If you speak Spanish, you probably speak more Arabic than you think you do. It's not "real" Arabic you're speaking, but rather words that come from Arabic. After Latin, Arabic is probably the biggest contributor of words to the Spanish language.

The Arabic influence on the Spanish language has been significant due to the Islamic presence in the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) between 711 and 1492 A.D.

Modern Spanish (also called Castellano in Spanish) first appeared in the small Christian Kingdom of Castile in northern Spain during this period of Islamic domination over most of the Iberian Peninsula. As a result, the language was influenced by Andalusi Arabic practically from its inception. The Arabic influence on the language increased as the interaction with Muslims extended, Castilian had never been spoken in the southern area, while Arabic was the dominant language. Although the degree to which Arabic percolated the peninsula varied enormously from one area to another, it is generally agreed that Arabic was used among the local elites (both Muslims and Christians) as the language of science.

Most of the Arabic influence upon Spanish came through the arabized Latin dialects that were spoken in areas under Muslim rule, known today as Mozarabic. This resulted in Spanish often having both Latin and Arabic derived words with the same meaning.

For example:

Aceituna:، الزيتونة

Ajarafe: ، الشرف

Alacena: ، الخزانة

Acatar: قدر ،

Abatanar: بطن

The imprint of Mozarabic and Arabic is evidently more noticeable in the southern dialects of Peninsular Spanish than in the northern ones.

[اللغة العربية]

Há vários motivos que levam as pessoas a aprender uma nova língua. Razões profissionais normalmente impulsionam o aprendizado e ditam que idiomas estudar. Já é senso comum que para aqueles que desejam se colocar bem no mercado de trabalho é necessário falar inglês e, de preferência, um terceiro idioma. Se você for brasileiro há grandes chances de que este terceiro idioma seja o espanhol. Afinal, todos os países da América Latina falam espanhol com exceção do Brasil.

Entretanto, não são todos os brasileiros que falam o Espanhol e menor ainda é o número de brasileiros que estuda Espanhol. De fato não é difícil compreender o idioma: com um mínimo de contato com a língua e com a colaboração da fala pausada dos falantes nativos nós brasileiros podemos sim entender. Em minha opinião é esse fato da “fácil compreensão” que atrapalha nossos estudos aprofundados da língua. Muitos brasileiros caem na tentação de simplesmente substituir todos os “ção” por “ción”, ou então, acrescentam a letra “i” em todas as palavras em português e logo criam o chamado “Portunhol” e cometem as maiores atrocidades possíveis entre os idiomas!

Apesar do Português e do Espanhol derivarem das línguas latinas e, portanto, possuírem estrutura gramatical bastante similar, ainda assim são idiomas diferentes e devem ser encarados como tal. O Portunhol pode ajudar um turista de final de semana, assim como pode colocá-lo em grandes desentendimentos. Entre as duas línguas há muitos falsos amigos, palavras que se assemelham na forma escrita, porém com significados diferentes. Um garçom na Argentina, por exemplo, esperará de um cliente uma “propina” e não encare isso de forma rude. “Propina” em espanhol é “gorjeta”.

Hoje, ainda não falo um bom espanhol. Tenho boa compreensão de leitura e audição, entretanto minha língua ainda “trava” e mistura português, italiano e espanhol toda a vez que tento me comunicar com alguém. Reconheço que falta prática e estudo, mas as falas de duas professoras de escola motivam a minha vontade de um dia falar um bom espanhol: a primeira está relacionada com o fato de somente o Brasil falar português na America Latina e a necessidade de encarar que precisamos nos comunicar corretamente com nossos países vizinhos e parceiros; a segunda está relacionada com a frase “Puede quedar muy mal si no habla un buen español”, ou seja, dizer o que não deve por não saber o que significa!

Espero que mais brasileiros motivem-se a deixar o Portunhol de lado e encarem com afinco o aprendizado dessa língua tão bela quanto a nossa!

[English]

There are several reasons why people learn a new language. Usually professional reasons motivate and dictate which languages to learn. It is common sense for those who wish to place well in the labor market to learn English and preferably a third language. If you are Brazilian the chances are that this third language is Spanish. After all, every country in Latin America speaks Spanish except Brazil.

However, not all Brazilians speak Spanish and the number of Brazilians studying Spanish is even lower. In fact it is not difficult to understand the language. With basic studies and with the help of native speakers speaking slowly, we Brazilians can understand it.

In my opinion this is, indeed, the "understandable" that hinders our in-depth studies of the language. Many Brazilians fall into the temptation to simply replace all "ção" with "ción”, and to add the letter “I” in all possible Portuguese words creating the so-called “Portunhol” and committing the worst atrocities between the two languages!

