Arabesques- The adventure of the Arabic language in the West, by Henriette WALTER & Bassam BARAKE

Arabic and French...
Distant in their origins, these two languages have intersected and influenced each other for almost a millennium.
Do you know the name by which the Arabs refer to our "Arabic" numbers?
Do you believe that the Arabian Nights really lasted 1001 nights?

Did you suspect that the texts of Greek scholars could only be transmitted to us thanks to Arabic translations of the original manuscripts?

Did you know that there are hundreds of French words in Arabic, just like there are hundreds of Arabic words in French?

You will find answers to these questions and many other erudite or entertaining information, mixed with literary and historical anecdotes, in the book by Henriette Walter and Bassam Baraké.

Between scholarly presentations and linguistic games, it is somewhat the long history of encounters between the East and the West that this work retraces implicitly and in successive touches. A unique way to learn while having fun.

About the authors: Henriette WALTER & Bassam BARAKE

Henrietta WALTER

Henriette Walter is professor emeritus of linguistics, president of the International Society of Functional Linguistics and member of the Superior Council of the French language. With Éditions Robert Laffont, she has notably published Le Français dans tous les sens (1988, Grand Prize of the French Academy), L'Aventure des languages en Occident (1994, Grand Prize for readers of Elle 1995, special prize of the Committee of the Society of Literary People), The Adventure of Words from Elsewhere (1997), Shame on Who Thinks Badly (2001), The Sciences Explained to My Granddaughter (2009), with Pierre Avenas, The Fabulous History of names of fish (2012, Sea Literature Prize).

Bassam BARAKE

Bassam Baraké, Professor of French and Arabic Linguistics at the Lebanese University (Beirut), Member of the Higher Council of the Higher Arab Institute of Translation (League of Arab States), is the author of a book on the phonetics of Arabic and several French-Arabic dictionaries, including the French-Arabic Larousse (Academia, Beirut).