Arabic Loan Words

By: Jana & Sara :)

What time period are many of these words from? Why do you think so many words come from this time?

Many of these words are from a long long time ago, where some are from the 14th , 15, 16,17, 18, or 19th century. i think that many of these words were originated along time ago, because for example the word "algebra" in english is "aljabr" in arabic. a long time ago, a man that had came up with algebra was called al jabr himself, so because of the time period that he was living in, thats when the word was originated.

What kinds of words has Arabic contributed to English?

words such as alcohol in english, is "Kohl" in arabic, or Tuna in english is "altoon" in arabic, as you can see these words are very similar, where the original arabic word is only changed very slightly in order to produce the english word. they mostly sound the same, the only difference is the arrangement of the letters is a bit different. Modern day arabic has also changed, but some of these english words come from the original, arabic language.

How is a language a reflection of the history and culture of a civilization?

Language is made up of the words that are used among people in different civilizations, and is affected majorly by the surroundings and the events that happen in a certain civilization. For example in the Arabic language, AlJabir was the guy who started and came up with Algebra, therefore they named Algebra 'AlJabr' because that was something that took place in the history of a certain civilization and this is how most of the words become part of a language.