IS ARABIC THAT IMPORTANT?

K. T.   Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:30 pm GMT
" I cant speak Arabic fluently, just know a bit. But my dad can speak it and i can get the jist of the conversation. I am not sure how much an Arabic speaker would be able to understand Hebrew. But i know they sound completely different."

I looked at some Arabic and I noticed things that sounded like Hebrew and Spanish. I usually think words that start with "al" come from Arabic, but I noticed another word that began differently that reminded me a lot of Spanish. It makes me wonder how much Arabic is a part of Spanish today. However, that is something I can look up, not something to trouble other people about here.

Well, at least you are honest about your knowledge of Arabic. I appreciate that. I have to get back to work. Have a good day.
Adolf   Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:35 pm GMT
"It makes me wonder how much Arabic is a part of Spanish today. However, that is something I can look up, not something to trouble other people about here. "

Perhaps I am wrong, but you have insinuated the same thing twice or more times. I am a spanish speaker and let me say you are free to say whatever you want about Spanish language, were are not half as racists as our northern neighbors.
youth   Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:36 pm GMT
Aldofo i dont think you have to be muslims to get 0% loans. but i think it means you agree to pay fixed amount on top of the loan. therefore, they make a profit as well.
Guest   Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:13 pm GMT
"Perhaps I am wrong, but you have insinuated the same thing twice or more times. I am a spanish speaker and let me say you are free to say whatever you want about Spanish language, were are not half as racists as our northern neighbors."

I'm not insinuating anything at all.

I'm only interested in how languages take on vocabulary from other languages, or how mutuallly intelligible languages are. Basically, I wonder how easy it would be to learn another language based on shared vocabulary-things like that. I'm not a linguist, but since linguists don't dare touch my questions, I guess (or it isn't their area of interest), I've begun to learn various things on my own. I wasn't aware of such terms as "lexical similiarity" until two years ago and have just learned about things like Dachsprache, Abstandsprache, because I've been interested in
what makes a language, a language, not a dialect.
K. T.   Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:14 pm GMT
"Guest" =K. T. in the post about insinuating, Abstandsprache, etc.
Guest   Thu Jun 28, 2007 10:40 pm GMT
Sorry, I used the insult against Muslims, and I suspect that it was far demeaning to him than anything he's said towards us. I won't use the word again.
OïL   Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:07 am GMT
At the time Algeria got independent less than 10% of people had a fluent practice of French. Now the figure is 50% and growing. The majority of daily newspapers use French. Simple undisputable facts.

Meanwhile most Arab immigrants in France drop Arabic (or Tamazigh) after the 2nd generation. Very often children aren't even able to communicate with their parents (which makes 2nd generation quite often notoriously dysfunctional but that's another story).

Just compare that situation to the US/Mexico relationship: self-assertiveness of Hispanics and increasing presence of Spanish in USA, while English is and will remain a fully foreign language in Mexico.
Guest   Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:14 am GMT
The same thing happesns to Spanish in the United States. It's only the poorest of the poor Hispanics who don't learn English. But by the second and third generation, most Hispanics learn English.
Guest   Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:16 am GMT
<< So you insecurities about your language is plain to see. Arabic will always be a major language as it is the holy language to about a billion Muslims. Furthermore, French is losing grounds in other African countries as they see it more profitable to count there business in English. >>

Actually, English is the 1 that is losing ground in Africa. Swahili is replacing English in Tanzania and Kenya. French is becoming common in Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Liberia.
Parisien   Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:11 am GMT
"Actually, English is the 1 that is losing ground in Africa."

J'en doute. Il y a une longue liste de pays (officiellement) francophones en Afrique mais ils sont petits et/ou peu peuplés.

Le Nigeria à lui seul a plus de population. Il est un énorme désastre social, économique et écologique, il n'en est pas moins la puissance dominante en Afrique, derrière l'Afrique du Sud. Ça ne laisse au Français qu'un rôle local dans l'Ouest du continent.