The influence of Arabic on European languages Automatic translate

For over a thousand years, Arabic interacted with the languages of Europe through conquest, trade, religion, and scientific contacts. The greatest influence is felt in vocabulary — primarily in the Romance languages of the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, but there are also noticeable traces in English, French, German, Russian, and other European languages.

Researchers estimate that modern Spanish contains over two thousand words of Arabic origin and approximately three thousand derivatives, accounting for approximately eight percent of the vocabulary. For Portuguese, the figure is approximately 400–600 loanwords, and for Sicilian, around eight hundred words. The proportion is lower in French, English, Italian, and other languages, but many such words relate to science, technology, navigation, and urban life, making them highly visible.

Arabic served not only as a source of ready-made words but also as a lingua franca. Through it, terms from the Greek, Persian, and Indian traditions, reworked within the framework of Arabic scientific culture, reached Europe. Thus, the terms "algebra," "algorithm," "azimuth," "zenith," "alkali," and "alcohol" became established in European languages after Latin scholars translated the works of al-Khwarizmi and others.

At the same time, the structure of European languages remained virtually unchanged: the influence affected primarily vocabulary, not grammar or syntax. This is why Arabic elements can be traced quite clearly across thematic layers — scientific terminology, trade, agriculture, everyday vocabulary, and onyms.

Historical routes of contact between Arabic and European languages

Arabic as the language of religion, science and administration

Following the spread of Islam in the 7th and 8th centuries, Arabic became the language of sacred texts, government, and writing across a vast territory from Spain to Central Asia. In the early medieval period, works on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, philosophy, geography, and other sciences were written in it.

As part of the so-called translation movement in Baghdad and other centers, scholars systematically translated Greek, Syriac, Persian, and Indian texts into Arabic. Thus, dozens of Greek and Indian terms became entrenched in the Arabic scholarly tradition, acquiring distinctive Arabic forms and sometimes new meanings. It was this reworked text that later entered Europe via Latin and the Romance languages.

Arabic also served as the language of clerical and legal matters in conquered regions, making it familiar to Christian and Jewish communities in Spain, Sicily, the Middle East, and North Africa. Many members of these communities were bilingual; some vocabulary migrated into their Romance and Germanic dialects, and then into common European languages.

Andalus and Sicily as bridges to Latin Europe

On the Iberian Peninsula, Arabic gained a foothold after the conquest of 711–718 and remained the administrative and cultural standard in some areas until the late 15th century. The period of Arabic presence in Andalusia is estimated to have lasted approximately eight centuries, which explains the extensive penetration of Arabicisms into the Spanish and Portuguese languages.

Researchers indicate that Arabic words and their derivatives make up approximately eight percent of the Spanish vocabulary; these are primarily nouns, while verbs and functional parts of speech are borrowed less frequently. This layer also includes numerous toponyms — for example, names with the element "Guada-" (from the Arabic wādī — "river, valley") and with the initial "Al-."

Sicily was under Muslim control for approximately two centuries, from the 9th to the 11th centuries. As a result, Sicilian dialects contain approximately eight hundred Arabic loanwords, primarily related to irrigation, agriculture, horticulture, and crafts. Through Sicilian and southern Italian dialects, many words entered common Italian and then other European languages.

The Crusades, Trade, and the Eastern Mediterranean

The Crusades and the development of Mediterranean trade created another route for the spread of Arabic vocabulary. The Italian maritime republics — Venice, Genoa, and Pisa — actively traded with ports in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world, purchasing spices, fabrics, metals, sugar, paper, and other goods.

Merchants and intermediaries used Arabic terms for units of measurement, commodity grades, and financial transactions. Much of this highly specialized vocabulary later found its way into the business and legal language of Italian cities, and then spread throughout Europe via Latin documents and translations.

In addition to trade, contacts took place in the fields of medicine and military affairs. Christian doctors studied with their Arab and Iranian colleagues and adopted their terminology; the military borrowed the names of weapons, siege engines, and ships.

Iberian languages and Arabic heritage

Spanish

Spanish is considered the European language with the most developed Arabic vocabulary. Estimates vary: some authors cite 2,000–3,000 words of Arabic origin, while others claim 4,000 words, which, together with derivatives, accounts for approximately 8 percent of the vocabulary. The differences stem from the calculation methods and the criteria for classifying words as loanwords.

