Search found 84 matches
- Sat Jul 26, 2014 4:28 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Triconsonantal roots and allophony
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5156
Re: Triconsonantal roots and allophony
Generally, I think there are different interpretations of what triconsonantal roots are, either as convenient fictions (basically invented by the Arab grammarians/lexicographers as a way to organize dictionaries and, later, analyze derivational morphology - note also that grammatical traditions in ...
- Sat Jul 26, 2014 12:03 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Triconsonantal roots and allophony
- Replies: 23
- Views: 5156
Re: Triconsonantal roots and allophony
Generally, I think there are different interpretations of what triconsonantal roots are, either as convenient fictions (basically invented by the Arab grammarians/lexicographers as a way to organize dictionaries and, later, analyze derivational morphology - note also that grammatical traditions in H...
- Tue Jul 09, 2013 6:48 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: How to stop fucking up triconsonantal languages for novices
- Replies: 21
- Views: 8028
Re: How to stop fucking up triconsonantal languages for novi
You will even find in grammars of Hebrew the warning that the meaning of a given word is not always predictable from its root and pattern. I'll grant you the rest but this one is surely true of Arabic too. Like وقع 'happen' in form I which is وقع 'to sign' in II, how is that predictable? Unless it'...
- Mon Jul 08, 2013 5:00 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: How to stop fucking up triconsonantal languages for novices
- Replies: 21
- Views: 8028
Re: How to stop fucking up triconsonantal languages for novi
All Semitic languages make considerable use of discontinuous morphology - Arabic in particular, but Hebrew and Aramaic too. How do Hebrew and Aramaic make less use of it than Arabic? The Arabic grammatical tradition, or naḥw, is a massive one, directly comparable in pre-modern times to perhaps vyāk...
- Sat Mar 16, 2013 4:07 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Classical Persian translation
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1877
Re: Classical Persian translation
Wow, I wasn't ever expecting a response to this. Well, first of all, the thesis project that this translation/analysis was for was shelved (the subject ended up being too controversial at my uni in Cairo), so I ended up doing something else and didn't finish this translation. I'm planning to revive ...
- Tue Feb 26, 2013 12:13 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Lessons in Palestinian Arabic: Now on Lesson 2
- Replies: 26
- Views: 5640
Re: Lessons in Palestinian Arabic: Please review transcripti
mutreb “one singer” --> mutrebîn “singers” muTreb, from مطرب. مترب means "dusty." SAgîr (ᵉZgîr) – small; young (people) kabîr – big; old (people) Are you sure? The reason I ask is that in Lebanese and Syrian, these are respectively /zGi:r/ and /kbi:r~k@bi:r/, since short vowels in these dialects te...
- Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:48 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: How do languages deal with distinctions like watch/see?
- Replies: 41
- Views: 8838
Re: How do languages deal with distinctions like watch/see?
Actually, for a very significant number of my students, it is. A lot of my students speak their language at home and at work, and even when going shopping here. I had a Thai student who asked me why he wasn't improving. He was living with other Thais, worked in a Thai restaurant and, when he came t...
- Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:31 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: How do languages deal with distinctions like watch/see?
- Replies: 41
- Views: 8838
Re: How do languages deal with distinctions like watch/see?
Arabic can use سَمَع samaʿa for both 'listen' and 'hear' and the same may apply to other form I verbs of sense, but a derived form with -t- (استمع istamaʿa) only has a volitive meaning. Often the prefix ista- can give a volitive sense, too - استنظر istanẓara means 'look out for, look forward to, wa...
- Sun Sep 09, 2012 6:12 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Moroccan Arabic and deshi basara
- Replies: 2
- Views: 3504
Re: Moroccan Arabic and deshi basara
The verb and adverb phrase are both AFAIK used in Moroccan, at least based on what I've heard of my Moroccan co-worker saying. I would assume it's /tajʒi bsrʕa/~/tsajʒi bsrʕa for "he rises" ( /ta-/ is a progressive marker similar to /b-/ in Egyptian). However, the pronunciation in the film is so hor...
- Thu Jan 05, 2012 12:46 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Looking for a natlang word for arts+technique
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2164
Re: Looking for a natlang word for arts+technique
In Arabic, this is covered by فنّ /fan:/. Nowadays, it's usually used in the sense of aesthetic arts, like painting, cinema, etc. However, classically, it covers a wide range of semantic fields, and can mean "art (aesthetic), discipline, craft, technique, science, etc." علم /?\ilm/ has a similar ran...
- Tue Dec 27, 2011 1:14 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
- Replies: 144
- Views: 20384
Re: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
I agree. Hebrew phonology got all the fun sucked out of it, but I guess that's just a side-effect of the language revival process. Too bad it's rather late in the process to make a statement and reintroduce all the lost consonants. I wonder, though, if the process of losing pharyngeals and pharynge...
- Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:26 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
- Replies: 144
- Views: 20384
Re: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
Do you speak Hebrew? "Speak" is a overstatement; I can read/understand it decently, albeit as I said before, I can barely understand spoken Modern Hebrew because of all the mergers; I learned Arabic first, which makes recognizing cognates easier to the least in writing. In speech though, it's extre...
- Fri Dec 09, 2011 9:19 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
- Replies: 144
- Views: 20384
Re: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
The way I see it, if I have learned after much struggle to pronounce ح and ع and ط,and ق, I'm certainly going to pronounce their Hebrew counterparts that way (ח and ע and ט and ק) no matter how antique and rural I may sound. If I'm reading something to myself, I use a Mizrahi accent. Not if I'm ac...
