the grammatical case of a noun. However, it is worth mentioning that it turns second-declension nouns (ghayr munṣarif) into first declension nouns by allowing the kasra vowel. Moreover, al- brings back the letter in an ism manqūṣ that is in the nominative or genitive case. Without the al-, the in such nouns is omitted and replaced by nunation. In other languages The article was borrowed along with a large number of Arabic nouns into the Iberian Romance languages. (See Al-Andalus.) Portuguese, for example, acquired some 1,200 Arabic words between the 9th and 13th centuries, such as "village" (from alḍaiʿa), "lettuce" (from alxas), "warehouse" (from almaxzan), and "olive oil" (from azzait). It even appears on non-Arabic vocabulary, such as enxofre "sulfur" (also xofre, from late classical Latin sulfur; the prefix nasalizes before x). Spanish has a similar inventory, such as alfombra "carpet" and algodón "cotton", including such Arabic–Latinate doublets as aceituna and oliva "olive", alacrán and escorpión "scorpion", alcancía and hucha "piggy bank", as well as azufre ~ zufre "sulfur". Whether through the Iberian languages or by other routes, such as the technical vocabulary borrowed by various European languages during the adoption of Arab mathematics and science, a number of English words contain the Arabic definite article. These include alcove, alcohol, albatross, alfalfa, algebra, algorithm, alchemy, alkaline, alembic, elixir, artichoke, acequia, adobe, aniline, apricot, aubergine, azimuth, and the names of stars such as Algol. In azure, from lāzūard, the initial l of the word was lost due to being mistaken as the Arabic article; it is retained in lazurite and in the compound lapis lazuli. In lute, form , the a of the article was dropped, but the l retained; compare oud. In admiral, the article comes at the end, as it is an abbreviation of such phrases as amīr-al-mā "commander of the water" and amīr-al-bahr "commander of the sea". The al- article is also used in Urdu mostly relating to personal names of Arabic origin and in words which are imported from Arabic mostly related to religious, administrative and scientific vocabulary. The most common al- words in Urdu are () meaning "exactly" and () meaning "currently". See also Arabic grammar Arabic phonology Grammatical particle Influence of Arabic on other languages Sun and moon letters Notes References External links What's Up With "Al-"? at Slate Arabic grammar Arabic words and phrases Prefixes