi al…) which in Arabic standardly refers to a seasonal river that dries up each year, but in Muslim Spain just denoted a river. Since Spanish words don’t naturally begin with [w] the [g] was added for phonetic ease. Of course, unlike with English loan words, Arabic’s are in another writing system which makes wholesale borrowing like Modern Spanish ‘whisky’ (from ‘whiskey’) overall a harder feat too.
In a few even rarer cases the spelling is UA- like in ‘ualabí’ (wallaby), but this very foreign looking and is really used for when enunciating each vowel, like transliterating the city name, Ouagadougou (Uagadugú).
2761: Español is not Normal Jul 12, 2024
‘Spanish’, in Spanish, is ‘Español’ but by people-group or language standards, this is a pretty new word. In Old Spanish it was ‘espanyol’ or ‘espanno’, but this really only took place at the time of the reconquista and eventually the Spanish Inquisition. Up until this time, under Moorish, Muslim rule it was called Al-Andalus, and there was not a uniquely Iberian identity per se. Before the total success of the reconquista, one might identify with a local kingdom or more likely as a ‘cristiano’ (christian), after which point, the Latin ‘Hispania’ was revived, itself taken from a Semitic word from the days of the Carthaginian empire, from the Canaanite/Phoenician ‘yšpn, related to the Hebrew שָׁפָן (shafan), probably in reference to hyraxes along the coast in ancient times.
All of this is to say that the word ‘Español’ is rather strange looking, because normally one would expect to see *españuelo according to what one would expect to see in the transition from the expected Vulgar Latin *Hispaniolus into Old Spanish through to Modern Spanish. Since this is not a normal Latin word, nor was this in common use while the transition from Latin → Vulgar Latin → Old Spanish was underway, it has its modern form.
2759: Linguistic Connections: ζεῦγος Jul 10, 2024
The concept of pairing or joining may not seem very complex, yet it is in these simplest instances that we find the greatest adaptation and variation. The Ancient Greek ζεῦγος (zeugos), meaning ‘yoke’—not in the burdensome sense but in the sense of things joined—gave rise to words like ‘zygote’ and numerous everyday terms. It was adopted into Aramaic as זוגא (zuga), meaning ‘pair’, which led to Hebrew זוג (zug), meaning ‘pair; couple’, and זיוג (zivug), meaning ‘soulmate’. Arabic also borrowed it from Aramaic, forming the root ز و ج (z w j), resulting in words like ‘marriage’ زَوْج (zawj) and ‘spouse’, as well as مزدوج (muzdawaj), meaning ‘bisexual’ in the sense of twos. Sanskrit योग (yóga), while not directly from Greek, shares the same root (also found in ‘yoke’ itself), relating to pairing, but in a religious Hindu context concerning the body and soul.
2713: Mythical Whale Names in Hebrew and Arabic May 25, 2024
Like several other modern words, the word for ‘whale’ in Modern Hebrew is from a mythical beast, here לויתן (Levitan) which in English is rendered “Leviathan”, a sea-monster. While there is a history of turning biblical monsters into normal animals has happened elsewhere, this case is distinct in that there are some translations in the Book of Jonah that feature a whale, but this is from the Hebrew דג גדול (dag gadol) literally “big fish”, and whether or not that refers to a whale, it would not make for a suitable term.
Many of Modern Hebrew’s words were also created to draw upon Arabic, whose word for a whale is حوت (ḥout) which is not related to any in Hebrew, but also almost certain was from an earlier word for some kind of sea-monster, either from a variation of حَيَّة (ḥaya) meaning ’snake’ with an ending more meaning “sea-snake” or from a typical Semitic root ح ي و (ḥ-y-w) meaning ‘live’ having once referred to some kind of ancient beast. This is different to the Islamic Whale, a whale believed to be holding up the Earth in a supposed cosmic ocean.
2573: chutzpa Dec 29, 2021
The English word 'chutzpah' is from Hebrew via Yiddish meant, 'insolence' or 'audacity', but took on meaning more of 'grit' or 'moxie' as time went on. This is not entirely always negative, but does connote a strong sense of arrogance. Meanwhile, the Arabic cognate حصافة (ḥaṣāfah) means really the exact opposite with 'strong judgement'.
2503: satin Oct 19, 2021
China was famous historically for being the starting point of the Silk Road, but along with carrying satin it was a major means of language transfer. Satin is named for the Chinese city of 泉州 (Quanzhou) which literally means “spring prefecture”, but in Arabic this is زَيْتُون (zaytūn) meaning "olive tree", itself a translation of "Tung Tree City", for the many trees planted by its 10th century prince. The Arabic term was taken into French first before its adoption into English.
