Arabic Translators in Australia

As we all probably know, Arabic is the official language in 22-26 countries that form the Arabic league. However, it is spoken by 300 million Arabic speakers around the world, mainly in the region stretching across the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Another interesting fact, Arabic is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (UN). The United Nations declared December 18th, the Arabic National Day, the day the language was approved in 2010.

You may not realise this but you may already know a little Arabic.

English has many words that comes directly from Arabic or somewhat indirectly from Arabic. Words that got into the Roman languages before making its way into English.

Did you know that the words; racquet, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, algorithm, alkaline, amber, arsenal, candy, coffee, cotton, ghoul, hazard, lemon, loofah, magazine, sherbet, sofa, tariff all originates from Arabic?

The mathematical expression (algebra) letter ‘x’ that symbolises an unknown number, stems from the Arabic word ‘shay’ (thing) and eventually translated to ‘xay’ in Spain, and finally abbreviated and use in algebra as ‘x’.

Or even the number system used today was once introduced to Europeans by the Arab merchants.

Some words in Arabic or English for that matter, sound familiar or friendly but can be interpreted as something completely different in another country and vary from Arabic speaking countries.

مالك؟ (Malak?)

Be careful in Egypt, if you want to reassure someone who looks frustrated, you will ask “مالك؟” meaning “What’s wrong?” and it is usually a kind and good emotion, a willingness to share what is worrying the other person. However, in Sudan it is the complete opposite, if a person despises someone or questions someone’s actions, they will ask “مالك؟”, but this time it will have a different meaning “What is this non-sense?” and will usually carry hostility towards the other person!

ناصح (Nase7)

If you want to praise someone in Egypt and compliment them on their intelligence and social skills, you will say “ناصح” as this means “highly intelligent person”. However, in Syria and Lebanon, the word “ناصح” has a different meaning ” fat person”!