Alabín alabín alabín bon ban!
Surely you have heard or said this expression at some time to encourage your team during a match.
What you may not have known is that it has several centuries behind it, it comes from the Arabic alla’ibín áyya ba’ád alla’ib bón bád and it means “players, come on, the game is going well”.
That same origin has a multitude of words and expressions that we use on a daily basis: arabisms
They are the product of the cultural and linguistic exchange that took place in the Iberian Peninsula between Arabic, Semitic language and SpanishRomance language with origins in Latin.
Is very hard to know how many arabisms there are exactly. And it has to do with the number of derived words there are, Ángel Vicente, full professor in the area of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Zaragoza (Spain), tells BBC Mundo.
For example, oil and olive come from Arabic, but it is not clear whether they should be counted as aceitunero or aceitoso, which are derived words. “The best thing is not to make the mistake of saying a number. But if make it clear that the influence (of Arabic in Spanish) is enormous”.
A little history
In the year 711 the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula began.
They entered through the south of Spain, an area which they later named Al Andalusand that today retains the name with the place name of Andalusia.
Under different administrative figures and dynasties, the Arabs remained in power until the capture of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs in 1492in the so-called Reconquest.
There was an Arab-speaking population in the peninsula until 1609-1612, after the expulsion edicts of Felipe III.
Historians agree that a small part of the invaders spoke Arabicwhile most spoke Berber, a North African language.
“It is a miracle that perhaps a few hundred, a few thousand Arabs with a larger number of Berbers managed to Arabize a population of between five and six million people”, said the late Arabist Federico Corriente in his entrance speech at the Royal Spanish Academy.
But those few who spoke Arabic were the eliteThey had the power. And, therefore, it went from being a minority language, sharing space with Low Latin and Proto-Spanish, to becoming the language of prestige.
“The Arabization of the language does not happen overnight. In about two centuries Arabic is imposed from the political and religious point of view”, says Angeles Vicente.
Not only the power influenced the language, also the mixed marriages between Arabs and autochthonous converts to Islam, something that happened, in part, to obtain privileges at the time of work or tax exemption.
When do Arabisms appear?
Arabisms were not incorporated into Spanish at the same time, nor were they all maintained.
Some appeared, disappeared and took a new shape over the yearsas it happens with the word with which we denominate that yellowish or red powder that is used for the hair or hands, thehenna (from classical Arabic ḥinnā‘). This Arabism has evolved within Spanish. Before it was more common to talk about alena (from the Hispanic Arabic alḥínna).
The first contact to adopt Arabisms, explains Vicente, it was between the 8th century and the 11th century, “with the very strong coexistence between two languages, proto-Castilian/Roman-Andalusí, very early Romance of Al-Andalus, and Andalusian Arabic”.
“It is a time of very strong interaction and where the Mozarabs (Hispanic population with Muslim cultural elements) are very numerous”.
The second contact is during the conquests of the Christian kingdoms over the Muslims, where there is a new coexistence of the Arabic and Spanish languages.
The most abundant are the nouns, although there are also the occasional adjective and some verb.
Vicente explains that there are many words in the lexicon field of agriculture (ditch, waterwheel), from the earth (bean or carob), of mathematics (algebra, zero) or military (ensign).
The ones that we all surely identify quickly are the words that start with “at””.
They are loans that happened with the definite article that, in Arabic, is unique, “al”, as opposed to “el/la/los/las” in Spanish.
So it happened with pillow (al mihaddah) or mason (al banna’). A good part of those that start with “a” have the same origin, only that the “l” of the article “al” is assimilated, as is the case with saffron (to the za’farān).
Words and expressions that come from Arabic
In a quick glance at “Spanish dictionary” we find countless words with their origin in Arabic written at the beginning. Together with teacher Angeles Vicente We review some.
Boast. Nowadays, when someone brags, they are bragging about something. But the origin of this word has little to do with its current meaning. It didn’t even exist as a verb. What has come down to us is the derivation of a noun, “flaunt” (al’árḍ), which was to review the troops.
Azimuth and zenith. Science owes a great deal to Arab scholars and, for that matter, to astronomy, as they gave names to many terms in use today. Two of them are azimuth (assumut) and zenith (samt [arra’s]), which serve to indicate specific points of the celestial vault.
Figure. They were also good at math, so it’s no wonder we’ve been left with words like this, cipher (ṣífr), which originally meant “empty” and today we use to refer to a number.
For nothing. If you ever put a lot of effort into something but it was useless, your effort will have been in vain (bāṭil), in short, it will be a futile effort, in vain or worthless, precisely the original meaning of this Arabism.
Elixir. When looking in the dictionary of the Royal Academy of Language, the first meaning that will give us for this word is that of “philosopher’s stone”.”, that if you’re a fan of Harry Potter you’ll understand perfectly, but if not, maybe it sounds like something strange and distant. But this was not invented by JK Rowling, it comes from classical Arabic al’iksīr.
There is another definition that is more tangible in today’s world and refers to the liquid resulting from mixing various medicinal substances and dissolve them in alcohol.
so-and-so Surely you have heard this more than once: “If so-and-so tells you that he is going to jump off a ravine, do you do it too?” Well, whoever told you is using an Arabism. With so-and-so or so-and-so we refer to someone whose name we do not know or whom we do not want to name, and it comes from so-and-so
what of mengano and zutano are later inventions from Castilian.
Feat. When someone does something heroic or illustrious we say that he has done a feat (ḥasanah), although originally it referred to a good deed.
Hump. The one with the famous bell ringer of Notre Dame or what camels have, that protuberance on the back that can also be that thing that annoys us and humps us (ḥadabah).
Sulky. It’s the first Monday after a spectacular vacation and it’s your turn to go to work. You may make him sad, melancholic or upset, in short, sulky (mahin). In the original Arabic it meant “offended, vilified.” Mondays at that time must have been terrible.
It is also widely used to refer to a horse or cattle that has very black hair and muzzle.
Sorbet. Ice cream, flash, ice cream, chupichupi… Depending on where you are from, you will use different words to refer to sorbet (Sarbah), that delicious frozen dessert made with water or milk and with different flavors, with a wafer or on a stick. So you will be using an arabism. Or better yet… Eating it!
Tamarind. Every time you sing that song that Celia Cruz made famous, the one about “tamarind pulp, say it again! Tamarind pulp, tasty”, you are also saying an arabism. It turns out that this fruit from which a delicious juice comes out is native to Asia and its name comes from the Arabic hindi tamr, literally “Indian date”.
Puppeteer. That person who handles the marionettes, or puppets owes his name to a very curious expression in Arabic, which is tiríd tirí and it means “do you want to come?”.
Boorish. That rude man who doesn’t even say good morning, that one without any manners, that’s a boor. The origin is in the expression falláḥ ṣáfi, which means ‘mere farmer’.
Zaino. Cousin brother of the so-and-so, who is a coarse, is the dickhead, who is a fake and a traitor; that is, a chestnut. An unpleasant, unpleasant and indigestible being, which is precisely what the word originally means zahim
But also chestnut it can refer to a horse or mare that is dark chestnut in color or to a steer that is completely black. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
