The video is recorded in Lebanese Arabic, my dialect. I hereby invite you to activate the English subtitles by clicking on the Settings button - Subtitles - English.
Latin loanwords entered the Arabic language during the seven centuries or so which elapsed between the Roman conquest of Bilād aš-Šām in 63 B.C.E. and its subsequent conquest by the Arabs in the 630s C.E. The area extended from the Euphrates River or the Amanus Mountains in the north to the Sinai Peninsula in the south. Roman rule in this area was preceded by some three centuries of a Macedonian presence, initiated by the conquests of Alexander the Great.
We know that Latin has given thousands upon thousands of words to all Romance languages, as well as Slavic, Germanic, and some other language families. But Arabic?
Let's have a look at this video to see some Latin loanwords that entered the Arabic language.
In the first part of the video, I have gathered some Arabic words that were borrowed directly from Latin (35 words). In the second part, I go through some Arabic words that derived originally from ancient Greek, Syriac/Aramaic, or even Phoenecian, passing through Latin. (30 words).
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Reference:
Irfan Shahîd, “Latin Loanwords”, in Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, Managing Editors Online Edition: Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong.