Most Arabicisms in Spanish are nouns: names of economic entities (acequia “irrigation canal,” noria “water wheel”), agricultural crops and food products (azúcar “sugar,” arroz “rice,” aceite “oil,” aceituna “olive”), household items (almohada “pillow,” alfombra “carpet,” taza “cup”), as well as administrative and legal positions (alcalde “mayor, judge,” alguacil “bailiff”).

The al- element, which derives from the Arabic definite article, is clearly visible. It is perceived by native speakers as part of the stem: aldea "village," almacén "warehouse," alcázar "fortress," almohada, alfombra, and many others. Linguists emphasize that not every Spanish word ending in al- is of Arabic origin, but this graphic sequence has become a kind of marker of Arabic borrowings in the public perception.

A comparison of doublets of Latin and Arabic origin is interesting. In some cases, two forms with similar meanings coexist in the language: aceituna and oliva (olive), alacrán and escorpión (scorpion), alcancía and hucha (piggy bank). In some styles, the Latin variant is fixed, in others, the Arabic, which allows us to trace the social stratification of vocabulary.

Spain’s toponymy also bears numerous traces of Arabic influence. Research shows that names in Andalusia and the southeast of the country, where Islamic dynasties held power for the longest time, are particularly rich in Arabicisms. Elements such as Guad-, Al-, and Ben- point to a derivation from Arabic (and sometimes Berber) forms.

Portuguese

Portuguese experienced a shorter period of Arabic influence than Castilian, but its list of borrowings is still significant. An estimated four to six hundred words of Arabic origin are cited, spreading primarily through contact with the Moors in the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula.

As in Spanish, some of these words contain traces of the Arabic article: aldeia "village" (< aḍ‑ḍīʿa), alface "salad" (< al‑khass), armazém "warehouse" (< al‑makhzan), azeite "olive oil" (< az‑zayt). Linguists estimate that there are fewer than a thousand such forms in Portuguese, but they are fairly common and included in the basic vocabulary.

In addition to common vocabulary, Portuguese contains Arabic borrowings from nautical and military terminology, associated with trade and sea voyages. Some of these words are identical to Spanish ones in form and origin; others are characteristic primarily of Portuguese and its dialects.

Catalan and Valencian

The Catalan and especially the Valencian dialects were influenced by Arabic during the Al-Andalus period. Research describes hundreds of loanwords related to irrigation, agriculture, and everyday life: séquia "irrigation canal, " nòria "noria, " magatzem "warehouse, " albergínia "eggplant," alfals "alfalfa," and others.

Of particular interest are toponyms containing the elements Beni- and Bene-, meaning "sons" and derived from the Arabic word banī. These elements are often combined with a Romance base and reflect the mixed nature of the region’s medieval onomastic vocabulary.

Southern Italy and Sicily

Sicilian language as the first recipient

From the Arab conquest of Sicily in the 9th century until the Norman conquest in the 11th century, Arabic was the most important language of administration and economic activity on the island. During this period, the Sicilian Arabic language developed — around eight hundred words, a significant portion of which are related to agriculture, irrigation, weights and measures, and the organization of village life.

Examples: gebbia "artificial reservoir" (< gabiyya), saja "canal" (< saqiya), cafisu "measure for liquids" (< qafīz), zibbibbu "variety of grapes" (< zabīb), as well as words for positions and social roles that go back to the Arabic raʾīs "head, chief".

These borrowings are often adapted to Sicilian phonetics and morphology, but retain recognizable roots and sometimes the prefix al-. Sicilian Arabicisms are also important because some of them later entered common Italian and even French and English through trade and cultural contacts.

Italian literary language

The Italian language has inherited many words of Arabic origin from Sicilian and southern Italian dialects. For example, magazzino (warehouse) is related to the Arabic makhāzin (storage), tazza (cup, mug) is linked to the Arabic tāsa, and the word meschino (meaning "poor, miserable") goes back to the Arabic miskīn.

