Why Arabic is the Master Key to Learning Swahili, Farsi, Hebrew & More

A master key is not just any key. It is uniquely capable of unlocking any door within a given house or building. Arabic is like a master key for learning a number of other languages.

The more languages I study, however modestly, the more I discover the benefit of having first gained proficiencies in Arabic. Specifically, I have found Arabic to be of tremendous help in learning the four following languages: Swahili, Indonesian, Hebrew, and Farsi.

As with all metaphors, the metaphor of has its limitations. While Arabic may not entirely “unlock” these languages, Arabic provides a lexical foundation on which I can build my vocabularies in these languages.

• In this article, I highlight examples of how Arabic vocabulary benefitted my learning vocabulary items from these four languages. For each language, its English name is listed but followed by its name from within that language, including a transliteration (for Hebrew and Farsi).
• Next, I offer a short explanation of that language’s relation to Arabic. Finally, screenshots are discussed that were taken from one of two websites that offer a “word of the day” email service, free of charge. Arabic speakers will have fun spotting the words shared with Arabic!

Let’s get started.

Swahili (Lugha ya Kiswahili)

Among the languages with the clearest influence of Arabic is Swahili, a language whose very name comes from the Arabic word coast / coastal (ساحل/ ساحلي), which came to refer to the creole that developed between the contact of Arabic with Bantu languages in East Africa. The word language, is also identical to Arabic’s لغة, as seen in the full name of the language in Swahili (above).

Today, Swahili often serves as a lingua franca in East Africa and boasts 200 million speakers.

Approximately 40% of its vocabulary comes from Arabic¹. The United Nations General Assembly recently recognized July 7^th each year as International Day of Kiswahili in view of the language’s role,” in promoting peace, unity, socio-economic development and cultural diversity, as well as creating awareness and fostering dialogues among peoples”, with the ultimate aspiration being its recognition as the seventh officially recognized languages of the United Nations². This spread of Swahili in East and Central Africa (and beyond) is viewed as an explicit move away from the European languages that colonialized imposed³.

The following screenshots were taken from the Swahili Pod 101 Word of the Day. In the first example sentence, the Swahili words cool and but both are directly related to their equivalents in Arabic (بارد/ برد ; لكن).

Swahili Example 1

Swahili Example 2

In the second example, Arabic speakers recognize within the Swahili word salary (mshahara) the Arabic word شهر (month).

Even if the two words are not exact cognates, the Swahili word likely derived from the Arabic word. Notwithstanding, the first example sentence includes the interrogative phrase how much/ many? (kiasi gani), which Arabic speakers can recognize قياس, or measurement, so Swahili speakers literally asking what kind / how measurement?.

Swahili Example 3

Finally in the second example sentence connected to salary, the Swahili expression each month is comprised of the words month and all / each (“kila”), which is nearly identical to Arabic’s equivalent كُل…, as in every week… (كل أسبوع), or every one of the men… (كل الرجال).

Even small discoveries of Arabic lexicon (Romanized) within Swahili, make for a wonderful scavenger hunt for Arabic speakers when learning Swahili!

Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)

How did a language of the Arabian Peninsula reach the far-flung islands of Indonesia? The sailing prowess of Arab explorers remains legendary in and around the Indian Ocean.

• According to UNESCO, Arab merchants traveling the “maritime Silk Roads” passed through the islands comprising today’s Indonesia to reach Chinese ports, bringing Islam to this region in the early 7^th century.
• Dating the ascendance of Arabic in Indonesia relies on the tombstones of Sumatran royalty: tombs from the 13^th century are engraved with dates listed in Islamic years. The use of this calendar signals Islam’s official adoption by society’s highest echelons⁴.
• Towards Indonesia’s eastern reaches, Islam was embraced in South Sulawesi at the start of the 17^th century, when royal families converted to Islam and the last “pagan” royalty submitted to a neighboring, competing Sultanate⁵. This region in particular mastered the art of boat-building, specializing in vessels capable of long-distance travel.
• In 2017, UNESCO recognized this craft, known as “Pinisi”, as part of the humanity’s intangible cultural heritage⁶. Putting this ancient knowledge to the test, a replica ship named the Samudra Raksa (the Defender of the Seas), was constructed out of wood using these methods. This vessel sailed from Indonesia to Madagascar, then around Southern Africa to finally reach Ghana in West Africa⁷.

