Dictionary of Arabic and Allied loanwords: Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and Kindred Dialects

696 Pages·2008·45.68 MB·English

by  Federico Corriente

Dictionary of Arabic and Allied Loanwords
Handbook of Oriental Studies
Section 1, The Near and Middle East
Edited fry
H. Altenmtiller
B. Hrouda
B.A. Levine
R.S. O'Fahey
K.R. Veenhof
C.H.M. Versteegh
VOLUME97
Dictionary of Arabic and
Allied Loanwords
Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician
and Kindred Dialects
By
Federico Corriente
BRILL
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
ISSN 0169-9423
ISBN 978 90 04 16858 9
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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CONTENTS
Preface VII
Abbreviations, Sigla and Editorial Norms XI
The Grammar of Arabic Loanwords in !hero-Romance xv
Index of Romance Lexical Items lxxxiii
List of Arabic and Allied Loanwords in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan,
Galician and Kindred Dialects 1
Appendix 1: False Arabic Loanwords 481
Appendix II: List of Other Foreign Words 493
Bibliographical References ... .... ... ... .... ... .... ... .... ... ... .... ... .... ... .... ... ... .... ... ... 585

PREFACE
It is wholly unnecessary to tell the educated reader about the confrontation of one
or another kind that Europe and the East have stood in for at least 2500 years,
since for the first time two Indoeuropean nations, the Greeks and the Persians
clashed in Asia Minor over political and economical interests. It is also well-known
that this first feud between Greeks and Achaemenid Persians was to be inherited
by the Romans, on conquering those lands, and then by their Eastern heirs, the
Byzantines, as traditional foes of the Parthian and Sassanid Persians and, finally,
by the Western powers and the Islamic states of the Middle East, whether Arabic
or Turkish, until the present day.
It is equally obvious that any illustrated scholar cannot or, at least should not
become emotionally or ideologically involved with either an apology of or an
attack on any of the cultural, religious, political or economic systems which fought
each other in such struggles, our task being merely to describe the events, their
causes and consequences.
In the case of Western Europe, it is also widely known that the Muslims'
onslaught on this part of the world, as a consequence of their previous successes
in the East and North Africa, led to the emergence of Islamic states in the Iberian
Peninsula between 711 and 1492 A.D., when the reaction of Christian powers,
feeble to begin with, but relentless and increasingly strong, put an end to that
chapter of history, not, however, without long-lasting cultural and linguistic con
sequences in the areas formerly held and for centuries occupied by Islamicized
and Arabicized populations.
When we concern ourselves merely with the linguistic aspect of such conse
quences, i.e., the linguistic interference of Arabic with the Romance languages
of the Iberian Peninsula, we soon discover that we have been preceded in this
endeavour by other scholars since the Middle Ages, although their contributions
may differ greatly in extension and value, according to their methods, goals and
attitudes.
It is beyond the scope of our present concern to undertake a historical survey
and criticism of those contributions, their merits and shortcomings, about which
we have already and repeatedly offered our opinions. Instead, we would rather
let readers have their own views on such potentially conflictive subjects, while
providing them with the latest results of our research on the grammar and lexicon
of the loanwords dealt with here.
viii PREFACE
However, if one thing we must say for the very sake of being scholarly neutral
and ideologically faithful to the highest moral achievement of humankind, namely,
the principles of Enlightenment, it is that the still unsettled feud between Islam and
the West has had, and continues to have very negative consequences for a dispas
sionate assessment of their mutual cultural interferences, of which loanwords are
an important and revealing chapter. If one anecdote can tell more than a thousand
words, we could say with a smile, but also some shock and much worry for what
the future might hold for us and our own, that we have received a few anonymous
phone calls accusing us, on account of our studies of Arabic loanwords in Western
languages, of "furthering a second Moorish invasion of Spain" On a very different
level, after having revised that important share of Castilian lexicon, in the wake
of the publication of the latest edition of the DRAE, when we offered to take care
of the last, but important details of its inclusion in that dictionary, we were told
that there was no time for this, as the issuing of that work was too urgent. Too
urgent to waste time on improving the presentation of those Arab loanwords and
avoiding the host of mistakes reproduced once again since, one would surmise,
those in charge of that institution do not feel that the second most important
ingredient of the Spanish lexicon deserves any more attention.