- Thu Dec 08, 2011 9:15 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
- Replies: 144
- Views: 20384
Re: Terrible attempts by English speakers at foreign tongues
What’s wrong with using a Mizrahi pronunciation? AFAIK, most Israelis seem to find it rustic or rural, so yes, I'd say the comparison with a Texas accent for Americans is spot-on. Sad though, because I despise the Ashkenazi/Sephari hybrid thing that is Israeli Hebrew standard pronunciation, but it'...
- Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:26 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
- Replies: 71
- Views: 11713
Re: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
Would the Arabic sh-t-y root be a cognate of Hebrew sh-t-h drink ? I tend to think not. Hebrew שׁ /S/ is generally cognate to Arabic س /s/ (which is a merging of PS */s/~/ts/ and /S/~/s/). Arabic ش /S/ results from PS */K/, which gives Hebrew שׂ /s/</K/, i.e. Arabic شعر /Sa?\r/ "hair," Biblical Heb...
- Sun Nov 27, 2011 3:47 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
- Replies: 71
- Views: 11713
Re: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
In Arabic you also get a verb and a noun from the same root: أمطرت ʔamṭarat (I've no idea why it's always in the feminine) 'to rain', مطر maṭar 'rain' (masculine gender, plural أمطار ʔamṭār). Most likely because there's an omitted pleonastic subject which is feminine i.e. this shows up in Egyptian ...
- Wed Oct 26, 2011 10:45 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Question about Arabic
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2297
Re: Question about Arabic
transforming the biconsonantal into the triconsonantal by analyzing /u:/ as /w/; i.e. probably something like /su:d/ But here you're contradicting Mecislau in that you're saying the root was indeed reanalyzed as a triconsonantal root s-w-d- :wink: Not at all; I think you're misunderstanding my post...
- Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:19 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Question about Arabic
- Replies: 8
- Views: 2297
Re: Question about Arabic
It seems reasonable to assume that Saudi , Aswad , and Sudan are all formed from the same triliteral S-W-D. But if that is indeed the case, what is the pattern for Sudan ? The first two are clearly CaCCi and aCCaC, but Sudan requires CCCan, and I don't think Arabic permits three consonants in a row...
- Sun Oct 16, 2011 11:55 am
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
- Replies: 71
- Views: 11713
Re: Rain (n) Rain (vb) ~ Different Languages...?
Now, obviously English has no problem using the same word as either a noun or a verb. Likewise, I know Spanish does this (albeit with the relevant verby or noun changes: llover vs. lluvia, rained raining etc. But what other options are commonly used? What relevant "verby or noun changes"? There's n...
- Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:08 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: ZBB member photos, part 5. (Something for the weekend, sir?)
- Replies: 5496
- Views: 774166
Re: ZBB member photos, part 5. (save the exhibitionism threa
Anyway, if I feel like telling someone I think they look good, then I will. It's just really hypocritical of you to get bitchy with jal when you have done more to sexualize this thread than anyone else. God, what is it with all the threads on this board lately being either about sexual harassment o...
- Sun Oct 02, 2011 10:37 am
- Forum: Almea
- Topic: "When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware ..."
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4865
Re: "When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware ..
It's hard to know what Laozi thought about things - in large part because he's a mythical figure with little or no relevence to actual Taoism: he probably didn't exist (except perhaps as the teacher of Confucius), if he did exist he certainly didn't write the Daodejing or directly influence its wri...
- Fri Sep 23, 2011 10:44 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: French and Arabic indefinites
- Replies: 12
- Views: 2352
Re: French and Arabic indefinites
Our Arabic teacher today said he once attended a talk by a linguist (?) claiming that Arabic indefinite "nunated" endings have had an influence on the development of un/une in French. Is there any evidence for it either way? I'd instinctively distrust any such claims, but maybe there's some proper ...
- Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:01 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: What are you listening to? -- Non-English Edition
- Replies: 1735
- Views: 356194
Re: What are you listening to? -- Non-English Edition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3cpFCJpuxM ويلي (wayli - "my pain/trouble") from Mohamed Mounir. The words are very simple, but nice, and I love his voice! אמא, אבא וכל השאר - Ima, Aba Vechol Hash'ar Written by fallen Israeli soldier Reuven Politi and composed by Idan Raichel. I really like Idan Ra...
- Tue Aug 30, 2011 5:58 pm
- Forum: None of the above
- Topic: What are you listening to? -- Non-English Edition
- Replies: 1735
- Views: 356194
Re: What are you listening to? -- Non-English Edition
Rose - Zazie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX75XpaQHcE
This is the song that introduced me to Zazie; the film the song's from is really good too IMO.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX75XpaQHcE
This is the song that introduced me to Zazie; the film the song's from is really good too IMO.
- Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:30 pm
- Forum: Languages & Linguistics
- Topic: to teach vs. to learn
- Replies: 42
- Views: 8656
Re: to teach vs. to learn
/ʕal:ama/ is an "intensive" derivational form, loosely, "make [s.o.] known," Analyzing it as a causative works better: "to make sb know sth" (علّم فلانا شيئا), and from there "to make sth known" (علّم شيئا). I don't think it's intensive in the same way that كسّر 'to smash sth to little pieces' is i...