Today, Indonesia remains the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, but is home to other faiths, including Christians, which constitute 11% of the national population⁸.

Compared to Swahili, Arabic’s influence on Indonesian is more subtle. The two following examples were taken from Transparent Language Word of the Day, which offers a daily target word with an example in a variety of languages.

Curiously, six of seven days of the week are names clearly derived from Arabic, while the names of months are easily recognizable to any English speaker.

Indonesian Example 1

In the first, Arabic speakers can look past the Indonesian prefix “ke-“ and recognize the word for health (صحّة) embedded within the Indonesian word.

Just like in an إضافة-construction, the ة becomes a /t/ in the Indonesian version. Indeed, Arabic speakers have an advantage when learning Indonesian vocabulary compared with non-Arabic speakers.

Indonesian Example 2

This second example features the Japanese word which has become widely used in numerous languages (more than one dozen). Yet the word that would stand out to Arabic speakers is the word area, which seems a perfect transliteration of the Arabic word دائرة (circle).

It is not difficult to see how circle came to refer to an area of land. This type of slight lexical shift from Arabic to Indonesian may not be that dissimilar from lexical shifts between Classical or Modern Standard Arabic and its various dialects and registers.

Indonesian Example 3

In the final example, Arabic speakers will notice the Bahasa word for while/when utilizes the Arabic word for time (وَقْت).

The same usage appears is Farsi, as will be discussed in what follows. Such instances of lexical drifting keep enough proximity to Arabic to gratify and fascinate the Arabic speaker studying Indonesian.

Hebrew (עִברִית, Ivrit)

Arabic and Hebrew are two languages that will forever be family members. According to Prof. John McWhorter, both the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets – which are not alphabets since they do not include vowels – are “children of Aramaic’s alphabet”.⁹

Yet the proximity between Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic is equal to the proximity between contemporary Spanish and Italian, according to McWhorter.

Aramaic was known to Jews, which explains why portions of the Bible (e.g. five chapters of the Book of Daniel) were originally written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. Arabic only became the lingua franca of the Middle East following the fall of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire, which used Aramaic as the empire’s administrative language.¹⁰

On the relationship between Arabic and Hebrew within Israel, Wills (2023) posited that, “the two Semitic – elated, but mutually unintelligible – languages cross-fertilize each other”¹¹. For a fuller description of their similarities, see Hefner’s (2024) article on using Arabic as a launching pad for exploring Hebrew. For an extensive list of shared lexicon, see Seveleu.com.

The three examples only highlight the lexical similarities.

Hebrew Example 1

In this first example, Arabic speakers will recognize the second person (masculine) singular pronoun אַתָה (“a-ta”) as nearly identical to Arabic’s أَنتَ. The subject pronouns in Arabic and Hebrew are nearly identical.

Grammatically, Arabic speakers will feel very comfortable with the absence of a verb between a subject/subject pronoun and an adjective, just as done in Arabic: I (am) happy (أنا سعيد).

Furthermore, Hebrew utilizes an interrogative particle to signal that a question is eliciting a yes/no binary answer, just as Modern Standard/Classical Arabic does:

Happy: “sa-me-akh”

Are you happy? “ha-im a-ta sa-me-akh”

Hebrew Example 2

In this second example, the word בָּחוּץ (“ba-khootz”), meaning outside or outdoors was translated as (out) in the open. In the example sentence, the words night, under, and stars (skies) are all parallels to their Arabic counterparts, respectively: الليلة ، تَحْت ،سماء. Note that the Hebrew word skies was used, rather than stars (כוכבים, “ko-khav-im”).

