Similarities Between Greek and Arabic

In this video, we compare some of the common words between Greek (ελληνικά) and Arabic (العربية) with Giorgos, representing Greek, and Georges, as the Arabic speaker.

While Greek and Arabic belong to two different language families, due to deep historical interactions between Arabs and Greeks, which even predates Islam and Christianity, there are many common words between the languages. The connection goes back to ancient times, when Greek authors such as Aeschylus, Isocrates, and Euripides played a big role in documenting the geography of Arab lands.

During the Hellenistic period, which began in the 4th century BCE, the Greek language and culture spread across the Middle East and parts of North Africa, and greatly impacted the region.

Linguistically, both Greek and Arabic have influenced one another, as seen through the shared vocabulary, some of which are demonstrated in this video.

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Arabic is a Central Semitic language and has official/national status in Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, SADR, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

Greek (ελληνικά) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages with a written record of over 3,000 years, easily making it the oldest documented Indo-European language. The Greek alphabet, originating from the Phoenician script, was the basis of numerous other scripts, such as Latin, Cyrillic, Coptic, Gothic, and Armenian. The Greek language has virtually impacted other languages in every corner of the world, being an important component of Western civilization, the Christian religion, and the language of some of the fundamental texts of science, astronomy, and mathematics. The Greek language today holds official status in Greece and Cyprus, and is recognized as a minority language in Albania, Armenia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Ukraine.