Editing Arabic (section)

== Vocabulary ==

=== Lexicography ===
{{See also|List of Arabic dictionaries}}

==== Pre-modern Arabic lexicography ====
The tradition of Arabic [[lexicography]] extended for about a millennium before the [[Modern era|modern period]].<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE-2020">{{Cite journal |title=Lexicography, Arabic |year=2020 |publisher=Brill |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/*-COM_35848 |language=en |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_35848|journal=Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE}}</ref> Early lexicographers ({{Lang|ar|لُغَوِيُّون}} ''lughawiyyūn'') sought to explain words in the [[Quran]] that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran.<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE-2020" /> They gathered ''shawāhid'' ({{Lang|ar|شَوَاهِد}} 'instances of attested usage') from [[Arabic poetry|poetry]] and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin {{Ill|ʾaʿrāb (Bedouins)|lt=ʾaʿrāb|ar|أعراب}} ({{Lang|ar|أَعْراب}}) who were perceived to speak the "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of ''jamʿu‿l-luɣah'' ({{Lang|ar|جمع اللغة}} 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries.<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE-2020" />[[File:Birmingham Quran manuscript full.jpg|thumb|Arabic from the Quran in the old Hijazi dialect (Hijazi script, 7th century&nbsp;AD)]][[Kitab al-'Ayn|''Kitāb al-'Ayn'']] ({{Circa|8th century}}), attributed to [[Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi]], is considered the first [[Dictionary|lexicon]] to include all [[Semitic root|Arabic roots]]; it sought to exhaust all possible root [[permutation]]s—later called ''taqālīb'' ({{Lang|ar|تقاليب}})''—''calling those that are actually used ''mustaʿmal'' ({{Lang|ar|مستعمَل}}) and those that are not used ''muhmal'' ({{Lang|ar|مُهمَل}}).<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE-2020" /> [[Lisan al-Arab|''Lisān al-ʿArab'']] (1290) by [[Ibn Manzur]] gives 9,273 roots, while [[Taj al-'Arus min Jawahir al-Qamus|''Tāj al-ʿArūs'']] (1774) by [[Murtada al-Zabidi|Murtada az-Zabidi]] gives 11,978 roots.<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE-2020" />

This lexicographic tradition was traditionalist and corrective in nature—holding that linguistic correctness and eloquence derive from Qurʾānic usage, {{Ill|Jahili poetry|lt=pre-Islamic poetry|fr|Littérature préislamique|ar|أدب جاهلي}}, and Bedouin speech—positioning itself against ''laḥnu‿l-ʿāmmah'' ({{Lang|ar|لَحْن العامة}}), the [[solecism]] it viewed as defective.<ref name="Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE-2020" />

==== Western lexicography of Arabic ====
In the second half of the 19th century, the British Arabist [[Edward William Lane]], working with the Egyptian scholar {{Ill|Ibrāhīm Abd al-Ghaffār ad-Dasūqī|ar|إبراهيم عبد الغفار الدسوقي}},<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Richards |first=D. S. |date=1999 |title=Edward Lane's Surviving Arabic Correspondence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25183625 |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=1–25 |doi=10.1017/S135618630001590X |jstor=25183625 |s2cid=161420127 |issn=1356-1863}}</ref> compiled the ''[[Arabic–English Lexicon]]'' by translating material from earlier Arabic lexica into English.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=2020 |title=Lane, Edward William |url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-3/*-COM_35793 |journal=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam]] |language=en |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_com_35793}}</ref> The German Arabist [[Hans Wehr]], with contributions from [[Hedwig Klein]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hedwig Klein and "Mein Kampf": The unknown Arabist - Qantara.de |url=https://en.qantara.de/content/hedwig-klein-and-mein-kampf-the-unknown-arabist |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=Qantara.de – Dialogue with the Islamic World |date=7 April 2018 |language=en}}</ref> compiled the ''[[Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart]]'' (1952), later translated into English as ''[[A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic]]'' (1961), based on established usage, especially in literature.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Abu-Haidar |first=J. A. |date=1983 |title=Review of A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Arabic-English) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/615409 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=351–353 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00079040 |jstor=615409 |s2cid=162954225 |issn=0041-977X}}</ref>

