Shahnawaz Ahmed

Very few European names come from Arabic. You may be confusing this with the fact that many of them come from Hebrew, such as Joshua, Thomas, Benjamin, Elizabeth, Hannah and Ruth. Many but not all biblical names have translations in Arabic, such as عيسى ‘Isa for Joshua (and also Jesus).

There are others which come from Greek (Nicholas, George, Sophie, Helen), Latin (Mark, Julia), Germanic languages (Richard, Edward, Emma, Linda) and others. Especially in English-speaking cultures, there are also names that come from Celtic languages (Patrick, Colin, Erin, Gwen). Others come from further afield; Margaret originally came from Persian and entered Europe via Greek.

We Arabians have a characteristic that i think unique, we speake dual languages both are called Arabic ☺️

Every part of the Arab world (not every country) we speake a dilect that is far remotely related to Standard Classical Arabic (The Arabic of the Qura’n).

The Morocan Arabic will not be understandable for an Arab from Iraq. Even within the same country, a man from Cairo, Egypt will not understand a man from Qina Egypt 100%.

And every dilect is too different from Standard Classical Arabic that it could be considered a new language. It is not less different than the difference between Italian and Latin for example.

So if you are talking about the qullical spoken Arabic it changed too much.

Arabic has always been an important part of my study since I live in U.A.E. I was in Grade 2 when I started learning Arabic. I went to India in Grade 3 . I did not have the language there. Now I came back to U.A.E last year , I did not remember a single word of Arabic.

In schools here , you find two categories of Arabic learners -

Beginners

Advanced

I started from the Beginner level. I was given a worksheet comprising of the basics of the language.

I started with the alphabet.

Then I learned the Harkat , Tanween etc.

Then I learned how to read.

After I started reading , I learned the basic grammar , basic words like - colors, body parts , animals etc.

I wrote exams.

Now I am in Grade 9. I am in the advanced level. I am now learning chapters , learning new words and with the help of my lovely teacher I am able to understand and speak the language in such a way that I ca have a basic conversation with any Arab.

Learning Arabic has been one of my biggest achievement and I can proudly say that I can write Arabic poems too just in the course of a year. I will keep on learning the language forever.

I’m Malay. I attended an Islamic primary school when I was 5 to 12 years old. I learned the Arabic language there.

In my opinion, yes, Malays have the potential to learn Arabic easier, only if they attend an Islamic school or speak the language since small. As we all know, children’s brains are like sponges. They absorb knowledge much easier and faster than adults. Besides, some Malay words derived from Arabic substantial and still intact in the appropriate sense of their pronunciation and meaning. E.g. halal, haram, maut, kitab, ulama, ziarah, etc.