Arabic loanwords in the Romance languages: a comparison of Spanish, Italian and French

Abstract

Arabic words entered Spanish mostly through direct contact in al-Andalus, while many reached Italian through Sicily and maritime trade, and French through scientific Latin and Italian or Spanish mediation.

The paper classifies a sample of words into fields: agriculture and food, trade and administration, and science and arithmetic. It notes that Spanish kept the Arabic article al in many words, unlike the other two languages.

Method

A lexical comparison of entries from standard etymological dictionaries of the three languages.

Working paper. The full version will be published later.