Arabic has had a great influence on other languages, especially in vocabulary. The influence of Arabic has been most profound in those countries visited by Islam or Islamic power.
Arabic loanwords have made their way into languages as diverse as Abkhaz, Afrikaans, Amharic, Albanian, Armenian, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Balochi, Bengali, Berber, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chechen, Circassian, Croatian, English, French, Georgian, Greek, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Kazakh, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Malay, Mongolian, Montenegrin, Nepali, Odia, Ossetian, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romani, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sicilian, Spanish, Sindhi, Somali, Swahili, Tagalog, Tajik, Tatar, Tigrinya, Turkish, Turkmen, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Visayan, Wolof, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu, as well as into other languages within the countries where these languages are spoken. Some languages such as MalteseMaltese language - Britannica Online Encyclopedia and Nubi outright derive from Arabic, rather than merely borrowing vocabulary. Arabic words were being used from the Iberian Peninsula all the way to Maritime Southeast Asia prior to the spread of European international words.
Spanish has one of the largest Arabic-influenced vocabularies of any European languagearound 8%due to Arab rule mainly in Southern Iberia, a region that was known as Al-Andalus, from 711 until 1492; however, Spain's re-Christianization and resulting loss of contact with Arabic culture has led to a significant shift in both meaning and pronunciation of Spanish words of Arabic etymology.
The terms borrowed range from religious terminology (like Berber taẓallit, "prayer" < salat), academic terms (like Persian manteq, "logic"), to everyday conjunctions (like Hindi/Urdu lekin, "but"). Most Berber varieties (such as Kabyle), along with Swahili, borrow numbers from Arabic. Most religious terms used by Muslims around the world are direct borrowings from Arabic, such as ṣalāt, 'prayer' and imām, 'prayer leader'. In languages not directly in contact with the Arab world, Arabic loanwords are often mediated by other languages rather than being transferred directly from Arabic; for example many older Arabic loanwords in Hausa were borrowed from Kanuri. Arabic has also influenced the names of the days of the week in a number of languages, Indonesian, Lezgian, Malagasy, Malay, Somali, Swahili, Tausaug, Yakan.
Outside the Muslim world, there are more limited borrowings from Arabic, usually to denote vegetables and other articles in commerce, such as "aubergine", "alcohol" and also some other terms like "admiral". Among European languages, these mostly were transmitted through Spanish and Turkish.
Interlingua Dozens of Arabic words occur in Interlingua, frequently because their co-occurrence in such languages as English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese can be used to verify their internationality. Many of these words entered Interlingua's vocabulary through Spanish. Arabic words in Interlingua include "algebra", "alcohol", "cifra" (cypher), "magazin", "sucro" (sugar), "zenit", and "zero".
Austronesian languages
Javanese There are far fewer Arabic loanwords in Javanese than Sanskrit loanwords, and they are usually concerned with Islamic religion. Nevertheless, some words have entered the basic vocabulary, such as pikir ("to think", from the Arabic fikr), badan ("body"), mripat ("eye", thought to be derived from the Arabic ma'rifah, meaning "knowledge" or "vision"). However, these Arabic words typically have native Austronesian or Sanskrit alternatives: pikir = galih, idhĕp (Austronesian) and manah, cipta, or cita (from Sanskrit); badan = awak (Austronesian) and slira, sarira, or angga (from Sanskrit); and mripat = mata (Austronesian and Tagalog [Philippines]) and soca or netra (from Sanskrit).
Malay and Indonesian In Indonesian and Malaysian Malay, the loanwords from Arabic are mainly concerned with religion, in particular with Islam, but to a lesser extent Christianity. Nevertheless, some words have even entered the basic vocabulary; words of Arabic origin include dunia (from Arabic: دنيا dunya = the present world), Sabtu (from Arabic: السبت as-sabt = Saturday), khabar or kabar (خبر ḵabar = news), selamat/salam (سلام salām = a greeting), Jumaat or Jumat (الجمعة al-jumʿa = Friday), ijazah (إجازة ijāza = vacation), kitab (كتاب kitāb = book), nikah (نكاح nikāh = marriage or wedding), tertib (ترتيب tartīb = orderly) and kamus (قاموس qāmūs = dictionary).
Christian usage Ilah (Arabic: إله) is the word for God even in Christian Bible translations.
Many early Bible translators, when they came across some unusual Hebrew words or proper names, used the Arabic cognates. In the newer translations this practice is discontinued. They now turn to Greek names or use the original Hebrew Word. For example, the name Jesus was initially translated as 'Isa (Arabic: عيسى), but is now spelt as Yesus. Several ecclesiastical terms derived from Arabic still exist in Indonesian and Malaysian clerical use.
The Malay word for bishop is uskup (from Arabic: اسقف usquf = bishop, ultimately from Ancient Greek episkopos). This in turn makes the derived term for "archbishop" uskup agung (literally great bishop), which is combining the Arabic word with an Old Javanese word. The term imam (from Arabic: امام imām = leader, prayer leader) is used to translate a Catholic priest, beside its more common association with an Islamic prayer leader. Some Protestant denominations refer to their congregation as jemaat (from Arabic: جماعة jamā'a = group, community). Even the name of the Bible in Indonesian translation is Alkitab (from Arabic: كتاب kitāb = book), which literally means "the Book".