These are supplemented by scientific and technical terms that penetrated through Latin translations of Arabic treatises: algebra, algoritmo, zero, cifra, azimut, and others. These words often share the same form as their French and English equivalents, reflecting their pan-European nature.

French between Spain and the Maghreb

French acquired Arabic elements in two main ways. The first was medieval borrowings, primarily scientific and commercial, which came primarily via Spanish, Italian, and Latin. The second was a later influx of words from North African Arabic dialects, which became entrenched in French colloquial speech and slang.

The medieval layer includes words such as alcool (< al-kuḥl), algèbre (< al-jabr), algorithme (from the name of al-Khwarizmi), chiffre and zéro (via Latin forms from Arabic terms for counting), alchimie (< al-kīmiyāʾ), magasin "shop, warehouse" (< makhāzin), sucre (< sukkar), and tarif (< taʿrīf). Some of these words previously entered French via Spanish and Italian, which is clearly traced in their historical forms.

The second path is linked to the colonial history of North Africa and mass migration. In colloquial French, for example, kiffer "to like" (< Arabic kayf), kif-kif "the same thing," bled "homeland," flouze "money," and baraka "luck" have become common. These words often carry a colloquial, evaluative connotation and serve as indicators of the speaker’s social and cultural background.

Arabisms in the Germanic and Slavic languages of Europe

English language

English borrowed Arabic words to a lesser extent than Spanish or French, but many of them are widely known and form part of basic or common vocabulary. They most often arrived via French, Spanish, or Italian, and less frequently via Latin or Ottoman Turkish.

Everyday vocabulary includes the words sugar (< sukkar), cotton (< quṭn), coffee (< qahwa via Italian and Turkish), orange (via Arabic nāranj), magazine (< makhāzin via Italian and French), and sofa (< ṣuffa). Many of these refer to goods that were actively traded in European markets in the early 20th century.

The scientific and technical layer is represented by the words algebra, algorithm, zero, cipher, azimuth, zenith, alchemy, alkali, elixir, and a number of others, which have become established in English through Latin and French processed forms of Arabic terms. Importantly for philologists, these borrowings are often accompanied by the transfer of specific concepts developed in the Arab-Islamic scientific community.

German and other Germanic languages

In German, Dutch, and Scandinavian languages, Arabicisms largely coincide with the pan-European international vocabulary. These include algebra, alkohol, ziffer, zirkon, azimut, magazin, zucker, kaffee, and other forms that came via Latin and Romance languages.

Individual terms may have entered the Germanic languages via the Ottoman-Turkish channel, particularly in Eastern European regions with a long Ottoman presence. However, systematic assessments show that the core of Arabic loanwords in Germanic languages consists of international scientific and commercial terms common to Europe.

Russian and Eastern European languages

The Russian language acquired Arabic words primarily indirectly — through Turkic languages, Persian, and also through Western European languages during the era of modernization. Research into the history of Arabic loanwords in Russian highlights the complexity of these chains: the same word could have arrived at different times through different channels.

Through Turkic languages and Persian, Russian acquired, for example, caravan, sarai, arshin, shah, and emir; these forms are also common in other Slavic and Balkan languages influenced by the Ottoman Empire. Scientific and technical terms of Arabic origin also entered Russian through Western European languages — primarily German and French: algebra, algorithm, azimuth, zenith, elixir, syrup, journal, store, and tariff.

A separate trend is the borrowing of Arabic words into Azerbaijani and other Turkic languages of the former USSR via Russian. Cases have been described where Arabic-based words entered Azerbaijani twice: directly from Arabic or Persian, and secondarily through Russian and modern European terms. This demonstrates that the role of Russian in the region is in many ways analogous to the role of French or English in other parts of the world.

Thematic layers of Arabic borrowings in Europe

Science, technology and philosophy

One of the most widely documented areas of Arabic influence is related to scientific terminology. Research shows that dozens, and by some estimates, over a hundred basic scientific terms in European languages derive from Arabic forms or have undergone Arabic processing.

Such words include algebra ) al-jabr), algorithm (from al-Khwarizmi), zero ) ṣifr), azimuth ) as-sumūt), zenith (a medieval Latin corruption of the Arabic samt ar-ras), nadir ) naẓīr), alchemy ) al-kīmiyāʾ), elixir ) al-iksīr), and alkali ) al-qaly). These terms became established in Latin in the 12th and 13th centuries through translations of Arabic treatises in Toledo, Salerno, Montpellier, and other centers of learning.

