Sentiment analysis of spanish words of arabic origin related to islam: A social network analysis

Abstract

With the arrival of Muslims in 711 till their expulsion in the 1600s, Arabic language was present in Spain for more than eight centuries. Although social networks have become a valuable resource for mining sentiments, there is no previous research investigating the layman’s sentiment towards Spanish words of Arabic etymology related to Islamic terminology. This study aim at analyzing Spanish words of Arabic origin related to Islam. A random sample of 4586 out of 45860 tweets was used to evaluate general sentiment towards some Spanish words of Arabic origin related to Islam. An expert-predefined Spanish lexicon of around 6800 seed adjectives was used to conduct the analysis. Results indicate a generally positive sentiment towards several Spanish words of Arabic etymology related to Islam. By implementing both a qualitative and quantitative methodology to analyze tweets’ sentiments towards Spanish words of Arabic etymology, this research adds breadth and depth to the debate over Arabic linguistic influence on Spanish vocabulary.