In the open: בהוץ (“ba-khootz“)

We slept in the open, under the stars

בִּילִּינוּ אֶת הַלַּיְלָה בַּחוּץ, תַּחַת כִּיפַּת הַשָּׁמַיִם

“bi-li-nu et ha-lie-la ba-khootz, ta-khat ki-pat ha-sha-ma-yim”

Hebrew Example 3

In this final example, Arabic speakers can hear echoes in the Hebrew word lack to the Arabic word to lose, a loss (خسر).

Lack of: “khoser“

In the exam, the students revealed their total lack of preparation.

בַּבְּחִינָה חָשְׂפוּ הַתַּלְמִידִים אֶת חוֹסֶר הַהֲכָנָה הַמֻּחְלָט שֶׁלָּהֶם

“ba-bkhi-na khas-fu ha-tel-mi-dim et kho-ser ha-hik-na ha-mo-khel-et shel-a-hem”

• In the example sentence, the most obvious similarity appears in the final word their (הם – “hem”), which uses the identical possessive pronoun as Arabic (-هم). Although it can be attached directly to the noun, it is instead attached to the possessive preposition “shel” (שֶׁל). Dialects of Arabic (Darija: ديال, Egyptian: بتاع, Levantine: تبع, etc.) use the same structure¹².
• Beyond grammatical aspects, one unequivocally parallel word is the word for student(s)/learner(s). Arabic and Hebrew’s respective terms are essentially identical: تلميذ/ تلاميذ, compared to the Hebrew’s תַלמִיד/ תלמידים (“talmid/talmidim”), we see the ذ is pronounced the same as Arabic’s د, and when plural, the regular masculine plural suffix “-im” is attached.
• Despite some irregular switching of gender when making agree nouns and adjectives, it is incontestable that Hebrew’s method of pluralization is far simpler than Arabic’s collection of patterns for broken plurals alongside sound plurals. Presumably for this reason, Prof. McWhorter described learning Arabic grammar as, “no party for newbies”.¹³

Differences clearly remain between their lexicons: the words preparation, exam, and total seem to share no commonalities. Nevertheless, a more erudite study may find otherwise.

Interestingly, the Arabic and Hebrew words for to uncover – كشف and חשפ respectively – are linguistic cousins despite not being identical. The two words have slightly different first and second root consonants but share an identical third root, the same consonant order, and the same conjugation for the past tense. These similarities highlight the deep connection between the two Semitic languages and show how knowing Arabic can facilitate learning Hebrew.

Persian/ Farsi (فارسی)

The relationship between Arabic and Persian/Farsi lexicon is far trickier, and thus fascinating. Stating the obvious, Persian/Farsi and Arabic use the base same alphabet.

• This is the case for a handful of languages, representing millions of people: Urdu, Pashto, Kurdish, and until 1923, Turkish¹⁸.
• Farsi, however, utilizes 4 additional letters that are not found in Arabic¹⁹:

P – پ; ZH- ژ; G -گ; CH – چ

• Persian/Farsi is an Indo-European language, and thus, “its grammar is similar to that of many contemporary European languages”.²⁰
• Evolving from Old Persian, Modern Persian is comparatively “marvelously simple”.²¹

Historical context is critical for understanding Arabic loanwords in Farsi, as well as Farsi loanwords within Arabic!

The Arab expansion into present-day Iran during the 7^th and 8^th centuries (AD) marked a turning point in world history. To the once-dominant Sasanian Empire (centered in today’s Iran), Arab domination of the region put an end to its monarchy and state-sponsored support of the Zoroastrian religion.

Conversely, it marked the advent of Islam and the Arabic language’s domination within the sciences, literature, and religion within the region.²³ From the contact of these various groups and languages in Western Asia, contemporary Arabic contains a smattering of words with Persian roots, as well as Turkish, explained in Drissner (2017)’s article.

Today, Farsi is spoken by millions not only in Iran, but also in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.²⁴ Additional populations of Persian speakers reside in Iraq, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and even the United States.²⁵ 

It is Iran that is home to the largest number of Farsi speakers. Iran remains a country with a diverse population, which includes ethnic minorities of Arabs, Kurds, and Baluch. In fact, long-standing grievances and current marginalization of such groups have some experts believing that civil unrest is on the horizon.²⁶

Farsi Example 1

In the first example, Arabic speakers will recognize from the word eyeglasses both the word eye (عين) and medical – Farsi: prescription (طبي) -, as seen in the example sentence.

