{"id":44199,"date":"2015-11-25T23:22:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T23:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=44199"},"modified":"2015-11-25T23:22:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T23:22:59","slug":"you-may-not-know-it-but-if-you-speak-spanish-you-speak-some-arabic-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=44199","title":{"rendered":"You may not know it \u2014 but if you speak Spanish, you speak some Arabic too"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may not know it \u2014 but if you speak Spanish, you speak some Arabic too<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

PRI’s The World<\/a>
\nPublic Radio International<\/a>
\n2015-10-15<\/p>\n

Joy Diaz<\/a><\/strong>, Reporter<\/p>\n

Rihab Massif, originally from Lebanon<\/a>, was my daughter’s preschool teacher in Austin<\/a>. As a little girl, Camila, my daughter, spoke mostly in Spanish. And Massif remembers a day when Camila was frustrated because she couldn’t remember a word in English.<\/p>\n

“She was telling me about her camis<\/em>,” Massif says.<\/p>\n

Camisa<\/em> is the word in Spanish for “shirt,” and Massif understood it perfectly because camis<\/em> means the same thing in Arabic.<\/p>\n

“And I was like ‘Oh! There are some words related to Arabic,’\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

To see just how many, Massif and I did an exercise. I’d say a word in Spanish, and she’d say it back in Arabic.<\/p>\n

“Aceite?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

“We say ceit<\/em>,” Massif says.<\/p>\n

“Guitarra?<\/em>”<\/p>\n

“We say guitar<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Now that I am aware, it seems like I hear Arabic words everywhere…<\/p>\n

…Linguist Victor Solis Parejo<\/a> from the University of Barcelona in Spain <\/a>says part of the language Spanish speakers use comes from a legacy of the Moorish influence. \u201cMoors<\/a>\u201d was the name used to refer to the Arabic-speaking group from North Africa<\/a> that invaded what would become Spain back in the eighth century. Their influence lasted about 700 years and is still visible today.<\/p>\n

“Especially if you travel [in the] south of Spain\u00ad. For example in Merida<\/a>, in the city where I was born, we have the Alcazaba Arabe<\/em>, an Arabic fortification,” Parejo says. “So, you can see that in the cities nowadays, but you can also see that Islamic presence, that Arabic presence in the language.”…<\/p>\n