# Borrowings from Arabic



## cyanista

cherine said:
			
		

> By the way, this is a very interesting question, I've never known that Russian can have words in common with Arabic


There are many more.   Do you recognize some of these: *bazar, divan, kanat, saraj, karavan, sunduk, admiral*?


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## papillon

cyanista said:
			
		

> Do you recognize some of these: *bazar, divan, kanat, saraj, karavan, sunduk, admiral*?


 This is interesting. I was tought in school that these were of turkic origin and came to Russian via the Mongol-Tartars.
Or perhaps, was there a sort of word adaptation trend at some point in history of turkic -> arabic or arabic -> turkic?


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## Etcetera

I don't know exactly about all the words listed by Cyanista, but *admiral *does come from Arabic! 
The original Arabic word was *amir-al-bar*, or something like that. This means 'prince of the sea'. Maybe Cherine will tell us more about this word?..


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## cherine

Yes, Amir al baHr أمير البحر is "prince of the sea" 
As for the other words :


> bazar, divan, kanat, saraj, karavan, sunduk, admiral?


 
*Bazar*, is not of Arabic origin, it's either Turkish or Persian, I'm not sure.
I think *Divan* is from Persian
*Kanat* is Arabic قناة = channel
*saraj* سراج = lamp
*Karavan* is, I think, from Turkish origin.
*sunduk* صندوق = box
Are these the same usages as in Russian ?


Jana, sorry to tamper the Slavic forum with non-Slavic words. Feel free to split this thread (and sorry for the trouble)


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## Etcetera

cherine said:
			
		

> Yes, Amir al baHr أمير البحر is "prince of the sea"


Uh oh... Sorry for the mistake. 



> As for the other words :
> 
> 
> *Bazar*, is not of Arabic origin, it's either Turkish or Persian, I'm not sure.
> I think *Divan* is from Persian
> *Kanat* is Arabic قناة = channel
> *saraj* سراج = lamp
> *Karavan* is, I think, from Turkish origin.
> *sunduk* صندوق = box
> Are these the same usages as in Russian ?
> 
> 
> Jana, sorry to tamper the Slavic forum with non-Slavic words. Feel free to split this thread (and sorry for the trouble)


In Russian, *kanat* means rope or cable, *saraj* is shed, and *sunduk* is what in English is called a chest (which is, in fact, a box!)


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## Jana337

cherine said:
			
		

> Jana, sorry to tamper the Slavic forum with non-Slavic words. Feel free to split this thread (and sorry for the trouble)


Hola Širín,  I may split it but it will remain in the Slavic forum. 

Let me add magazin.

Jana


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## cherine

Thanks Jana  (and sorry again for the trouble)

*Magazin* (I didn't know it was used in Russian too) comes from the Arabic makhzan مخزن (or it's plural : makhaazin) مخازن = store, warehouse...
What does it mean in Russian ?
 


			
				Etcetera said:
			
		

> Uh oh... Sorry for the mistake.


Not at all, it's not even a mistake, the letter you've missed H= ح doesn't exist in many foreign language, so you wouldn't be pronouncing it anyway 



> In Russian, *kanat* means rope or cable, *saraj* is shed, and *sunduk* is what in English is called a chest (which is, in fact, a box!)


For Qanat to become cable, needs a bit of imagination 
Very Interesting thread. I think I'll consider more seriously my old wish of learning Russian


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## Jana337

> *Magazin* (I didn't know it was used in Russian too) comes from the Arabic makhzan مخزن (or it's plural : makhaazin) مخازن = store, warehouse...
> What does it mean in Russian ?


The same, to my knowledge.  

Jana


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## Etcetera

In Russian, *magazin *is a shop, so this word has the same meaning! How interesting. I feel the next language I'll be learning will most probably be Arabic!


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## Thomas F. O'Gara

Cyanista, are you saying saraj or saray?

Saray, meaning a shed, is not an Arabic word. I believe it's Tartar, although it might be Persian.

Чемодан is another word from the Middle East, although not, I believe, from Arabic. The Persian word is the same. Базар is definitely from the Persian.

Нефть is most decidedly and absolutely an Arabic word; it means the same in Arabic. There are some food terms that are of Arabic origin, most notably Халва, which I believe came via Persian, hence the shift in accent from the Arabic.



"Sunduk" is definitely Arabic.


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## cyanista

Thanks for correcting me, everyone. My source proved to be not that reliable.  Anyway, my comment triggered an interesting discussion.


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## papillon

So how I guess the question is : How exactly did these words come into Russian? After all, Slavs seldom had direct contact with the Arab world. 