Although Portuguese and Spanish derive from Latin and, therefore, have a similar grammatical structure, they are different languages and must be addressed as such. “Portunhol” can help a weekend-tourist but also create a big misunderstanding. Between the two languages, there are many false friends, similar words in the written form, but with different meanings. A waiter in Argentina, for example, would expect from a nice client a “propina” (bribe) but do not face it as rude. "Propina" in Spanish means "tip" while in Portuguese means “bribe”.

Today I still do not speak good Spanish. I have good reading and listening comprehension, but my tongue still shuts down and mixes Portuguese, Italian and Spanish every time I try to communicate with someone. I recognize I need to practice and study, and the speech of two school teachers has motivated me to speak good Spanish one day: the first one is related to the fact that Brazil is the only Portuguese speaking country in Latin America and the need to properly communicate with our neighbours and partners, the second one is related to the phrase "Puede quedar muy mal si no habla un buen español" (You can get in trouble if you don’t speak good Spanish), namely, to say what you should not because you do not know what does it mean!

I hope to motivate more Brazilians to leave Portunhol aside and start hard learning - this language as beautiful as ours!

[Português]

Hace unos días leí un artículo relacionado con el shock cultural de las personas que visitan México. Debo aceptar que fue bastante divertido leer cómo se perciben las cosas por un extranjero; pequeños detalles que yo he visto o vivido por muchos años y que para mi que son normales y hasta un tanto aburridas.

Me sorprendió mucho saber que nuestro español se considera bastante colorido y me pareció extremadamente divertido saber qué tipo de palabras son las primeras que aprenden los turistas o aquellas personas que van a pasar cierto tiempo en el país (no manches, cabrón, qué pedo, wey, etc.). Sinceramente no son palabras que se puedan clasificar como parte del español formal pero su uso es bastante extenso y en especial entre los jóvenes.

México es definitivamente un país lleno de colores, tradiciones, gente amable y con bastante historia. Pero mi perspectiva sería un poco diferente:

- Comida y picante: Lo primero que se extraña cuando se sale de México son definitivamente los tacos y el picante. Debo aceptar que nuestro tipo de comida me preparó lo suficiente para aceptar la comida india y las condiciones en que es preparada. Después de mi visita a ese increíble país me di cuenta que en realidad México tiene diferentes estándares de limpieza, no estoy diciendo que es 100% limpio pero en comparación con India puedo decir que aún en las calles, los alimentos tienen cierto grado de sanidad. Tardé alrededor de un mes en sufrir las primeras consecuencias de la comida india: dolor de estómago y largas horas en el baño.

- Transporte: Se carateriza por ser desordenado y no respetar las reglas de tránsito. Alguna vez escuché a mi maestra de inglés decir que le encantaba salir a la calle y estirar la mano en cualquier sitio de la calle porque sabía que algún autobús se iba a detener en cualquier momento. ¡Totalmente cierto! Pero también resulta bastante molesto para las personas que van manejando detrás de ellos. Es también bastante molesto la cantidad de personas que los choferes llegan a meter en los autobuses y en especial en época de calor.

- Apodos: Creo que ésta parte del artículo fue la más divertida porque una vez que me puse a pensar, noté que es verdad que todos tenemos algún apodo. No siempre incluyendo el artículo (la o el) pero en algún momento de nuestras vidas alguien encontrará un apodo divertido para nosotros.

- Música: ¡Si! Tenemos muchos estilos de música pero no a todos los mexicanos les gusta bailar y muchos tienen 2 pies izquierdos.

- Familia: Las familias mexicanas se caracterizan por ser bastante unidas y es muy cierto que las personas buscan independencia después de los 30 e incluso existen muchas que nunca salen de casa. Pero siempre estaremos seguros que la familia nos apoyará.

Me da gusto saber que los detalles de México que yo considero como defectos, son vistos de distinta forma ante los ojos de un extranjero. En muchas ocasiones he escuchado que las personas de otros países disfrutan más de nuestra cultura y país que los propios mexicanos, quienes sumergidos en los problemas y actividades de la vida diaria, no notan todas las maravillas que los rodean.

[English]

I have recently read an article related to the cultural shock experienced by people who visit Mexico. I must say it was extremely funny to read how all the small details that I’ve seen, lived and experienced, things that for me are normal and even boring, are perceived by a foreigner.

I was surprised when I read that our Spanish is classified as “colourful” and it’s amusing to know which kinds of words are remembered by tourists or people who will stay in the country for a certain period of time (no manches, cabrón, qué pedo, wey- which could be translated as mate or dude). To be honest those words are not used in formal Spanish but they are widely spoken among Mexican youth.

