The lexicologist Jean Pruvost, tells below how this language is inscribed in the History and the French language, and explains to us that every day we use many Arabic words.
Indeed UNESCO celebrates the Arabic language on December 18 of each year, but every morning at breakfast, maybe you order a cup (Arabic word) of coffee (Arabic word), with or without sugar (Arabic word) and an orange juice (Arabic word). So you unknowingly spoke Arabic (or rather French) 🙂
The French language is dotted with Arabic words, as explained by Jean Pruvost, lexicologist, professor emeritus, author of “Our ancestors the Arabs, what our language owes them” published by JC Lattès.
The French language contains more Arabic words than Gallic words. © AFP / Leemage
What is the place of the Arabic language in the French language?
Jean Pruvost: The Arabic language is extremely present in the French language. Arabic is the third borrowed language, since the first is English, then Italian. Arabic has continued to enrich our language between the 9th century and today. Initially, it was mainly Al Andalus, Muslim Spain that gave many common words and scholarly words in the 13th century in French. Later, colonization and decolonization brought a new wave of words, with an important component in the field of gastronomy.
Can you give examples of common words that come to us from the Arabic language?
J. P.: If you do your shopping and buy spinach, tarragon, pumpkin, artichokes … All these words are Arabic. Even the word “artichoke” which does not come from Brittany! With the arrival of returnees from Algeria in 1962, after decolonization, the words merguez, méchouis, entered everyday language.
There are also a lot of words in clothing. If you go to a store (arabic word), buy a cotton (arabic word) skirt (arabic word), a vest and a pea coat (arabic words), you use arabic words.
And more recently, new Arabic words have appeared with recent immigration?
J.P .: The word “bled” has been so installed in the language that many ignore that it is an Arabic word. The youngest took it up again with the word “blédard”, which designated the one who landed from the Algerian or Moroccan countryside and who settled in the Paris region.
Having the “seum”, that is to say the cockroach in Arabic, (“cockroach”, which is also an Arabic word) was taken up in 2012 by a road safety campaign.
The word “chouf” or “kiffer” have been used for a long time, as in the expression kiff-kiff bouricot. In the beginning, the kiff was drugs and today, it means having fun.
The word doctor comes from the word toubab (which designates white) and means doctor. This word is passed in the colloquial language and many people do not know that it originated from the Arabic language.
Do the French actually speak Arabic?
J. P.: Yes, they speak Arabic much more than Gallic … Gallic is barely a hundred words. For Arabic, we are at 500 words and even more if we count the learned words on the side of flora and fauna. A child who goes to do algebra and chemistry in his college is in the Arab world.
translated by hope from … https://jazairhope.org/il-y-a-plus-de-mots-arabes-que-gaulois-dans-la-langue-francaise/
