The Arabic Origins of Numeral Words in English and European Languages

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to the examine the genetic relationship between all numeral words in Arabic and English primarily as well as other European languages such as German, French, Greek, Latin and even Sanskrit secondarily. Contrary to long-held beliefs and views in Western comparative historical linguistics in which Arabic and English, for example, are classified as members of different language families, it shows how these numerals are related to and derived from one another, with Arabic being the end origin perhaps. The numeral words have the same or similar forms and meanings with slight phonetic changes as a result of normal linguistic evolution at the phonetic, morphological and lexical levels.