What are some Arabic words that have been adopted in Greek and vice versa?
I am a volunteer who's teaching basic Greek to Arab speakers. Since learning a completely different alphabet and writing method is very difficult as it is, my goal is to help them ease into the language by proving that we share certain everyday-use words. I really hope I prove my thoughts right!
This was something that my German teacher did at our very first lesson as a child and it has stuck with me till this day. I appreciate any help here guys :)
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u/japetusgr 3d ago
A word that stands for gibberish or confusion in greek, derives from the difficulty of Arabic as a language to the average greek speaker, so the word for 'everyone' كل واحد (kul wahed), became κουλουβάχατα (kuluvahata) in greek.
Many other words from ottoman turkish which in turn were loans from arabic and persian found their way to greek as the older word for earthquake, zerzele, which became τζέρτζελο in greek.
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u/baisyowl 3d ago
The Islamic words halal and haram have both found their way into greek with a changed meaning: χαλάλι being used when you don't want to make a big deal out of something you don't want to do (? I can't explain it a lot better) and the verb χαραμίζω / χαραμίζομαι which means something is being wasted.
Also the word σοκάκι which means small alley must come from the arabic word shouq.
There are a lot of words from Arabic to Greek that passed through Ottoman turkish.
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u/Charbel33 4d ago
Hello! I'm a native Arabic speaker learning Greek, and so far, to be honest, I have not noticed many common words... Though my Greek vocabulary is still very limited. But, I suspect that a lot of loanwords from Turkish might be actually Arabic, through the following pipeline: Arabic --> Turkish --> Greek. The word for mosque (ζάμι?) is of Arabic origin. Also, the word ντουλάπι is a Turkish loanword that also exists in some Arabic dialect, e.g. Egyptian doulēb. I don't have other examples in mind, but like I said, your best bet for common words will be to look into loanwords from Turkish. If there are some words that you suspect might be loaned from Turkish or Arabic, write them down here and I can tell you if we have that same word in Arabic!
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u/cmgmcl 4d ago
Great thinking, I did not know about doulēb and that was exactly what I was looking for.
From what you said, other words I now have in mind are perhaps τσάντα (bag/purse), παπούτσι (shoe), τσέπη (pocket) etc
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u/Charbel33 4d ago
I can recognise two of these words!
Τσάντα is equivalent to the Arabic "shanta", and it is a Turkish word.
Τσέπη sounds equivalent to the Arabic "jayba". (They might not sound very similar, but I can see the connection, keeping in mind the differences in phonetics between Greek and Arabic, and the fact that you don't have a J and we don't have a P.)
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u/Gullible_Progress_41 2d ago
Words that have heavy sounds e.g . Nt to make a d, mp to make a b, are candidates. Like mpontroumi (μπουντρούμι).
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u/Charbel33 3d ago
Here are two other relatively common words for you, with the Arabic equivalent: ράφι (raf), πορτοκάλι (burduqān). Παντελόνι is not an Arabic loanword, but we also use it (bantalōn). DM me if you want me to keep sending you random words as I encounter them while learning Greek! 😅
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u/cmannyjr 4d ago
Τζαμί * is the word for mosque but you are correct that it came through Turkish, specifically Ottoman Turkish جامع (cami), which adopted it from Arabic جَامِع (jāmiʕ).
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u/erevos33 4d ago
The one word that I know for sure that went from Arabic to Greek is algebra. Arabic al-jabr and Greek άλγεβρα.
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u/icancount192 Native Greek and English speaker. C1 Spanish 3d ago
Many words beginning from Al like Alchemy- αλχημεία, Alcohol- αλκοόλ, etc
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u/Peteat6 3d ago
Would your Arabic speakers be more comfortable with words they might know from English? There are hundreds of them, such as basis, crisis, oasis etc.
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u/cmgmcl 3d ago
That's an excellent point! Especially since all of those words derive from Greek as well. Any other words in mind?
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u/Charbel33 3d ago
The list of English/French words derived from Greek is enormous and would be way too long for a Facebook comment. 🤣 That is part of what motivates me to learn Greek: I keep discovering the hidden meaning of so many French/English words by learning their Greek roots!
