阿拉伯语
Ā lā bó yǔ · HSK 7
Arabic (language)
🕌🗣️ Ah-la-bo = sounds like Arabia + yu (language)
The first three syllables mimic Arabia phonetically: Ah-la-bo. The fourth character 语 means language. So its literally Arabia-language, a direct phonetic loan plus the language suffix.
拉 — hand radical 扌 + 立 (stand, phonetic)
拉 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The hand radical 扌 indicates an action done with the hand, while 立 (lì, 'stand') supplies the sound, shifted to lā. The original sense is to pull or drag with the hand, which remains its core meaning today.