The Arabic language is currently enjoying ever-increasing popularity. It has become one of the fastest-growing langulanguagesage on the Internet and has more than 420 million speakers worldwide.
It is the official language in more than 20 countries in Asia and Africa. The Arabic language is famous as the language of poetry and its origin dates back to the first century.
Here is a list of 10 interesting facts about the Arabic language that will make you appreciate it even more!
The word Arab means nomad
If we have a look at the history of the Arabic language, it originated before more than 1, 500 years from nomadic tribes in the desert regions of the Arabian Peninsula. These nomadic tribes primarily occupied the area between Mesopotamia and the Lebanon mountains.
The Arabic alphabet is not actually an alphabet but an ajbad
This is a system where each letter stands for a consonant and not a vowel. In written language are used vowel marks to denote the vowels as well as their length. Have a look:
There are many Arabic words which have entered the English language
Directly or indirectly through the Romance languages. Such words are admiral, cotton, coffee and giraffe as well as alcohol, algebra, algorithm and alkaline. Interestingly, the article al means the in Arabic. Here is a list of all English words with Arabic origin:
Besides English the Arabian language has influenced many other languages
Persian, Turkish, Hindi, Malay as well as Bosnian and Swahili all contain Arab words or vocabulary borrowed from Arabic words
Also read: What are the main languages spoken in the Middle East?
One of the greatest Arab contributions to European culture is the numbers
Not many are aware of the fact that it was the Arab merchants who introduced the Europeans to the numbers we use nowadays. More precisely, from the 10th century onwards the Europeans began using the new numerical system.
The letter ‘x’
In mathematics, x represents an unknown quantity or number, originating from the Arabic word shay meaning thing in English. Initially, it was translated to ‘xay’ in Spanish and later became ‘x’.
Arabic is the language of the Qur’an and the Islamic law
Indeed, it is an obligation for all Muslims and anyone who is practicing the Islam religion to know the language. Arabic is the liturgical language of 1.8 Billion Muslims around the world.
Also read: Business In The Middle East Cultural Differences You Need To Know
Words are written from right to left
….while numbers are written from left to right. These images illustrate the difference:
There are at least 14 words for love in the Arabic language
Each denotes a different stage in the process of falling in love with a person. Hub is the most common one and stems from the same root as the Arabic word for This could be interpreted as if love is a seed that has the potential to grow into something much bigger.
Camels are a prominent part of the Arabic culture
As a result, there are more than 100 words for camel in the Arabic language. There are distinct words not only for male and female camel but also for the different types of camels, depending on the manner they drink water. Have a look:
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