University of New Hampshire
McNair Scholar, 2016
Major: Spanish and International Affairs
Mentor: Dr. John Chaston, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Research Title: “I basically Speak Arabic.” NOT!
Abstract:
Sources from the world wide web have introduced the notion that Spanish and Arabic are practically the same language; and that if someone can speak Spanish they can also speak Arabic. The evidence offered for such a claim is wholly based on the Moorish occupation of Spain from 711-1492 AD. The influence of the Moorish kingdom is still seen throughout Southern Spain, and there are remnants of borrowed words in the language, but the two languages are significantly diverse syntactically, morphologically, phonologically, and semantically outside of a small percentage of word borrowings. This project provides a partial yet detailed quantitative and qualitative contrastive and comparative analysis of Arabic and Spanish lexicon, study of synonyms, and listing of usage frequencies of Spanish words derived from Arabic that are still used today. Derivational histories and cultural influences are also provided.