==== Modern Arabic lexicography ====
The [[Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo]] sought to publish a [[historical dictionary]] of Arabic in the vein of the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', tracing the changes of meanings and uses of Arabic words over time.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-11-15 |title=المعجم التاريخي للعربية.. ضوء في عتمة الهوان |url=https://www.hespress.com/المعجم-التاريخي-للعربية-ضوء-في-عتمة-ال-738317.html |access-date=2021-03-31 |website=Hespress – هسبريس جريدة إلكترونية مغربية |language=ar}}</ref> A first volume of [[Al-Mu'jam al-Kabir (dictionary)|''Al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr'']] was published in 1956 under the leadership of [[Taha Hussein]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=von Grunebaum |first=G. E. |date=1959 |title=Review of Al-Muʿjam al-kabīr, Murad Kāmil, Ibrāhīm al-Ibyārī |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/543279 |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=157–159 |doi=10.1086/371525 |jstor=543279 |issn=0022-2968}}</ref> The project is not yet complete; its 15th volume, covering the letter ''[[Tsade#Arabic ṣād|ṣād]]'', was published in 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last=الجبر |first=خالد |title=معجم الدوحة التاريخي للغة العربية.. الواقع الحقيقي للغة والحضارة |url=https://www.aljazeera.net/opinions/2022/8/30/%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85%d8%b9%d8%a7%d8%ac%d9%85-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%aa%d8%a7%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%ae%d9%8a%d8%a9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%88%d8%a7%d9%82%d8%b9-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%82%d9%8a%d9%82%d9%8a |access-date=2023-06-17 |website=www.aljazeera.net |language=ar}}</ref>

=== Loanwords ===
[[File:Folio Blue Quran Met 2004.88.jpg|thumb|The Qur'an has served and continues to serve as a fundamental reference for Arabic. ([[Maghrebi script|Maghrebi]] [[Kufic]] script, [[Blue Qur'an]], 9th–10th century.)]]
The most important sources of borrowings into (pre-Islamic) Arabic are from the related (Semitic) languages [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]],<ref>See the seminal study by Siegmund Fraenkel, ''Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen'', Leiden 1886 (repr. 1962)</ref> which used to be the principal, international language of communication throughout the ancient Near and Middle East, and [[Ge'ez language|Ethiopic]]. Many cultural, religious and political terms have entered Arabic from [[Iranian languages]], notably [[Middle Persian]], [[Parthian language|Parthian]], and (Classical) Persian,<ref>See for instance Wilhelm Eilers, "Iranisches Lehngut im Arabischen", ''Actas IV. Congresso des Estudos Árabes et Islâmicos, Coimbra, Lisboa'', Leiden 1971, with earlier references.</ref> and Hellenistic Greek (''kīmiyāʼ'' has as origin the Greek ''khymia'', meaning in that language the melting of metals; see [[Roger Dachez]], ''Histoire de la Médecine de l'Antiquité au XXe siècle'', Tallandier, 2008, p.&nbsp;251), ''alembic'' (distiller) from ''ambix'' (cup), ''almanac'' (climate) from ''almenichiakon'' (calendar).

For the origin of the last three borrowed words, see Alfred-Louis de Prémare, ''Foundations of Islam'', Seuil, L'Univers Historique, 2002. Some Arabic borrowings from Semitic or Persian languages are, as presented in De Prémare's above-cited book: {{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
*''madīnah''/[[medina]] (مدينة, city or city square), a word of Aramaic origin ܡܕ݂ܝܼܢ݇ܬܵܐ ''məḏī(n)ttā'' (in which it means "state/city").{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
*''jazīrah'' (جزيرة), as in the well-known form الجزيرة "Al-Jazeera", means "island" and has its origin in the Syriac ܓܵܙܲܪܬܵܐ ''gāzartā''.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
*''lāzaward'' (لازورد) is taken from Persian لاژورد ''lājvard'', the name of a blue stone, lapis lazuli. This word was borrowed in several European languages to mean (light) blue – azure in English, ''azur'' in French and ''azul'' in Portuguese and Spanish.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}
[[File:Arabic_script_evolution.svg|thumb|Evolution of early [[Arabic script]] (9th–11th century), with the ''[[Basmala]]'' as an example, from [[kufic]] ''[[Qur'an|{{transliteration|ar|ALA|Qur'ān}}]]'' manuscripts:

(1) Early 9th century, script with no dots or diacritic marks;(2) and (3) 9th–10th century under the Abbasid dynasty, [[Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali|Abu al-Aswad's]] system established red dots with each arrangement or position indicating a different short vowel; later, a second black-dot system was used to differentiate between letters like ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|fā'}}'' and ''{{transliteration|ar|ALA|qāf}}'';

(4) 11th century, in [[Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi|al-Farāhidi's]] system (system used today) dots were changed into shapes resembling the letters to transcribe the corresponding long vowels.]]A comprehensive overview of the influence of other languages on Arabic is found in Lucas & Manfredi (2020).<ref name="Lucas2020"/>