2471: lemon & citrus Sep 17, 2021
Around Europe, two different basic terms for 'lemon', or alternatively 'citron' are used, both very likely of Semitic origin though this is not certain. Ultimately, 'lemon', also found in Portuguese 'limão' and Spanish 'limón', along with a number of other Semitic and Nilo-Saharan languages comes from Arabic لَيْمُون (laymūn), itself from Persian and likely with a connection to the Sanskrit word for 'lime'. 'Citron' on the other hand, as in the French 'citron', German 'Zitron', or Italian 'cedro' is via the Latin 'citrus' from Greek, likely from a Mediterranean, pre-Greek root akin to the Arabic قَطْرَان (qaṭrān), which may have been used to describe the resins and only later the fruit itself. More on how limes fit into the story tomorrow.
2459: Semitic Definite Article Sep 5, 2021
Two Semitic languages, Hebrew and Arabic, have on the surface two differently sourced definite articles, ה־ (ha-) in Hebrew and ٱلْـ (al-) in Arabic, but some linguistics think otherwise. They surmise that originally there was a form هل۔/הל־ (hal-) used in a proto-Semitic language and as they two diverged, this form did as well, splitting in two separate ways. Not everyone agrees with this, and even those who would agree to the idea principle, they propose different forms. Some of these include in Arabic لا (lā) either through metathesis or as a different particle that eventually took on the meaning of a determiner.
2423: Is 'Taurus' (Bull) Semitic? Aug 9, 2021
The Latin 'taurus', Greek ταύρος (tauros) and Lithuanian 'tauras' all could come from the Proto-Indo-European PIE *tau-ro- meaning 'bull', but this could actually be Semitic. The Aramaic for 'bull' is תור (tor), in Hebrew שור (shor), and Arabic ثور (thawr) and so on throughout the whole Semitic family. Meanwhile, many Indo-European languages do not have a word descended from this root, such as in many Indo-Iranian languages, or other related languages spoken further the East. Some notably may have exceptions to this, as in Persian or Avestan with a similar word for horses, or Sanskrit sthura- (thick; standing firm) related to the Old English 'steer'. It could be that those missing cases are simply lacking data, or that this is a wanderwort.
2414: Sun- and Moon-Letters Jul 31, 2021
In Arabic and Maltese grammar, there are letters known as 'sun letters' while the rest are 'moon letters'. This is a direct translation of the Arabic حروف شمسية (churūf shamsiyyah) and حروف قمرية (churūf qamariyyah) respectively. The distinction is that sun letters see the [l] of the definite article الْـ (al-) assimilate with the following letter, such as in 'the sun' which is الشمس (al-shams) but assimilates to (ash-shams) with a geminated consonant, while 'the moon' القمر (al-qamar) remains as such, hence the names. There are equal numbers of overall sun and moon letters in Arabic including ﻝ [l] which means [l] gets assimilated by [l], but Maltese there are more moon letters including L [l].
2372: South Arabian Languages Jun 16, 2021
South Arabian languages, mainly confined to Oman, Yemen (including Soqotri) along with Kuwait. These were once thought to be descendents of Old South Arabian—a collection of four Yemenite languages—but were later reclassified as West Semitic along with Arabic, Hebrew, and Ethiopian Semitic languages: basically any living Semitic language. Still, these diverged from other Semitic languages early, and are closer related to Ethiopian Semitic languages rather than Arabic, though these are far from mutually intelligible. These languages (Bathari, Harsusi, Hobyót, Mehri–Soqotri, Shehri) are known for having certain archaic features, especially when it comes to phonology, lost in other Semitic languages.
2328: Fishing in Arabic (Maghrebi Dialect) May 3, 2021
Although in Arabic retains many similarities to Classical Arabic and and its dialects are usually fairly mutually intelligible, but there are of course certain regional differences. Past the larger phonetic and grammatical variations, as well as effects of various environmental factors, there are some amusing differences in vocabulary. For instance the word for 'to fish' in Arabic is صيد السمك (sayd alsamak) actually meaning 'to hunt fish', while in Maghrebi Arabic the word for fish is حوت (hawt). In Standard Arabic this would mean 'whale' and thus the Maghrebi for 'to fish' صيد الحوت (sayd alhut) or literally 'to hunt whale'.
2165: yemen Nov 18, 2020
The country of Yemen occupies the southernmost point of the Arabian Peninsula, but its name comes from Arabic اَلْيَمَن (al-yaman) meaning 'on the right' or 'right-hand'. For one looking at most maps now that would mean East, but since maps were oriented ('orient' itself meaning 'East', found on the top of map) with east on the top, it effectively just means 'South'. Similarly, the name in Hebrew, תימן (teimán) means 'south'.