The most logical explanation is through the Golden Orde, which was, perhaps in contact with other khanats, particularly in the middle East. The other possible route is borrowing from the languages of the Central Asia, s.a. Uzbeki, which in turn were in close contact with Arab merchants and scholars.

The Admiral is likely a different case, since it came to us via Europe.


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## Anatoli

Why not mention _цифра _[tsifra] = "number" or _шифр _[shifr] = "code" (via French _chiffre_) both from Arabic Sifr(zero), _алкоголь _(alkogol') = alcohol?

Rusian will share lots of words borrowed from Arabic into English:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Arabic_origin

Or from Arabic into French:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_words_of_Arabic_origin


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## elroy

Thomas F. O'Gara said:
			
		

> Чемодан ...Нефть...  Халва


My attempts at transliteration: "chemodan," "neft," and "chalva." 

I do not recognize the first word.
If the second word means "petrol," then it's from Arabic.
If the third word means "sweet" or "pastry," then it's probably from Persian via Arabic.  In Arabic its "Halwa" (the "H" is the hard guttural in "amiir al-baHr); the "H" would have shifted to "ch" and the "w" to "v" (which Arabic doesn't even have).


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## Anatoli

"Халва" would be better transcribed as "khalva". Russian has only one version of "kh", Arabic has h, H and kh, all of which would be transliterated with the Russian letter "х"  (kh), which maches more or less the Arabic خ  (kh) in pronunciation. "W" is also non-existent in Russian. So حَلاوة (Halwa) can only be written as "халва" in Russian.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halwa


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## elroy

Anatoli said:
			
		

> حَلاوة


Small correction: *حلوى*


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## Anatoli

Could there be another version, Elroy? That's the spelling I got from that Wikipedia site.


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## elroy

حلاوة is a word in Arabic but

-it is pronounced differently (_Halaawa_)
-it is not a general word for "sweet" or "pastry" but refers to a specific (sweet) food

Of course, the Russian word could have come from either one, but for the above reasons I would guess that it came from حلوى.


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## Anatoli

Thanks, Elroy


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## Anatoli

I'll give an example of a reverse - a Slavic word borrowed into Arabic with a changed meaning.
Wikipedia:


> The Arabic name for Austria, النمسا ("an-namsa"), is derived from the Slavonic term.


 cf.: немецкий (Russian: nyemyetskiy - "German"), niemiecki (Polish: _the same_)


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## Etcetera

How interesting, Anatoli... I didn't know that!
Thank you.


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## Jana337

Anatoli said:
			
		

> I'll give an example of a reverse - a Slavic word borrowed into Arabic with a changed meaning.
> Wikipedia:
> cf.: немецкий (Russian: nyemyetskiy - "German"), niemiecki (Polish: _the same_)


Click! 

Jana


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## Anatoli

Sorry, didn't know it was already posted, Jana. Feel free to remove my post. For me it was a discovery of today, anyway, when I tried to figure out how to read the Arabic word. The source I used was Wikipedia, not this forum.


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## Thomas F. O'Gara

Regarding the халва issue, yes, the Russian word comes ultimately from Arabic "halwa" or "halawa."  In standard transliteration, the initial "h" usually has a dot underneath it.  Russian, lacking any _h _sound except for the "x", has to use that letter to transliterate all three Arabic letters ح خ and ه
 
To all appearances the word came to Russian via Farsi, since the "w" sound is represented by a Russian "в" but even more tellingly by the fact that the Russian word puts the accent on the final syllable, which is in accordance with Farsi practice, and _not _in accordance with Arabic.  The word is common in all areas of the world affected by Islamic culture, and can be found in Hindi/Urdu and the Central Asian languages as well.


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## MindStorm

I'm the mathematical mind, so I know that words Алгебра (Algebra) and Алгоритм (Algorythm) were borrowed from arabic, too, but they didn't have such meanings as they do now. I can't remember exactly, but I think those were parts of the mathematical book title or even author's name! Please correct me if I'm wrong


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## cajzl

Al-Chwárizmí (born in todays Uzbekistan) was a Persian mathematician.

His work: _Al-Kitab *al-Jabr* wa-l-Muqabala_


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## Anatoli

cajzl said:
			
		

> Al-Chwárizmí (born in todays Uzbekistan) was a Persian mathematician.
> 
> His work: _Al-Kitab *al-Jabr* wa-l-Muqabala_


Thanks! Here's the algorythm (Al-Chwárizmí) and algebra (al-Jabr)


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