O elemento árabe en galego (I)

Abstract

The influence of Arabic on Galician is a largely under-researched area of Galician linguistics, in contrast to the long tradition of Romance and Arabic studies involving its sister Romance languages. The few studies on the subject suggest that the impact of Arabic on Galician was short-lived or non-existent. Nevertheless, the presence of Arabisms in Galician vocabulary and place names is in fact much greater than most people realise. Studies on Arabic and Portuguese are only partially applicable to the Galician experience, since they do not account for Arabisms that occur earlier or exclusively in Galician, or which differ in form between Galician and Portuguese. For this analysis, therefore, the linguistic system of Galician-Portuguese is divided into three zones (Galicia, northern Portugal and southern Portugal), which correspond to the different phases of penetration of the Arabic superstratum in the language.