São Paulo – Of the approximately 600,000 words found in the Portuguese language, at least 1,000 are of Arab origin. Mesquita (mosque) and esfiha (safiha, the traditional mini meat pies) are, of course, originally Arabic. But, according to writer Assaad Zaidan, words like cheque (cheque), bálsamo (balm), azaleia (the azalea flower), azulejo (wall tile), tarifa (tariff) and oxalá – which is derived from "inshallah", or "God willing" – also originated in Arabic. The list of 1,000 words that Portuguese "imported" from Arabic is included in the second edition of book "Letras e história: mil palavras árabes na língua portuguesa" (Letters and history: one thousand Arabic words in Portuguese), recently released, revised and expanded by publishing houses Edusp and Escrituras.
The first edition of the book, dating back to 2005, was a very limited edition. Most of the 5,000 copies remained in the hands of citizens from Belém, in Pará, where Zaidan, originally from Rweast El Balout – El Maten village, in Lebanon, lived for 45 years. This new edition corrected mistakes from the previous edition (which included words like "tomate" (tomato), which did not come from Arabic) and gained more information. Of the 5,000 initial copies, little over 1,000 got to São Paulo. The new edition should reach 50,000 copies over the next ten years.
Zaidan, now aged 77, recalls that even philologist Antonio Houaiss helped him research the words. "I knew there were some 700 words. But when I travelled to Rio de Janeiro, Houaiss told me the figure was higher and that there were over 1,000 Arabic words in Portuguese," he recalls.
"Letras e história: mil palavras árabes na língua portuguesa" is not just a dictionary. In the first part of the book, Assad tells the story of the Arab language and civilisation, how it was influential in the formation of other languages and its evolution.
In 711, for example, the Arabs invaded Spain and were very important in the development of Europe. "Today English is very important. In the past, everybody studied Arabic, which suffered religious repression when it was progressing and started falling. That influenced the development of the language," said the writer. According to Zaidan, an example of how Arabic was fundamental to western education in the XVII and XVIII centuries is that enlightenment writer Voltaire read "The Book of the Thousand and One Nights" 12 times "before writing anything", according to the author.
Catarata (cataract), cetim (satin), gato (cat), jarra (jar), mofo (mould), anis (anise), neve (snow) and leilão (auction) are other words, according to the book, that the Portuguese language inherited from Arabic. How? Through the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are, dominated by the Arabs until the start of navigation, in the XIV century. Zaidan hopes that the book may help those studying Arabic.
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"Letras e história: mil palavras árabes na língua portuguesa", Edusp and Escrituras publishing houses. 288pp. 35 Brazilian reals (US$ 21).
*Translated by Mark Ament