Youssef Mabrouk
Germanic and Semitic languages have been established as two different and basically unrelated language families. This indeed explains the strong basic differences that are found between them. As a speaker of English, German and Arabic, I always notice some strange similarities in certain words from these three languages. When I look for the root of the English and German words in Proto-Germanic dictionaries, the similarity to Arabic becomes even more visible. However I do not find explanations or suggestions in the literature for these similarities. So here I list some of the words I noticed. I would be happy if you could indicate literature or share your thoughts about this. English / German / Proto-Germanic / Arabic Egg / Ei / Ajja / ojja (=egg) Field / Feld / Fela / felaha (=agriculture) House / Haus / Hus / housh (=house) Garden / Garten / Garda / garda (=garden) Ship / Schiffen / ? / sufun (=ship) Build / Bauen / Bwajan / bina (=construction) Caesar / Kaiser / Kaisar / kaisar (=strong) Cave / Käfig / Kafa / kahf (=cave) Seven / Sieben / Sebun / sebun (=seven) Harm / Harm / Harma / haram (=harm, forbidden) Source for Proto-Germanic : Gerhard Köbler, Germanisches Wörterbuch 1980, 2. A. 1982
Jul 12, 2022 8:01 AM
Answers · 1
1
This is such an interesting comparison I am no expert in linguistics but I can tell that the Arabic words here are closer to the proto Germanic ones since Arabic is an older language, compared to English and German However, some of these words might sound the same but have different meanings Harm means to hurt or to injure Haram (the verb) means to forbid or to deprive
July 12, 2022
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