=== Influence on other languages ===
The influence of Arabic has been most important in Islamic countries, because it is the language of the Islamic sacred book, the Quran. Arabic is also an important source of vocabulary for languages such as [[Amharic language|Amharic]], [[Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], [[Baluchi language|Baluchi]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Berber languages|Berber]], [[Bosnian language|Bosnian]], [[Chaldean Neo-Aramaic|Chaldean]], [[Chechen language|Chechen]], [[Chittagonian language|Chittagonian]], [[Croatian language|Croatian]], [[Dagestani language|Dagestani]], [[Maldivian language|Dhivehi]], [[English language|English]], [[German language|German]], [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]], [[Hausa language|Hausa]], [[Hindi]], [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]], [[Kurdish language|Kurdish]], [[Kutchi Language|Kutchi]], [[Kyrgyz language|Kyrgyz]], [[Malay language|Malay]] ([[Malaysian language|Malaysian]] and [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]]), [[Pashto language|Pashto]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Rohingya language|Rohingya]], [[Romance languages]] ([[French language|French]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Sicilian language|Sicilian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], etc.) [[Saraiki language|Saraiki]], [[Sindhi language|Sindhi]], [[Somali language|Somali]], [[Sylheti language|Sylheti]], [[Swahili language|Swahili]], [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Turkmen language|Turkmen]], [[Urdu]], [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]], [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]], [[Visayan languages|Visayan]] and [[Wolof language|Wolof]], as well as other languages in countries where these languages are spoken.<ref name="Lucas2020">{{Cite book
| veditors = Lucas C, Manfredi S
| title = Arabic and contact-induced change
| place = Berlin
| publisher = Language Science Press
| date = 2020
| format = pdf
| url = http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/235
| doi = 10.5281/zenodo.3744565
| doi-access = free
| isbn = 978-3-96110-252-5
| access-date = 7 January 2021
| archive-date = 16 January 2021
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210116141357/https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/235
| url-status = live
| last1 = Lucas
| first1 = Christopher
| last2 = Manfredi
| first2 = Stefano
}}</ref> [[Modern Hebrew]] has been also influenced by Arabic especially during the process of [[Revival of the Hebrew language|revival]], as [[Modern Standard Arabic|MSA]] was used as a source for modern Hebrew vocabulary and roots.<ref>{{Cite web|last=PhD|first=D. Gershon Lewental|title=Rasmī or aslī?: Arabic's impact on modern Israeli Hebrew by D Gershon Lewental, PhD (DGLnotes)|url=http://dglnotes.com/notes/arabic-hebrew.htm|access-date=2021-11-27|website=DGLnotes}}</ref>

[[English language|English]] has many Arabic loanwords, some directly, but most via other Mediterranean languages. Examples of such words include admiral, adobe, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, almanac, amber, arsenal, assassin, candy, carat, cipher, coffee, cotton, ghoul, hazard, jar, kismet, lemon, loofah, magazine, mattress, sherbet, sofa, sumac, tariff, and zenith.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/top-50-english-words-of-arabic-origin/|title=Top 50 English Words – of Arabic Origin|publisher=Arabic Language Blog|website=blogs.transparent.com|date=21 February 2012|access-date=2018-12-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215065830/https://blogs.transparent.com/arabic/top-50-english-words-of-arabic-origin/|archive-date=15 December 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> Other languages such as [[Maltese language|Maltese]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |author=EB staff |url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9050379/Maltese-language |title=Maltese language – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |access-date=4 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605045845/https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9050379/Maltese-language |archive-date=5 June 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Kinubi]] derive ultimately from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary or grammatical rules.

Terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like [[Berber languages|Berber]] ''taẓallit'', "prayer", from ''[[salat]]'' ({{lang|ar|صلاة}} ''{{transliteration|ar|ṣalāh}}'')), academic terms (like [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]] ''mentiq'', "logic"), and economic items (like English ''coffee'') to [[placeholder name|placeholders]] (like [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''{{lang|es|fulano}}'', "so-and-so"), everyday terms (like [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] ''lekin'', "but", or Spanish {{lang|es|taza}} and [[French language|French]] ''{{lang|fr|tasse}}'', meaning "cup"), and expressions (like [[Catalan language|Catalan]] ''{{lang|ca|a betzef}}'', "galore, in quantity"). Most Berber varieties (such as [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]]), along with [[Swahili language|Swahili]], borrow some numbers from Arabic. Most Islamic religious terms are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as {{lang|ar|صلاة}} (''ṣalāh''), "prayer", and {{lang|ar|إمام}} (''imām''), "prayer leader".{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

In languages not directly in contact with the [[Arab world]], Arabic loanwords are often transferred indirectly via other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic. For example, most Arabic loanwords in Hindustani and [[Turkish language|Turkish]] entered through [[Persian language|Persian]]. Older Arabic loanwords in [[Hausa language|Hausa]] were borrowed from [[Kanuri language|Kanuri]]. Most Arabic loanwords in [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]] entered through [[Hausa language|Hausa]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

Arabic words made their way into several West African languages as Islam spread across the Sahara. Variants of Arabic words such as {{lang|ar|كتاب}} ''kitāb'' ("book") have spread to the languages of African groups who had no direct contact with Arab traders.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Gregersen|1977|p=237}}</ref>

Since, throughout the Islamic world, Arabic occupied a position similar to that of [[Latin]] in Europe, many of the Arabic concepts in the fields of science, philosophy, commerce, etc. were coined from Arabic roots by non-native Arabic speakers, notably by [[Aramaic]] and Persian translators, and then found their way into other languages. This process of using Arabic roots, especially in [[Kurdish languages|Kurdish]] and Persian, to translate foreign concepts continued through to the 18th and 19th centuries, when swaths of Arab-inhabited lands were under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman rule]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}