In astronomy and astrology, Arabic names of stars and constellations (Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Alnair, etc.), as well as terms related to the description of the celestial sphere, have become firmly established. The exact number of such elements varies across dictionaries, but their list is stable and well-documented in historical sources.

Medicine and pharmacology

In medicine, the borrowing pattern is largely similar. Latin translations of the works of al-Razi (Rhazes), Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ali ibn Abbas, and other authors circulated throughout European universities beginning in the 12th century. Along with the content, many specialized terms for diseases, medications, procedures, and instruments were transmitted.

Common examples include syrup (via Latin syrupus from Arabic sharāb), the names of a number of medicinal forms and substances, and surgical and ophthalmological terminology. Some of these words were later supplanted by Neo-Latin or Greek forms, but many have survived in national languages as elements of pharmaceutical and medical jargon.

Trade, shipping and urban life

The Arab world was an important intermediary in trade between the East and Europe, which is reflected in the vocabulary associated with commerce, navigation, and urban infrastructure. This includes the names of commodities (sugar, coffee, cotton, saffron), types of ships, job titles, and financial instruments.

Words like tarif, douane (via Persian-Arabic dīwān), magasin, and arsenal (from dār aṣ‑ṣināʿa — "house of crafts/shipyard") spread to French and then to other European languages. Forms of similar origin can be found in Italian and Portuguese, often recorded in business documents and maritime regulations of the late medieval and early modern periods.

Household, food and clothing

Arab influence is particularly noticeable in food, clothing, and household items. Sources here include Andalus and Sicily, as well as the trade routes linking Europe with the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia.

Examples can be found in most major European languages: sugar (Spanish azúcar, Portuguese açúcar, French sucre, English sugar), coffee (Italian caffè, French café, English coffee), syrup, artichoke/artichoke (via Arabic al-ḫuršūf), apricot (via the Arabic form of Late Latin praecoquum), eggplant, saffron, cotton, orange/narinj, and a whole group of words related to weaving and furniture.

In Spanish and Portuguese, many such terms refer to the agriculture and cuisine of Andalusia: arroz, aceite, aceituna, azafrán, alfombra, and others. Some of these words arrived or became established in Italian and French later, as the countries became involved in Eastern trade.

Arab mediation mechanisms

From Greek and Indian terms to the Arabic scientific tradition

Many European scientific words perceived as "Arabic" actually reflect a longer chain: an ancient or Indian term, an Arabic adaptation, and a Latin or Romance equivalent. In such cases, Arabic represents the language in which the term has undergone a substantial reworking, been conceptualized within the framework of a new theory, and acquired a form suitable for further dissemination.

This is the case with "algebra": the word al-jabr itself is part of the title of al-Khwarizmi’s treatise, which draws on Greek and Indian mathematics. The Latin translation established the form algebra, which spread across European languages. Similarly, the author’s name, in its Latinized form Algorismi, gave rise to the English and French words algorithm/algorithme, and through them, other variants.

The situation with numerals and the concept of zero is even more complex: the decimal system originates from the Indian tradition, but Arab mathematicians and Arabic texts played a key role in its dissemination in Europe. Therefore, the terminology for counting and recording numbers in medieval Latin and in vernacular languages bears traces of the Arabic stage, although the original source is Indian.

Trade chains and everyday items

Another type of mediation involved the movement of goods. Sugar, cotton, citrus fruits, spices, and certain types of fabrics and carpets were produced across vast territories from India to North Africa. Arabic, as the language of trade and navigation in this region, accumulated and standardized numerous local names.

When these goods arrived in European ports, they brought with them established Arabic or Arabicized names. These forms then adapted to the phonetics and morphology of Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French, and other languages. In some cases, words from these Romance forms migrated into English and German, and through colonial contacts, into languages outside of Europe.

A typical example is the word "coffee": the original Arabic qahwa, through Turkish kahve and Italian caffè, has become established in most European and many non-European languages; the English and French forms derive from the Italian and Turkish tradition, while the Portuguese is closer to the Arabic and Turkish pronunciation.

