Arabic-L:LING:Sifr/Cipher

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Thu 22 Apr  2004
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Sifr/Cipher

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1)
Date: 22 Apr  2004
From:Herb Martin <HerbM at LearnQuick.Com>
Subject:Sifr/Cipher

> From:"A. Ferhadi" <af3 at nyu.edu>
> Subject:Borrowing Verbs
[I am studying Iraqi so I found your reference
to Iraqi dialect especially interesting.]

> Finally, Arabic Sifr and English cipher (spelled cypher in British
> English) both mean zero. Which language borrowed from the other?

Latin borrowed 'cipher' from Arabic whence
it was inherited eventually by English.

cipher:
Middle English cifre, from Old French, from
Medieval Latin cifra, from Arabic ifr, from
afira, to be empty (translation of Sanskrit
nyam, cipher, dot).
The American HeritageR Dictionary of the
English Language: Fourth Edition.  2000

Best online English dictionary:
	http://www.bartleby.com/61

Interesting since you comment about computer
terms, is if Arabic re-borrows the word
'cypher' : 4a. A cryptographic system in which
units of plain text of regular length, usually
letters, are arbitrarily transposed or
substituted according to a predetermined code.
The verbs being: encypher and decypher.

Roughly, encode & decome (by transposing and
substituting letters.)

I also find it odd that sometimes Iraqi uses
"paaS" for bus, rather than baaS.  I believe
some of this is an itermediate consonant
between English p and b. (without the plosive?)

Herb Martin
Austin, TX

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End of Arabic-L:  22 Apr  2004