It’s easy to forget how much Arabic influence seeped into the English language over the centuries. Words like “algebra” and “assassin” are so commonplace in English usage that many never consider their linguistic and historic origins.
And as The National observes, there have been no shortage of Arabic-originating words making headlines in recent months. Two in particular, “ghibli” and “tariffs,” have dominated the public attention — the former for the recent ChatGPT filter mimicking the art style of Studio Ghibli, an acclaimed animation studio, and the latter for the economic policies being imposed in the United States.
While Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli co-founder, honorary chairman, and director of many of its most acclaimed and beloved films, rarely gives interviews or detailed explanations of his work, fans believe his love of aviation led him to the word “ghibli.” Piecing together information from his rare interviews in Japanese media and other sources, they believe “ghibli,” which traces back to an Arabic word for the hot, dry winds that shape the Sahara Desert’s iconic sand dunes, reflected his desire to reshape the anime industry with his imaginative and artistically sophisticated films.
“In Libya, particularly, the wind is called the ghibli wind and thus, the general belief remains that Miyazaki named his renowned animation studio after the word as he wished to blow a new, hot wind through the anime industry,” The Times of India reports.
But what does that have to do with aviation? According to The Times of India, fans believe Miyazaki embraced the word through its association with the Caproni Ca.309, an Italian scout plane used during World War II. A known aviation enthusiast, Miyazaki’s passion inspired his 2013 film The Wind Rises, a fictionalized retelling of the life and career of Japanese aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi. Intended to be his final film, Miyazaki ultimately went back to the drawing board — no pun intended — for his 2023 film The Boy and the Heron.
While Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are perennial darlings within the animation and film communities, they made headlines most recently not for a movie, but instead an AI filter. In a recent update, OpenAI’s ChatGPT released an update allowing users to convert personal photos or generate images in Studio Ghibli’s iconic art style. While the release was praised and widely embraced as a viral internet sensation for its convincing images, it also received criticism over the ethics of co-opting the studio’s style, developed over four decades of painstaking art production.
It wasn’t the only Arabic-originating word on every newscaster’s lips and writer’s pens in recent headlines. Few need any reminders about the tariffs roiling global economies since their implementation since their implementation by US President Donald Trump on April 2. Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre Head of Arabic Language Education Khaled Dalky told The National that the English and Spanish languages adopted the word “tariff” from Arabic, spelled phonetically as “tarifa.”
“Arabic is a derivational language, meaning all words go back to root forms,” he told The National. “The root letters for tarifa, for example, give rise to a number of interesting words such as ʿarafa (he knew), yaʿrifu (he knows), maʿrifah (knowledge), and ʿirfan (gnosis), among many others.