The mediation of Arabic through third languages

Almost every European language has examples where Arabicism arrived not directly, but through several stages. For Spanish, this stage sometimes comes from Berber dialects and Mozarabic; for French and English, it comes from Spanish and Italian; for Russian, it comes from German, French, or Turkish.

For example, the French "magasin" and the English "magazine" both trace back to the Arabic " makhāzin," but the path goes something like this: Arabic "makhzan" Medieval Italian "magazzino" Old French "magasin" English "magazine" in one sense. Along the way, not only the sounds but also the semantics changed: from "warehouse" to "magazine."

In the Balkan Slavic and Romance languages (Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Romanian), a significant number of Arabic words entered via Ottoman Turkish. Research shows that vocabulary related to administration, military affairs, clothing, and everyday life is often of Arabic-Persian origin, but structurally follows Turkish models.

Grammar, phonetics and the limits of influence

Linguists note that, unlike vocabulary, the grammatical systems of European languages have experienced virtually no direct Arabic influence. Even in Spanish, which contains the largest proportion of Arabic words, the structure of conjugation, agreement, and phrase construction remains Romance, tracing its roots to Latin.

Nevertheless, some signs of phonetic and morphological interaction have been documented. For example, the languages of the Iberian Peninsula and Sicily developed sounds and combinations similar to Arabic, primarily in loanwords: fricatives, glottal stops, and stress patterns unusual for classical Latin. Many of these features were subsequently smoothed out, but some remained in regional pronunciation norms.

An interesting question is how European languages reinterpreted the Arabic article al-. In a number of cases, it became fused into the stem and began to be perceived as an unchangeable part of the root: almacén, alcalde, Algarve, Almería, Albufeira, and so on. Sometimes, this led to secondary truncation or reinterpretation — when borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese into other languages, the initial al- could be considered a prefix or, conversely, an integral part of the word.

Research and quantitative assessment of Arabisms

Modern descriptions of Arabic influence on European languages rely on several types of sources: etymological dictionaries, specialized dictionaries of Arabic and related loanwords, text corpora, and historical documents on translations and contacts. For Spanish, the key reference points are etymological dictionaries and extensive lists of Arabicisms, which provide estimates of several thousand lexemes.

Separate monographs are devoted specifically to Arabic and closely related borrowings in Ibero-Romance languages and Sicilian; they discuss criteria for distinguishing between direct Arabisms, forms derived from Berber and Mozarabic intermediaries, and later modern borrowings. For French, similar lists show that a significant number of Arabisms were introduced via Spanish and Italian, while direct Maghreb elements are more often found in slang and colloquial speech.

To study Latin scientific vocabulary, a specialized Arabic-Latin glossary has been created. It allows us to trace how initially obscure Arabic words gradually became incorporated into Latin treatises and, over time, became common terms required for inclusion in Latin dictionaries. Similar approaches are applied to medieval British Latin texts, analyzing the extent to which Arabic words were adopted by the local tradition.

For the Slavic and Turkic languages of Eastern Europe, there are specialized studies tracing the introduction of Arabic elements via Ottoman Turkish, Persian, and Russian. These studies document both old religious and administrative terms and new borrowings related to science and technology in the 19th and 20th centuries.

In practical work, a linguist analyzing the origin of a specific word in a European language typically compares several lines of evidence: phonetic and morphological form, first documented uses, possible intermediate languages, and the presence of parallel forms in neighboring regions. Taking this approach, Arabic emerges as one important, but not the only, link in the vast network of contacts between the Middle East and Europe.

Social strata and stylistic status of Arabic borrowings

The social distribution of Arabicisms in European languages is uneven. In some cases, they belong to neutral everyday vocabulary, in others, to scientific standards, and sometimes they are consolidated only in the jargon of a particular group. For Spanish and Portuguese, a particularly important layer of rural and artisanal terminology related to irrigation, agriculture, and gardening is particularly important.

In the cities of the Iberian Peninsula, Arabic words were used in medieval documents describing taxes, official positions, and legal procedures. Official terms like alcalde or alguacil initially pertained to official bureaucratic spheres and later became accepted as standard elements of state vocabulary. Such examples demonstrate how borrowings evolve from local practice to a national standard.