Tagalog Arabic influence on Tagalog is largely indirect, occurring through two principal channels: contact with Islamized Malay-speaking polities in precolonial Southeast Asia, and later through Spanish, which itself contains a substantial number of Arabic loanwords due to centuries of contact during the period of Al-Andalus.
Unlike Malay or Indonesian, Tagalog did not undergo widespread Islamization, and therefore Arabic loanwords are fewer in number and are not predominantly religious. Nevertheless, several Arabic-derived terms entered Tagalog prior to Spanish colonization via Malay trade and cultural exchange, particularly in abstract vocabulary related to knowledge, values, and social relations. These words are often fully nativized and perceived as indigenous by speakers. Examples include salamat (“thanks”, from Arabic salāmah سلامة via Malay selamat), alam (“knowledge” or “awareness”, from Arabic ʿilm علم), hukom ("judge", from Arabic ḥukm حُكْم via Malay hukum), and hikayat ("persuasion", from Arabic hikāyat حِكَايَة).
During the Spanish colonial period, additional Arabic-derived vocabulary entered Tagalog through Spanish, particularly terms associated with material culture, administration, timekeeping, and household items. These words often preserve the Arabic definite article al- as part of the loanword, reflecting their transmission through Iberian Arabic into Spanish. Examples include alkansiya (), alkohol (, from al-kuḥl), alahas (), asukal (, from as-sukkar), and almusal ().
Berber languages Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing and influence from the Arabic language, as well as from other languages. For example, Arabic loanwords represent 35% to 46% of the total vocabulary of the Kabyle language, and represent 51.7% of the total vocabulary of Tarifit. Almost all Berber languages took from Arabic the pharyngeal fricatives /ʕ/ and /ħ/, the (nongeminated) uvular stop /q/, and the voiceless pharyngealized consonant /ṣ/.
The influence of Arabic, the process of spirantization, and the absence of labialization have caused the consonant systems of Berber languages to differ significantly by region. Berber languages found north of, and in the northern half of, the Sahara have greater influence from Arabic, including that of loaned phonemes, than those in more southern regions, like Tuareg. Many Berber languages have lost use of their original numerals due to the influence of Arabic, such as Tarifit which lost all except one.
English
Like other European languages, English contains many words derived from Arabic, often through other European languages, especially Spanish. Among them is every-day vocabulary like "sugar" (sukkar), "cotton" (quṭn) or "magazine" (). More recognizable are words like "algebra" (al-jabr), "alcohol" (al-kuhūl), "alchemy" ("al-kimiya"), "alkali", "cypher" and "zenith" (see list of English words of Arabic origin).
A more indirect form of influence is the use of certain Latinate words in an unclassical sense, derived from their use in Latin translations of medieval Arabic philosophical works (e.g. those of Averroes), which entered the scholastic vocabulary and later came into normal use in modern languages. Examples are "information" to mean the imparting or acquisition of knowledge (Arabic taṣawwur, mental impression or representation, from a root meaning "form") and "intention" (Arabic macnā, meaning). These words may almost be regarded as calques.
Indic Languages
Bengali The Bengali language as spoken by the Muslim-majority Bengalis, has gained Arabic vocabulary both directly, as the language of Islam and its literature, but also indirectly as a consequence of Arabic-influenced Persian being an official language in Bengal for over 500 years. During the late medieval period, a number of Bengali Muslim writers also wrote Bengali using the Arabic script. In the coastal Chittagonian dialect, the Arabic influence is magnified with researchers considering half of the dialect's lexicon to be of Arabic origin. This form of Bengali is referred to as Dobhashi.
Gujarati The Gujarati language (i.e., the one heavily influenced by Arabic and Persian) is referred to as Lisan ud-Dawat.
Hindustani (Hindi and Urdu) Hindustani language (and especially the Urdu register; but also the colloquial Hindi register to a certain extent) has as a substantial number of loanwords from Persian and Arabic (both directly as well as via Persian). Hindustani contains around 5,500 words of Persian and Arabic origin.
Iranian Languages
Kurdish Kurdish differs from other Iranian languages such as Persian in sharing the same or close geographical spaces with Arabic-speaking populations, especially in Upper Mesopotamia. The influenced introduced the pharyngeal phonemes are found in varying degrees in both Central Kurd- ish and Northern Kurdish. They are retained in most of the Arabic loanwords originally bearing them.
Persian The Arab conquest of Iran lasted for two centuries, from the 7th to the 9th CE. Arabic gradually replaced Middle Persian as an official language and Arabic became the language of the Persian intellectuals during Golden Age of Islam. During this period, many Arabic words were imported into the Persian language. Persian words of Arabic origin especially include Islamic terms. Arabic has had an extensive influence on the Persian lexicon, with a considerable portion of the lexicon derived from Arabic roots, including some of the Arabic plural patterns. Arabic grammatical elements have also been imported into the Persian language and are used in both Arabic loan words as well as Persian and other non-Arabic words. Arabic has also had an influence on Persian phonology and syntax.