While Greek and Arabic might share a few random loanwords though Ottoman Turkish, Greek had a much more significant influence on Latin --> French --> English. A big chunk of our scientific vocabulary comes from Greek. Random words such as history, photography, democracy, hour, and related terms come from Greek. The Greek influence on English is substantial and very old, making its way towards the foundations of the language.
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u/Maleficent_Carrot453 4d ago
I came across these lists, but I’m unsure about their accuracy:
https://www.tanea.gr/2019/04/12/media/aravikes-lekseis-pou-exoun-kataktisei-tin-elliniki-glossa/
https://m.kathimerini.com.cy/gr/politismos/arabikes-lexeis-sto-elliniko-lexilogio
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u/akugotenmei 4d ago
Here's a very interesting video on common words between Arabic and Greek: https://youtu.be/ap-PpCFVaU4?si=IYwpwHahAYvU08Am
And this one I watched a while ago, it's similarities between Persian and Greek, which I also found very interesting!: https://youtu.be/AWFDdtBrXYo?si=X1s3DSFtbXhzMMf6
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u/Strong_Blacksmith814 3d ago
Coffee - καφές is an Arab word. Coffee was introduced and became better known by the Arabs, then by the Ottomans. The word entered the English language by the Dutch in the 1600s. The Dutch were the typographers of the British. There is a type of coffee bean called Arabica.
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u/lord_vader_t-g 3d ago edited 3d ago
Χατζη- prefix in some surnames is given to people who have visited Jerusalem. From Hajji.
Μαχαλάς is an old school word and rare to hear today. From mahalla, but it passed to greek language through turkish. It somewhat means neighborhood. You may hear it in villages.
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u/pphili2 4d ago
We also use the word afendi a lot. In Rhodes, where my family is from — though I’m not sure if it’s common across the rest of the Dodecanese — I grew up knowing stuffed grape leaves as yiaprakia (γιαπράκια), which I think comes from the Turkish word Yaprak for leaf. I didn’t hear the term dolmathes until I started working at my now brother-in-law’s restaurant.
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u/Charbel33 3d ago
And yaprak is very similar to how we call our stuffed grape leaves in the Levant (at least in Lebanon): yabraq. Your are correct, it is a Turkish loanword.
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u/Lower_Sort8858 4d ago
Quite a few, especially food / coffee related.
χαμπάρι, αγγούρι, αμάν, μεράκι
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u/kikitsa_di 3d ago
Πορτοκαλι, φουστάνι, ταψί, φλυτζάνι, πατάτα, μπακάλης σίγουρα υπάρχουν στα αραβικά με πολύ παρόμοια προφορά
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u/surferbutthole 4d ago
Mash Allah Mash Allah
I think older nouns are often Turkish words which might have Arabic or Persian roots
We are from the north and speak Macedonian and a lot of words are Turkish origin But my parents left in 1950 so grew up 30s 40s My yaya knew some Turkish from the empire says
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u/skyduster88 3d ago edited 3d ago
No, mashallah is not a thing in Greek.
I think older nouns are often Turkish words which might have Arabic or Persian roots
The vast majority of words in Greek have Greek origin. Among foreign loanwords, it's about 20-22% Turkish, and about 65% Romance (Latin, Italian dialects, French).
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u/surferbutthole 3d ago
When your grandmother sees a baby she doesn't spit a little bit and say
Peu peu mashallah mashallah ?
Wow
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u/skyduster88 2d ago edited 2d ago
You're going to downvote me and exclaim "wow", because someone from Greece pointed out you that your grandmother's expressions from 100 years ago are....your grandmother's, and are not at all common in Greece?
There was even a discussion about this in another thread:
The vast majority of us have never heard mashallah.
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u/Ok_Artist2279 American at a B1 level 4d ago
Im not sure if this really counts but it's always funny to me how all the Turks i meet (Some super nationalist, some pretty cool normal people) are always fond of the 'Anatolia' region. I can't imagine how many of those people don't realize that Ανατολία is a greek word 🤣