Mexico is definitely a country full or colours, traditions, polite and nice people and lots of history. My perspective as a Mexican could be a bit different:

- Food and chilli: The first things you miss when you leave Mexico are obviously tacos and chilli. I have to accept that our food prepared my stomach a bit against common consequences of Indian food. After my trip to this incredible country I realized that Mexico does have different and better cleaning standards. I’m not saying it’s 100% clean but in comparison to India I can say that even on the streets food is healthier. Took me around one month to finally stop suffering the consequences of eating Indian food: killer stomach ache and long hours in the toilet.

- Transport: It is known as being disorganised and for not respecting the traffic rules. A long time ago, I heard my English teacher say how much she loved to go out on the street and raise her hand no matter her location because she knew that a bus would stop any minute. Totally true! But it is also pretty annoying for people driving behind those buses. We also find the amount of people that bus drivers allow to get on the bus quite unpleasant, especially during spring and hot seasons. Not colourful at all!

- Nicknames: I think this was my favourite part of the article. After a deep thought about this nickname detail I noticed that it is true that we all have nicknames. We don’t always include the articles, which in English would be like including “the”, but at some point of our life we all get a funny nickname.

- Music: Yes! We do have many music styles but not all Mexicans are fond of dancing and actually many have 2 left feet! They don’t dance at all!

- Family: Mexican families are very close to each other and it’s completely true that people do not pursue independence before 30 and that there’s a high percentage of people that actually never move out. But if we look for a bright side, Mexicans can be 100% sure that family will always be there!

I was really glad to know that small details from Mexico, which I consider as defects, are perceived in a different way by foreigners. Many times I’ve heard that people from other countries enjoy a lot more of our culture and country than we do, because of the fact that we are immerse in our daily problems and activities and we do not notice all the wonderful things that surround us.

[Español]

Hace algunos meses decidí aprender alemán. Siempre pensé que dominar un idioma aparte del nativo facilita el proceso de aprender uno más. ¡Estaba tan equivocada!
Eso no quiere decir que sea más dicífil porque en realidad todo depende del tiempo que se invierta en el estudio y práctica.

Regresando al tema del alemán, noté que tiene palabras muy largas y aparentemente difíciles o casi imposibles de pronunciar para alguien que aún está en nivel básico. Entonces se me ocurrió buscar la palabra más larga en español, existen algunas como electroencefalográficamente y anticonstitucionalísimamente. Curiosamente la palabra más larga es hipopotomonstrosesquipedaliofobia, que se define como el miedo a la pronunciación de palabras largas y complicadas debido principalmente al nerviosismo.

Fue al primera vez que leí acerca de ésta palabra y aún para un nativo es un poco complicada de pronunciar. Después recordé haber leído que el alemán permite construir palabras compuestas sin límite de longitud, es decir, palabras extremadamente largas.

Una de las más largas tiene 63 letras y es el título de un proyecto:

Rinderkennzeichnungs - und Rind¬fleisch¬etikettierungs¬über¬wachungs¬aufgaben¬übertragungs¬gesetz

En español se traduce literalmente como: “Ley sobre la transferencia de las obligaciones de vigilancia del etiquetado de la carne de vacuno y la designación de los bovinos”.

Existe también otra que en español significa “Sociedad de funcionarios subordinados de la construcción de la fábrica principal de la electricidad para la navegación de barcos de vapor en el Danubio” y en alemán se escribe así:

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

No duden que más adelante existan palabras más largas, ¿aún les interesaría aprender alemán?

Curiosidades:

- Eunoia: Es una de las palabras más cortas en inglés y contiene las 5 vocales principales. En español se podría traducir como “pensamiento hermoso”.
- Strengths: Es la palabras más larga en inglés que contiene una sola vocal.
- Unprosperousness: Tiene 16 letras y todas se repiten al menos una vez.

[English]

A few months ago I decided to learn German. I used to think that speaking fluently any other language apart from the native one would facilitate the process of learning a third language.
Turns out I was wrong! I’m not saying it’s even more difficult but it all depends on how much time you invest in studying and practising. Getting back to the German learning issue, I noticed that there are many compound words that are apparently difficult and sometimes impossible to pronounce for someone who only knows basic words.

I had then the brilliant idea of looking for the longest word in Spanish; there are words like electroencefalográficamente and anticonstitucionalísimamente. Curiously, the longest one is hipopotomonstrosesquipedaliofobia and is defined as the fear or phobia to pronounce long and complicated words due to nervousness in most of the cases. It was the first time I read about this word and even for a native speaker its pronunciation could be hard.