Scientific Arabic words, adopted through Latin, occupy a higher register. Words like algebra, azimut, zenit, elixir, and alkali in European languages mark their affiliation with the academic tradition and are found in textbooks, reference books, and professional texts. They are less common in everyday speech, but are well-known thanks to school courses and popular surveys of the history of science.

Arabic loanwords occupy a special place in the modern colloquial registers of French, Dutch, and some German urban dialects. Here, a layer of words of North African origin is noticeable, having entered street slang, youth conversational styles, and urban popular culture. They emphasize the social and cultural background of the speakers and are often perceived as markers of a migrant environment.

Orthographic and phonetic adaptation of Arabic words

The adoption of Arabic words into European languages involved complex adaptations of sound and written form. The Arabic script is based on consonants, uses a different alphabet, and has its own set of phonemes. When borrowing into the Latin alphabet, it was necessary to find approximate equivalents, and sometimes to abandon the representation of individual sounds.

Thus, guttural consonants and emphatic sounds were often approximated or omitted entirely. In Spanish and Portuguese, many Arabic words were reworked according to existing phonetic patterns: the initial root consonant could be softened, and vowels could be flattened under the influence of adjacent sounds. Italian and French followed a similar path, but relied on their own phonetic norms.

The Arabic definite article al- became a persistent element, easily recognizable in both spelling and pronunciation. In Romance languages, it practically merged with the root of the borrowed word: almacén, aldea, albahaca, Algarve. In some cases, a secondary reinterpretation occurred: speakers forgot the original role of the article and perceived the entire chain as a single entity, paving the way for new word-formation patterns.

In languages where stress plays a significant role, borrowings have adapted to local accent patterns. For example, in Spanish, stress in Arabic words often follows general rules, even though the original Arabic words may have had different accentuations. In Sicilian, a number of borrowings retain features closer to their presumed Arabic prototypes than common Italian forms.

Semantic changes and stratification of meanings

The transition to a new linguistic system was almost always accompanied by a change in meaning. Sometimes the new meaning only shifted slightly from the original; for example, a term might become narrower and apply to a more specific object. In other cases, the meaning diverged radically from the original, and the connection to the Arabic source became apparent only to specialists.

A typical example is the word magazine. In the original Arabic, makhzan meant "repository"; through Italian and French forms, the meaning shifted first to "warehouse," and then to "periodical publication" in which texts and illustrations are "stored." This metaphorical reorientation took hold in English and a number of other languages, separating the form from its immediate material basis.

In Spanish and Portuguese, many Arabicisms underwent semantic specialization. For example, parts of agricultural terminology became restricted to certain dialect zones or were retained only in the professional speech of farmers and irrigation engineers. In urban standard language, these words could give way to Latin or Neo-Latin doublets that seemed more "scholarly" or "official."

Sometimes Arabic loanwords and related Latin forms coexist, forming stylistic pairs. One element becomes established in colloquial speech, the other in literary or formal style. Such pairs help researchers track changes in the prestige of different lexical sources and their connections to the social groups of speakers.

Toponymy and onomastics

The toponyms of European countries retain persistent traces of the Arab presence. The Iberian Peninsula provides a clear example: the names of regions, rivers, and cities reflect both the Arabic and Berber components of the medieval population, influenced by Romance languages. Elements such as Guad- (from wādī), Al-, and Ben- have been well studied and are often discussed in works on the historical geography of Spain and Portugal.

Sicily exhibits similar processes. Village and valley names, hydronyms, and microtoponyms commemorate the irrigation systems, agricultural terraces, and settlements of the Arab period. They combine Arabic roots with Romance and Greek elements, making a definitive etymology difficult and requiring a comprehensive analysis of written sources and dialectal data.

Personal names of Arabic origin are less common in European countries than place names. Early medieval Latin documents contain Christian and Jewish names borrowed from Muslim circles, but over time, these either disappear or become surnames. In modern times, Arabic names spread through migration and global cultural contacts, rather than through medieval channels.