It is therefore our perhaps too pessimistic impression that the only people who
react in a perceptible way to the issue of cultural relations between Islam and the
West are bigots of either trend, i.e., Western racists who in any case would never
acknowledge the important debt of Western culture to the East, or fundamentalist
Monotheists, be they Christian, Muslim or Jewish, eager only to see the final
victory of the crudest brand of their creed over the lands and minds of the infidel.
As for neutral, enlightened people on either side of this historical boundary, there
would appear to be few or, at least they are not seen rallying eagerly in support
of reason, moderation and the acknowledgement of historical facts and inherent
traits of human nature.
This book is addressed to them, in order to remind them that Al-Andalus, in
addition to having been an important chapter of the shared history of Islam and the
West, is also an extremely interesting lesson in sociology and sociolinguistics, as
the people of the Iberian Peninsula, whatever their religion and tongue, not only
shared the fruit of the progress brought about by the highest civilization of its
time, but also a good deal of the Arabic language which supported it. They did not
merely borrow a number of isolated words to name new products, inventions and
institutions, such as sugar, stills and market inspectors, not to mention such grim
notions as Inquisition < mil:znah, and crusade <jihad, but also an immense array
of technical, social and linguistic manners, reflected in games still played by our
children, nursery Ihymes, more or less decent idioms used by all, even when their
words are no longer understood, cries used to cheer sports teams, etc. Because the
PREFACE lX
contact between Arabic and Romance in the Iberian Peninsula was neither brief
nor superficial: Mozarab emigration to the Northern Christian states, since the
9th c. down to the 13th c., brought to them not only a higher civilization, but also
the basic words and idioms embedded within it, which gained currency even among
those who only spoke Romance. The same happened again in lands conquered
by the Christians, but still heavily populated by Muslims, almost as soon as that
first wave had ended. Whether or not they converted to Christianity and became
assimilated sooner or later between the 12th and 16th cs., which many did it soon
enough to avoid the wholesale expulsion of the 17th c., although deprived of pres
tige, they were still an overwhelming majority in certain areas, craft and trades
and underworld activities, such as muleteers, wandering performers, tricksters and
thieves among the men; nannies, servants, strolling players, singers, dancers and
prostitutes among the women. They consequently exerted considerable influence
on the areas of language most closely connected with those activities: professional
jargons, such as those of building, animal breeding and driving, technical terms
related to games, thieves' cant, taboo words, etc.
Not too many people in Spain and Portugal are fully aware of their mixed
linguistic background, and quite a few of them, when appraised of it, often
react to such a possibility by rejecting it as an insult. No feeling of humiliation
survives from the Roman conquest and subsequent Romanization, nor any resent
ment against the Germanic tribes who wrought mostly havoc to Hispania; even
Napoleon's invasion is looked upon as a historical event not entirely lacking
positive consequences and at any rate does not induce most Spanish people to hate
the French, but the Islamic invasion is a different matter. It has not been digested,
assumed as one more chapter of old history, in spite of the centuries elapsed, of
the benefits contributed by the invaders and the merits of multi -racial Andalusi
civilization. Two factors have powerfully prevented the easing of this tension,
namely, the religious divide and also the geo-political and socio-economic gap
between both shores of the Strait. People continue to watch in distrust what may
come across the water, because the frontier is still and above all there, so that the
other is behind that fence, and one never knows. Under such circumstances, one
understands the angry reaction of some Galicians when they are told that ceibe
"free" is an Arabic word, or some Catalans, when one of their favourite dishes,
the escalivada, is attributed to the same origin, not to mention the reactions,
ranging from amazement to distrust, of any Spaniard who is informed that the
popular song a Ia lima, al alimon, te vas a quedar soltera (q.v.), begins with the
very Arabic words used by Andalusi criers to call the attention of crowds before
proclaming the ruler's announcement.
But that has been and is our history, and it will not be changed by merely
ignoring or pretending to ignore it. Mutual ignorance shall not lead to peace and
X PREFACE
collaboration, but even less is it a good preparation for a war. Let us hope for no
more of the second ever, and that our efforts to improve present levels of under
standing between Islam and the West are only used to serve that first purpose,
the only one behooving the honest.
The author
Saragossa, March 15th, 2008