As of: January 29, 2024, 6:00 a.m
By: Giorgia Grimaldi
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From A like algebra to Z like sugar.
German is not as German as you think.
The German language is a hot topic.
At the end of 2023, the debate about a gender ban (a questionable term that could have been “bad word of the year”) flared up again in schools and authorities.
But anyone who deals with language knows that it is dynamic and changes over time.
We recognize this not only in inclusive language, but also in foreign words or loanwords that have found their way to us via strange detours.
Many of these words come from the former lingua franca and educational languages French and Italian.
Today, English in particular has a strong influence.
German is not only full of anglicisms, but also of “Denglish”, a mixture of both languages that only Germans understand - like “home office”, which we use for mobile work, but has a completely different meaning in English.
This is how Arabic words found their way into the German language
The non-European language that has had the most influence on Western cultures is Arabic.
European peoples adopted many terms in the Middle Ages, when the Arab world was far ahead of us in many disciplines such as medicine, mathematics and astronomy.
The inventions and customs that came to us through trade and crusades were adopted or slightly adapted with Arabic names.
Arabic words only ended up in German via detours, almost exclusively through Italian and French.
Linguist and author Andreas Unger explains this in his book “From Algebra to Sugar – Arabic Words in German”: “This is primarily because Germany or the German territory never bordered on Muslim areas and was not involved in Mediterranean trade.” So we always adopted innovations a little late, long after they had arrived in neighboring countries.
The German word “sofa” also has Arabic origins.
© Symbol image: Imagebroker/IMAGO.
Editing: BuzzFeed DE
More on the topic: 8 problematic phrases that we unfortunately still use
9 Arabic words that we – inshallah – use in everyday life
So many words are not as German as you might think.
In fact, many of the words we use come from Arabic.
BuzzFeed News Germany
has listed some terms that we often use in everyday life - without claiming to be complete.
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1. Algebra
Many words with the prefix “Al” come from Arabic, for example algorithm, alchemy and alcohol.
2. Coffee
One of our favorite drinks comes from Turkish “kahve” from Arabic “qahwa”.
3. Carafe
Through French, Italian and Spanish, the Arabic “gharrāfa” (originally a water lifting wheel with blades) became our carafe.
4. Magazine
With a detour into Italian, the Arabic “machzan”
,
in the plural “machāzin” (meaning: “collection point of information”), became a German word for magazines.
5. Mattress
Our sleeping surface comes from the Arabic floor cushion “matrah”.
6. Couch
Even more comfort came to us via the “suffa”, a bench with cushions.
7. Checkmate
The expression “shāh māt,” which means “the king is defeated,” originally comes from Persian and came into European languages via Arabic.
8. Tariff
The Arabic “taʿrifa” means something like “announcement, price list”.
9. Sugar
The word originally comes from the Sanskrit word “śarkarā
”
for “sweet”, which was borrowed into Arabic as “sukkar” and from there reached the European-speaking world.
Many other spices and ingredients also came to us this way, such as cinnamon and saffron.
More on the topic: 9 misogynistic words that we still use in everyday life