On the other hand, German language allows the creation of extremely long compound words. One of the longest has 63 letters and it was created as a project’s title:
Rinderkennzeichnungs - und Rind¬fleisch¬etikettierungs¬über¬wachungs¬aufgaben¬übertragungs¬gesetz
Literally translated as: Cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation law.

However, there’s another word translated as “Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services” and in German is written like this:

Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft

We shouldn’t be surprised if longer words are created in the near future. Would you still be interested in learning German?

Curious word facts:

- Eunoia: Is one of the shortest English words and includes the 5 main vowels.
- Strengths: Is the longest English words that has only one vowel.
- Unprosperousness: Has 16 letters and they all appear at least twice.

[Español]

We all know that English is one of the most important languages in the world. In Latin America it’s essential to speak it fluently if you want to get a job in international or big companies. In Mexico, for example, there are many schools specialized in English teaching and some of them are only focused in English for business.

However, it is also known that after English, Spanish is the second language most studied around the world and the third one among the most popular on the Internet. Latin America is integrated by 21 countries which speak Spanish as a native language (Mexico has the largest population of Spanish speakers) and even in the United States, the number of people who speak the language has increased in the last few years. In addition, the Latin American culture has expanded its influence in many fields such as literature, film industry and music.

Furthermore, Spanish teaching and learning material demand has duplicated and job opportunities are increasing due to the fact that you will be able to communicate with more than 450 millions of people that speak the language.

There are 3 important reasons of why people learn Spanish:

- Number of Spanish speaking countries.
- They consider that Spanish is the best language to express their feelings.
- The sound of the language.

Spanish is a wonderful and easy language to learn. You will always have the chance to travel and practice your Spanish with native speakers in many countries. If you are not learning, what are you waiting for?!

Spanish facts...

- Many cities in USA (like New York, LA and Miami), have a wide percentage of people that speak Spanish and therefore many airports have English/Spanish announcement boards.
- On the border between USA and Mexico, people speak a weird mixture of Spanish and English called Spanglish.
- Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.
- Spanish spoken by people in Spain is different from the one spoken in Latin America. Some of the main differences are: accent, S and Z letter sound, prepositions and many other words.
- In India, it is very common to find merchants that speak Spanish due to the big number of tourists from Spain.
- The Royal Spanish Academy was founded to ensure that modifications applied to the language do not affect the bonds among Spanish speaking nations.

[Español]

Todos sabemos que el Inglés es uno de los idiomas más importantes. En América Latina es indispensable para conseguir un buen puesto de trabajo en empresas internacionales, por ejemplo, en México se han establecido una gran cantidad de escuelas que se enfocan a la enseñanza del Inglés e incluso existen algunas especializadas en Inglés de negocios.

Sin embargo, también se sabe que el Español es el segundo idioma más estudiado en todo el mundo y el tercero que más se usa en internet. Latinoamérica tiene 21 países que hablan el Español como lengua nativa (México es el país con el mayor número de hispanohablantes) y en Estados Unidos se ha incrementado el número de habitantes que hablan Español como segunda lengua. Cabe mencionar, que la cultura latina también ha extendido su influencia en diversos mercados como en la literatura, la cinematografía y la música.

La demanda de recursos para aprender Español se ha duplicado en los últimos años y las oportunidades de trabajo se incrementan cuando te puedes comunicar con más de 450.000.000 millones de personas que saben Español.

Existen 3 principales razones por las que la gente aprende Español:

- Cantidad de países que lo hablan.
- Consideran que es un idioma con el se expresan mejor los sentimientos.
- El sonido del idioma al hablar.

El español es un idioma maravilloso y fácil de aprender, además siempre tendrás la oportunidad de viajar a una gran cantidad de lugares y practicar con las personas locales. ¡¿Qué estás esperando?!

Datos Curiosos del Español

- Existen ciudades en EUA como Nueva York, Los Ángeles y Miami, en donde el Español es diariamente hablado por miles de personas e incluso los aeropuertos tienen letreros con mensajes en Inglés y Español.
- En la frontera entre EUA y México, se habla una mezcla de Español e Inglés que ahora denominamos como Spanglish.
- Es uno de los 6 idiomas oficiales de la ONU.
- El español Ibérico tienen más diferencias que el español hablado en países de América. Por ejemplo: acento, el sonido de la s y z, distinto uso de preposiciones y palabras al hablar, entre otras.

- En India, es común que los comerciantes de zonas turísticas hablen Español para poder comunicarse con el gran número de visitantes procedentes de España principalmente.
- La Real Academia Española fue fundada para vigilar que los cambios en la lengua no afecten el idioma y la manera en que une a los países hispanohablantes.

[English]