In some regions of Eastern Europe, additional Arabic elements in onomastics appeared with the spread of Islamic communities during the Ottoman Empire. Here, the "Arabic root — Turkish form — local phonetic variant" connection is particularly noticeable, further highlighting the intermediary role of third languages in the fate of Arabisms.

Arabisms and corpus studies

Modern corpus linguistics has offered new methods for assessing the frequency and distribution of Arabic loanwords. Large corpora of Spanish, French, English, and other languages make it possible to determine how frequently certain Arabic words are used, in which genres and registers they occur, and whether their frequency tends to increase or decrease.

Researchers construct frequency lists by comparing Arabic words with other loanword groups. The Spanish corpus shows that some agricultural terms typical of Andalusia are rarely encountered in the national press, while words like "azúcar" or "aceite" are widely present across all genres. Scientific Arabic words are rarely used in popular prose, but are consistently found in educational and popular science texts.

For French and English, the corpora reveal a heterogeneous distribution of Maghreb and Middle Eastern loanwords in urban speech. Words like kif, bled, and flouze are found in dialogues, fiction about migrants’ lives, and transcripts of broadcasts, but rarely appear in official documents. This emphasizes their association with specific social groups and communication styles.

Some studies use statistical models to assess how quickly new Arabic words are adopted into European languages and the factors that contribute to this. They examine the frequency of their appearance in the media, their connection to new realities (for example, Middle Eastern cuisine), and their association with specific subcultures. These studies show that even in the 21st century, Arabic continues to contribute individual words, although the scale is incomparable to the era of Andalusia and the Crusades.

Comparison of Arabic influence with other sources of borrowings

To adequately assess the role of the Arabic factor, linguists compare it with Greek, Latin, Germanic, and other sources of borrowings. In most European languages, Latin and Greek elements quantitatively predominate in scientific and technical vocabulary, while Arabic elements occupy narrower niches. Nevertheless, in a number of key disciplines, Arabic forms have proven to be stable and generally accepted.

In Spanish and Portuguese, the competition between sources is particularly noticeable: Old Latin, direct Romance additions, Germanicisms, Gallicisms, and Arabicisms coexist. Some studies show that in certain semantic fields — for example, irrigation, citrus, and sugar production — the Arabic contribution is comparable to or even exceeds that of other donor languages.

In English and French, Arabic is less common than French (for English) or Latin (for French) in terms of loanwords, but it dominates in certain micro-fields. These include, for example, the names of stars, some terms from alchemy and early chemistry, and individual units of trade and maritime vocabulary. The presence of such zones reflects the specific historical routes of knowledge and goods through the Arabic-speaking world.

The Slavic languages of Eastern Europe exhibit a multilayered pattern: Arabic roots often arrive via Turkic, Persian, and Western European languages. As a result, the source-recipient relationship becomes less clear, and researchers are forced to consider the region’s political and cultural history — the Crusades, the Ottoman advance into the Balkans, the reforms of Peter the Great, and subsequent waves of Europeanization.

Translation centers and the role of intermediaries

Translation centers of the 12th and 13th centuries became key to the transfer of Arabic scientific terms to Europe. The most famous was Toledo, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews collaborated. Bilingual and trilingual teams were formed there, in which one member read the Arabic original, another translated into a Romance language, and a third reworked the text into the Latin scientific standard.

A similar practice is documented in Salerno, Montpellier, and Palermo. Surviving manuscripts indicate that translators not only rendered the text but also created glossaries, where the Arabic form was listed alongside the Latin word. It is in these glossaries that proto-forms of future European terms — algebra, azimut, nadir, and others — are frequently found, already partially adapted to Latin script.

Translators often retained the Arabic word if they couldn’t find an exact Latin equivalent. Over time, these "temporary" borrowings ceased to seem exotic and became a common part of the lexicon of educated people. Thus, a transition occurred from a rare, specialized term to a commonly used international term, familiar to schoolchildren and students across the globe.

Arabic, Latin, and competing terminological systems

Historians of science note the competing terminological systems. In late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, Greek, then Latin, played a leading role in the scientific field. With the rise of Arabic scholarship, a new, complex system of concepts emerged, partly based on Greek material but reinterpreted within the Islamic intellectual tradition.

