How Arabic Changed Spanish

Spanish didn't just adopt a few words from Arabic. It was fundamentally changed as a language over 800 years of Arabic domination. But this didn't happen as you might think. In this video, I cover some surprising historical circumstances in Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus) that allowed Spanish to survive, and I show you which Spanish words come from Arabic.

Heads up: if you don't watch the end of the video, you'll walk away with the wrong assumption.

#spanish #arabic #alandalus


0:00 Intro
0:55 Hispania and Romance
1:55 History of al-Andalus
4:00 How Romance survived
5:51 Why Arabic words were adopted
6:37 Irrigation and Agriculture words
8:12 Gardening and Architecture words
9:03 Government and Trade words
9:36 Chess words
10:15 Music words
10:40 Domestic Life words
11:38 War and Conquest words
12:22 Intellectual Life words
14:13 Development of Mozarabic
14:41 Recap and summary