Unlike Arabic, Farsi locates the verb of a sentence at the very end. Many of the nouns in between remain familiar to Arabic speakers: for example as (مثل), previously (سابق), surgery (جراحي), and distributed/spread (يروّج, Farsi: رايج).

Farsi Example 2

In this second example, the target word church is very similar to the Arabic word كنيسة, with only the middle consonant being substituted. The final vowel sound is the same, despite being written with the long vowel ا, rather than the ة, as in Arabic. Both the Arabic and Farsi versions share an etymology from Aramaic.²⁷ Ironically, it is the Farsi version with an ل (“l”) then that is closer to the Greek translation provided by an Arabic-English, ecclesia; ecclesiae; house of God.²⁸

The example provided also showcases one of the numerous lexical differences exist between the two languages, including the names of colors (here: white).

The example sentence is loaded with Arabic loan-words, or reconstitutions thereof. Christians (مسيحيون) translates to مسيحيان, since the suffix -ان is how Farsi most commonly pluralizes humans.

• The Arabic words relating to senses, feelings, and sensitivity utilize the roots ح-س-س, just as the Farsi word أحساس  is part of the compound verb to feel (احساس کردن, literally, to do feeling).
• Similarly, the Arabic word for company (شركة), as a Farsi verb, has a different meaning. In both the noun and verb form, the ة is replaced by a ت . This compound Farsi verb (شرکت کردن) means to participate, or literally, to do company.
• Interestingly, the word important (مُهم) means the same in Arabic.
• Conversely, Farsi has a distinct word for all/every, هر, as it does for Sunday, or literally, the first day.
• In Arabic, this construction requires an إضافة, in which the word day precedes one. In Farsi, it is the opposite. The word یک, one, precedes the word day (شنبه).
• Note that in Farsi, the letter ک is written, in all forms, with the small diacritic (‘alāmatu-l-ihmāl) that is used in Arabic’s ك when in isolated and final forms. The same is true of Farsi’s final ه, discarding Arabic’s two dots above the letter when in final and isolated form (ة), and in Farsi’s final position ى, which discards Arabic’s two dots (ي). This letter appears in the Farsi word سيارى (many), which more expert study may reveal to have Arabic roots.

Farsi Example 3

In this final example, it is curious that Farsi spells China with a letter that is pronounced “tch” (čīn) rather than a ص, as in الصين. This may be related to Farsi’s belonging to Indo-European languages, such as German and English, both of which pronounce China with a “tch”-sound (in German also: “k” or a soft consonant sound), whereas in Arabic and Hebrew, two Semitic languages pronounce and write China using “s” phonemes and graphemes.

The two similarities to be noted are the Farsi words for…

1. population (جمعيت), which shares the same Arabic roots for words relating to associations, universities, congregating, etc., and
2. the Farsi word نظر, the middle consonant is pronounced as a “z”, indistinguishable from Farsi’s pronunciation of ض، ذ، ز،, making four letters in total that are all pronounced “z”.²⁹

The word نظر, which Arabic speakers will recognize as relating to look, or the expression with regard to, which is exactly how it is used in Farsi when coupled with از, which denotes the direction of the verb, meaning it clarifies the subject-object (and knowing that the verb always comes at the sentence’s end).

In this way, the expression in terms of or regarding in Farsi is the perfect example of an Arabic loanword enmeshed within Farsi grammar.

Arabic, a master key language

Through studying other languages, it has become clear that knowing Arabic has been highly advantageous. Arabic, like Latin and Greek before it, have impacted the lexicon of numerous languages far and wide. Potentially, contemporary American English, in this age of hyper-globalization and digitization, could be comparable.

For the aspiring polyglot, I would suggest undertaking Arabic, not only for its own beauty, logic, and the cultures it unlocks, but also because it will lay the foundation for proficiencies in other languages, in ways that few other languages can.

