Differences

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What Is Andalusada? | Point of Divergence | As Our Story Begins
Differences | Science and Technology | How Things Are

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Many of the differences are obvious — the dramatically different world map, for instance. This page is about the small differences: not world-changing, but signs of the world's having been changed.

Languages

Note: Languages ITTL are not mutually intelligible with their OTL counterparts. This section refers to differences that remain noticeable despite that.

For imaginable reasons, the distribution of loanwords ITTL is very different. Some examples:

• Most Mediterranean languages are much more Arabized, and the borrowings remain closer to the original Arabic. (The title "admiral," for instance, is invariably spelled amiral.)
• In many languages, Hebrew loanwords reflect the Sephardi pronunciation.
• French has lots of loanwords from South Asian languages, especially from Dravidian languages.
• English, by contrast, has almost none. In the last 200 years, most of its loanwords have come from its colonies in Indo-China and English Guinea.
• In the New World, Scottish and Norwegian have borrowed and calqued many words and phrases from each other. (A famous Alexandrianism is using "Be so kind" to say "please.")

A sample of different words includes the following:

IOTL

ITTL

Airplane, civilian

Aerodyne

Airplane, military

Guerrodyne (cf. French guerre "war" + aérodyne.) In most Romance languages, this is further contracted to guerro (m.)

Airship, blimp

Aerostat

Billion

Milliard

Black powder

Naft (cf. Andalusi Arabic نَفْط naft, originally "oil" but "gunpowder" by 1300)

Evaporation

Avolation

Khaki (tan cotton twill)

Coisommé (cf. Japanese 桑染 kuwazome "mulberry bark dye")

Kung fu (or any East Asian martial art)

Kun Tao (cf. Chinese 拳道 "way of the fist.")

Photography

Photostasis

Tea

Chai

Turquoise blue

Ferouse (cf. Arabic فيروز firuz)

Science, Time and Measurement

The Lisbon meridian is the de facto prime meridian, and has been adopted by all but two countries. Those two countries, unfortunately, are France and England-Scotland, whose world-spanning doomed empires print their own maps. Because this often causes issues at sea, a wide variety of tools have been invented to quickly and accurately convert map coordinates from one system to another.
France (which standardized its measures in the early 1700s) neither adopted the metric system nor introduced it to Europe; thus, the Old World has largely retained its customary weights and measures. Rulers are ruled on both edges and faces (letting them measure four different scales rarer combinations of scales are very collectible.
Maps drawn in the Islamic style, with the Upper Nile toward the top of the map, were printed well into the early 19th century. Despite being obsolete, it remains familiar; it's understood that (for instance) a Caribby corsair's treasure map might be drawn south-up.

Clothing

Formal suits (and business suits where there's a difference) are expected to be dark, but can be any color as long as it's dark. Purple, dark red, and hunter green are all perfectly acceptable, subject to the limits of workplace rules and fashion trends.
Headscarves for women are both ubiquitous and unremarkable. Because Christian churches expect women to cover their heads during services (and most require it), headscarves aren't considered specifically Islamic either.
"Khaki" doesn't exist as a word or concept. Similar colors have an assortment of names ("buff" in English and Scottish, for instance.) A similar material (tan cotton twill cloth) is produced in Japan, and is starting to be known abroad as coisommé (cf. Japanese 桑染 kuwazome "mulberry dye").
Similarly, the word "cravat" is unknown. Where actual scarves are considered inappropriate, formal neckwear tends toward ascot-style designs.

Arts and Entertainment

A standard deck of playing cards contains four suits (Swords, Cups, Staffs, and Coins) of 14 cards each (ten pip cards, three faces, and a Fool) for a total of 56 cards.

• The so-called "Moorish" or "Seville" deck differs only in the art on the face cards. Because Islam historically discouraged representational art, the face cards indicate their rank with heraldry instead.
• North of the Alps, the "German" (or "Prussian" in the New World) deck uses different suits (Bells, Shields, Flowers, and Stars) and only one Fool, for a 53-card deck. This deck is favored in Central Europe, Great Russia, and Axamalla (which introduced it to the New World), as well as by Montagnards.

A family of mahjong-like games arose in China during the Taiping Civil War (much like IOTL), and are familiar across the Chinese diaspora. Unlike mahjong, these use cards rather than tiles, and variants often use different cards. Since the turn of the century, the "common deck" has contained 200 cards (184 prints plus 16 blanks), several dozen of which are removed during setup.
Backgammon is an extraordinarily popular game for high-stakes gambling.

Food and Drinks

The laws of kashrut predate the Point of Divergence and thus remain unchanged, but specific rulings can vary. In particular, the halakhic status of turkey is extremely controversial.
Because Judaism and Islam are much more widespread, the world (especially the New World, where Islam was hegemonic for centuries) eats much less pork. Even Mexico, which has worked hardest to shed its Islamic past, doesn't consider pork entirely authentic.
Goats and sheep, on the other hand, are much more widely raised for both milk and meat.
"Guinean" (West African) restaurants are starting to take off in the Anglo-Scottish sphere, filling a niche more or less akin to that of Indian restaurants IOTL. (They're not common, but they're much less rare than Indian restaurants were in OTL Britain ca. 1930.)
Soft drinks are familiar, and most are homemade. Soft drinks made with kola nuts are specifically Anglo-Scottish, and lost their global market during the Thousand Days. Soft drinks with cocaine, on the other hand, are available almost everywhere.

Their & Our Timeline

Phrases like "the real world" and "what actually happened" are complex and often confusing when used in alternate history. Andalusada, which is at least slightly metafictional, makes them even less useful. Thus, I'm borrowing two acronyms from AH.com.
(I)TTL stands for "(in) This/Their Timeline" - the world where Andalusada is history.
(I)OTL, by contrast, stands for "(in) Our Timeline" - the one where Andalusada began as a speculative alternate history and ends as a dieselpulp campaign setting.