Dictionary Finds: a Spelling Mistake

إمْلاء

root: م-ل-ء / form IV verbal noun / definition: spelling, filling out

After I submitted my first-year PhD work last week, I had two days of conducting students’ oral exams followed by an unplanned overnight stay, then a wedding, then a Saturday outing and a Sunday (today) of ticking things off my to-do list.

It seems as though this coming week is going to get even busier as I realised today that I misread (i.e. didn’t read at all) an important form, and now I have four weekdays—thanks to the Bank Holiday—before I travel to sort things out before the deadline.

Someone once pointed out that I hyperfixate on irrelevant things when I’m stressed, and perhaps that’s why my mind won’t let go of something that I noticed in the dictionary…

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Two Other Ways to Refer to the Arabic Language

يَقْطين

root: ق-ط-ن / noun / definition: pumpkin

Somehow, and I really don’t know how, I managed to submit my PhD work earlier today despite it not being due until mid next week. I really thought I’d be last-minuting it on Wednesday until the midnight clock struck and I’d turn into a pumpkin… or however that story goes.

I’m grateful for my Friday meet-up in a café that’s become all too familiar which rendered the rest of the day unproductive, because it clearly motivated me to get things done this weekend. (Thanks for the coffee.)

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Case Endings on the Alif Maqsoora (ى)

مَقْصور

root: ق-ص-ر / form I passive participle / definition: limited, shortened

I’ve been thinking recently about this blog. Well, of course I have—I’ve been writing posts twice a week, every week, for four-and-a-half years now—I can’t think of a way not to think about it.

But I guess my dedication to writing here does surprise me every now and then, seeing as I’ve unceremoniously abandoned many a plan and project over the years. But this is all very ceremonious. Our twice-weekly meetings here on this blog, I mean.

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The Sabaic Language and a Much Awaited Deadline

إعادة التَّأطير

root: ع-و-د and ء-ط-ر / phrase / definition: reframing

Solitudinous sahoors and attempts at staying up as late as I can handle in my mid-twenties (my failings in which remind me I’m well past my teen years) have been left behind in Ramadan, and my PhD chapter that I abandoned in the second half of the month awaits me with a blinking cursor and more work to do on it than I remember.

Somehow, the video I keep rewatching of a baby goat bleating at a closed door has me thinking “relatable” and I’m not sure I can piece together why. Except for the fact that—perhaps—I’ve been feeling stuck, with a deadline ahead of me and the bleats of panic emanating from the recesses of my soul.

(Side note: we looked at an Arabic phrase for “recesses of the soul” in Wehr Wednesdays #223!)

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Three Arabic Verbs for “to Announce”

إِعْلان

root: ع-ل-ن / noun / plural: إعْلانات / definition: announcement, declaration

There’s a lot on my mind as we approach the end of Ramadan, and I’m faced with some decisions that I didn’t expect to have to make. Decisions that will impact the course of my studies—and life in general—for at least the next year.

I can’t seem to escape the back-and-forths of the mind that I’m a spectator to, and now that I’ve said that, I can’t get the intro of that Enrique Iglesias song I was obsessed with in my childhood out of my head. If you know, you know.

Enrique knows.

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Resource: Recorded Lectures from a Palestinian University

مُسَجَّل

root: س-ج-ل / adjective, form II passive participle / definition: recorded

When you’ve written hundreds of posts like I have on this blog, you start to forget what you have and haven’t posted about.

And I was half-certain I’d mentioned this resource before on here, but—after a few seconds with the search box—I guess I was wrong. So, good news: I have an amazing resource to share!

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Arabic-Turkish Observations: Imprinting

بَصْمَة

root: ب-ص-م / noun / plural: بَصَمات / definition: imprint, impression

This will probably be the last post I write on this laptop of mine, which has been slowly spiriting away in recent times after having survived with me through the second half of the pandemic, a remote job, a master’s degree, a few falls (just the laptop, not me), the start of my PhD, and however many blog posts I’ve typed out on its keyboard—clinging on despite the hundreds of tabs I’ve kept open for years (literally…) which may or may not have contributed significantly to its demise.

So, new starts and all that. I’ve just been playing a memory game today trying to remember all the passwords I need to re-log in to all the tabs on my new device. It’s almost like I should write them down or something.

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Using إيّا and an Object Pronoun

مُقابَلة

root: ق-ب-ل / noun / plural: مُقابَلات / definition: interview

I woke up very early on Monday morning to a sprawling breakout across my forehead and scratches across my chest that weren’t there the night before—two signs telling me I was stressed. Not that I didn’t know it, because I had a 7:30am interview (in Arabic, which adds to it) that I wasn’t prepared for.

But it went well, I think. The breakout and scratches are still healing though.

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Five Arabic Words Meaning “Nightmare”

فَوْضى

root: ف-و-ض / noun / definition: chaos

I’ve just emailed a wonderfully chaotic draft of a PhD chapter to my supervisor who, if he’s reading this post, might scoff at the word “wonderfully” coming anywhere near the mention of that calamitous document—the second half of which is a roaring pandemonium of red font and fragmented thoughts written in shorthand.

I’m half-scared that I’ve left something embarrassing in the mess at the end, like some lines from one of the unserious poems my friend and I compose on the train home sometimes, or my to-do list which always seems to have “laundry” at the top and more questionable things at the bottom.

Well, a draft’s a draft, isn’t it?

Oh, and رمضان مبارك!

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Travelling and Teaching as an Anxious Introvert

قَلَق

root: ق-ل-ق / noun / definition: anxiety

I just returned last night from my second solo trip—this time: a week in Qatar. I’m often surprised, being that I’m a habitually-anxious introvert, that I can force myself out of my comfort zone far enough that I actually find peace in that space beyond.

“Why aren’t I even nervous?” I asked my mum right before I left, and I think that maybe with time—and age—that comfort zone starts getting a little too boring, and the most anxiety-inducing thing is the thought of being stuck there for a lifetime.

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