On Fri, 15 Dec 2000 00:25:51 -0000,
david@...
wrote:
>Can anyone explain why so many Arabic words, which were adopted by
>Spanish and Potuguese, such as alcazar, alcalde, almohada etc retain
>the Arabic definite article 'al'. I know this is not universal and
>there are many exceptions such as 'zanahoria' but a great many (the
>majority?) do retain the definite article. This means that when
>someone says 'el alcazar' he is really saying 'the the fortress'. Any
>thoughts?
Hard to say. When a Spaniard says "el alcázar" now, he might be
unaware of the "double" article, because Arabic is not a language the
average Spaniard is familiar with. But this (unfamiliarity with the
language) will hardly have been the case at the time the words were
borrowed. Maybe instead of *lack* of familiarity (or ignorance) the
cause lies in *sufficient* familiarity (e.g. bilingualism), at the
time. I believe that in Arabic, the "citation form" of a word
includes the definite article, i.e. if you ask "How do you say
"house"?" The answer will be: "albayt"/"elbeyt". The words were
borrowed in Arabic citation form.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...