Equally, for the fellow Arabic Nerd, it is a tremendously enjoyable experience to undertake a seemingly foreign language with which you have no familiarity, and then discover, little by little, nuggets of Arabic embedded within the language.

Unwinding the ways that these target languages have spun the Arabic word can be a cultural, philosophical, and even poetic experience. Undoubtedly, scores more languages were touched by Arabic, and hold similar lexicon, waiting to be uncovered.

Why not venture out, beyond Arabic – having reached a level sufficient to appreciate Arabic loanwords – and see what lexical and grammatical similarities are used in that language? Please report back to fellow Arabic Nerds so we can all benefit from your discoveries!

Sources and References

1. BBC.com. (2022). Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa. Link ↩︎
2. United Nations Information Service Nairobi (UNISN). (2024). UN General Assembly recognizes Kiswahili Language Day. Link ↩︎
3. BBC.com. (2022). Swahili’s bid to become a language for all of Africa. Link ↩︎
4. UNESCO (2025). Silk Roads Program. Link ↩︎
5. Pelras, C. “Religion, Tradition, and the Dynamics of Islamization in South Sulawesi.” Indonesia. 57. 133–54, Link ↩︎
6. Pinisi, Art of boatbuilding in South Sulawesi. Link ↩︎
7. Beale, P. (2006). “From Indonesia to Africa: Borobudur Ship Expedition” (PDF). ZIFF Journal. 3: 17–24. ↩︎
8. Caileigh Stirling, K.(2024). 5 facts about Muslims and Christians in Indonesia. Pew Research Center. Link ↩︎
9. McWhorter, J. (2020). A is for Aramaic. Language A to Z. The Great Courses. ↩︎
10. McWhorter, J. (2020). A is for Aramaic. Language A to Z. The Great Courses. ↩︎
11. Wills, M. (2023, Jan. 11). Arabic Hebrew, Hebrew Arabic: The Work of Anton Shammas. JSTOR Daily. Link ↩︎
12. Industry Arabic. (2023, March 13). The Industry Arabic Guide to Arabic Dialects. Link ↩︎
13. McWhorter, J. (2020). A is for Aramaic. Language A to Z. The Great Courses. ↩︎
14. Ulpan. (2011). Hebrew Alphabet. Link ↩︎
15. Etz-Hayim. (2018). The Hebrew Letter Kaf. Link ↩︎
16. Benner, J. (2025). Samehh. Ancient Hebrew Research Center. Link ↩︎
17. Ulpan. (2011). Hebrew Alphabet. Link ↩︎
18. Met Museum. (2024). The Arabic Alphabet and Other Languages. Curriculum Resources. Link ↩︎
19. Northwestern University. (2025). The Persian Alphabet. Middle East and North African Languages Program. Link ↩︎
20. UNESCO (2025). Silk Roads Program. Link ↩︎
21. McWhorter, J. (2007). ‘6 Persian: “The Most Atypical Iranian Language”‘, Language Interrupted: Signs of Non-Native Acquisition in Standard Language Grammars (New York, 2007; online edn, Oxford Academic, 1 Sept. 2007), Link ↩︎
22. University of Arizona. (2025). The Iranian Language Family. Iranian Languages and Linguistics. Link ↩︎
23. Encyclopaedia Iranica. (2025). ʿARAB ii. Arab conquest of Iran. Link ↩︎
24. McWhorter, J. (2021, Sept. 7). What Do They Speak in Afghanistan? Lexicon Valley. Link ↩︎
25. Northwestern University. (2025). The Persian Alphabet. Middle East and North African Languages Program. Link ↩︎
26. Rubin, M. (2024, Dec. 8). Could There Be an Arab Uprising in Iran? Middle East Forum. Link ↩︎
27. About كنيسة: Wiktionary (2025) – Link ↩︎
28. About كنيسة – Almaany English Arabic Dictionary (2025): Link ↩︎
29. Aspirantum. (2020, Apr. 7). Persian Alphabet. Link ↩︎

Note: The feature image was created by AI and is used for illustration purposes only.