When European scholars became familiar with Arabic treatises, they simultaneously encountered Greek concepts in Arabic translations and original developments by authors from Baghdad, Cordoba, and Damascus. Latin translators had to decide whether to restore the direct Greek forms of terms, adopt Latin equivalents, or consolidate Arabic variants. The resulting decisions largely determined which words entered European languages.

The Arabic words that won this competition typically offered a successful combination of phonetic simplicity and semantic richness. Terms like algebra, zero, azimut, and nadir proved convenient in spoken and written language and lacked obvious, equally successful Latin equivalents. Consequently, they became established in international scientific vocabulary and are now considered an integral part of European terminology.

Modern migration contacts and a new layer of Arabisms

Recent history has introduced new mechanisms for borrowing. Mass migration from Arabic-speaking countries to Europe and the growth of diasporas in cities in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Scandinavia have led to increased contact between speakers of Arabic and European languages. This is reflected primarily in colloquial and online speech.

In French, youth words of Arabic origin have already been noted — they come primarily from North African dialects. In recent decades, similar processes have been observed in the street dialects of the Netherlands and Germany, where some Arabic and Turkish-Arabic words have become established as elements of the slang associated with the urban multilingual environment.

Researchers emphasize that this modern layer is typically limited to specific social groups and does not always conform to a codified standard. However, corpus studies and media text analysis show that some units are gradually crossing the threshold of widespread recognition, especially when associated with popular music, cuisine, or media imagery.

Methods of identification and classification of Arabisms

Classifying Arabic elements in European languages requires a combination of several approaches. The etymological approach — analyzing phonetic form, morphology, and historical documentation — allows us to trace the origins of a word and the stages it has passed through. Considering alternative hypotheses is also important: sometimes a word can be linked not only to Arabic but also to Persian or Indian sources, with Arabic merely serving as an intermediate link.

The second line is sociolinguistic. It examines the social groups and genres in which Arabic words are used, and how they are perceived by speakers — as neutral, literary, colloquial, or slang. This analysis is particularly useful for recent borrowings recorded in media and online communication, where a word’s status can quickly shift.

The third area involves corpus statistics: frequency data helps distinguish active vocabulary elements from rare relics. Comparing dialectal corpora with national ones provides an idea of which Arabic words have survived only in regional speech. This is especially important for Spanish and Portuguese, as many loanwords are closely associated with Andalusia and the southern regions.

Finally, for scientific terms, the history of disciplines is used: early treatises, translations, textbooks, and decisions of academies and universities are tracked. This allows us to see when a particular word became established, what alternatives were discussed, and what arguments were put forward in favor of a particular form. Such studies are already quite advanced in the field of mathematical and medical terminology.

Debates around the extent of Arab influence

Despite the abundance of factual material, estimates of the extent of Arabic influence remain a subject of scholarly debate. For Spanish, various figures are given — from several thousand to four thousand Arabicisms, and the percentage fluctuates depending on whether derivatives and dialectal variations are taken into account. For Portuguese and Sicilian, estimates also range significantly.

There are also opposing tendencies in interpretation. Some authors strive to emphasize the Arabic component, seeing it as a sign of intense cultural contacts, while others are more cautious and prefer to consider Arabic elements equally with borrowings from other languages. These differences are often based on different research objectives — from describing the history of a particular region to the general characteristics of the lexical system.

Multi-stage borrowing chains create additional complexity. When a word arrives, say, in Russian via German, and thence via French and Italian, it’s not always clear whether it’s appropriate to call it an "Arabism" if the Arabic stage remains remote in time. In such cases, researchers typically trace the entire route, noting all the intermediate points.

The role of Arabic influence in European linguistic history

Observations by linguists and historians of science show that Arabic became one of the most important intermediaries between classical, Middle Eastern, and European cultures. Through it, not only individual words but also entire layers of concepts related to mathematics, astronomy, medicine, geography, and philosophy came to Europe.

Vocabulary of Arabic origin in European languages forms a complex and heterogeneous layer. In some cases, these are everyday names of products and household items, entrenched in colloquial speech. In others, they are highly specialized terms, without which it is difficult to imagine the language of modern science. This combination of everyday and scientific layers makes Arabic elements a convenient source for studying how language preserves traces of historical contacts and scientific exchanges.