Andalusi Arabic: to Revive or Not to Revive?

إحْياء

root: ح-ي-و / form IV verbal noun / definition: revival

Every so often and very suddenly, a linguist (and I’m specifically talking about myself) gets ludicrously preoccupied with researching an extinct language or dialect and dreamily sketches out a grandiose plan to revive it… which, of course, firstly includes learning it.

It’s partly delusion—but honestly, some of my delusions do come into fruition, so I err on the side of optimism and add another linguistic revival to my to-do list (after Göktürk and Akkadian). Because why shouldn’t I.

*Cue my procrastinated PhD work breaking the surface for breath from the depths of forced oblivion, gasping desperately for any attention whatsoever.*

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One-Letter Imperatives in Arabic

أَناقة

root: ء-ن-ق / noun / definition: elegance, grace

Modelling is tough work, I thought as I posed as a muse for my photographer friend who was practising using her new camera. And by posing, what I mean is that I was walking through Central London in the evening at 0.25x speed with an expression of pseudo-fascination and banking on the 1 in 360 chance that she’ll capture my good angle.

I accidentally flung a lid across a busy shop whilst I was testing out my hand modelling skills by “elegantly” opening a tin of tea leaves. Have some decorum, I whispered to myself—I’m just not sure I possess the grace that the job calls for.

Anyway.

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Post-Sleep Linguistic Observations and Finds

عَشْوائي

root: ع-ش-و / adjective / definition: random

I was introduced to the beauty of Babylonian names in a recent Akkadian class and have grown mildly obsessed with the idea of naming my future child (or pet… perhaps a terrapin) with something like May I See Your Light in Akkadian, which I might have to shorten down to Nūrka if I don’t want the aforementioned child/terrapin to hate me.

Babylonian names are really interesting, though, and you can find names that are full sentences or even questions. Everyone should read about them.

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Arabic Words for “Perhaps”

أَمَل

root: ء-م-ل / noun / plural: آمال / definition: hope

I’ve been feeling a sense of peace recently that had remained elusive for a while. Or maybe I mean a sense of relief. Perhaps it’s to do with the fact that some internal pressure has been lifted, and my mind isn’t beating me up so bad to force me into thinking and feeling.

I could sit here and find multiple perhaps‘, but I’d rather write a post about some Arabic words for “perhaps”. And I’m sure you’d much rather read that too. Perhaps.

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Arabic Observations: Another Collection of Word Twins

مَجْموعة

root: ج-م-ع / noun / plural: مَجموعات / definition: collection, group

In Akkadian class last week, we learnt that mut (“husband”) plus the possessive pronoun suffix –ša (“her”) join to form mussa, in a phonological process triggered when the š finds itself snuggled up next to a dental or sibilant phoneme. Our teacher also reminded us not to confuse mut with mūt (“death”, مَوت).

Anyhow—I’ll hold back on the Akkadian vocabulary for now, because in this post, I wanted to share some more Arabic word twins I’ve discovered during my dictionary perusals.

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Reading Arabic Literature: Struggling to Connect

جَهْد

root: ج-ه-د / noun / plural: جُهود / definition: effort, struggle

Procrastination is an odd thing. You see, I’ve been busy with the academic reading I need to get through in order to write my PhD literature review, but I’ve partially busied myself with that because reading the second novel I’m supposed to analyse has been a struggle.

And the struggle isn’t because of the language—I think I’m just finding it harder to connect with the story and characters, so I haven’t really got into a flow with it.

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Five Dual Nouns Meaning “the Sun and the Moon”

قَمَر

root: ق-م-ر / noun / plural: أَقمار / definition: moon, satellite

We usually use dual nouns in Arabic to refer to two of the same thing. Like يَومان, “two days”, and مَكتَبَتان, “two libraries”. But sometimes, the dual is used to refer to two things that are usually mentioned together—like the Sun and the Moon.

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Miscellaneous Advanced Phrases for Arabic Essays

مُتَفَرِّقات

root:ف-ر-ق / plural noun / definition: miscellaneous things

For the first time since my undergraduate degree and during this break from teaching, I’m really experiencing the full joy of studying again. And that document of notes I mentioned in Night-time Ramblings of an Arabic PhD Student? Well, it’s now got over 20 thousand words and an expanding reading list at the bottom.

I’m well aware that I need to actually start collating the information and my thoughts into some sort of structure pretty soon. But let a girl read, you know?

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Night-time Ramblings of an Arabic PhD Student

إنتاجيّة

root: ن-ت-ج / noun / definition: productivity

Ten thousand words. Of notes.

I think it was easier to understand that one A-Level Physics class I had when my teacher was explaining how light moves, yes, in straight lines but, oh no, it actually takes every possible route to reach anything (I still don’t get it) than it is to understand how I’ve so far written ten thousand words of notes from reading only a handful of sources for my PhD literature review.

And that’s just the reading to address bullet point #1 of section 1 of 10. Which is technically just a historical overview before I get into the juicy stuff. But history is long, I guess.

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Arabic-Akkadian Observations: talmīd, تِلميذ, and a Lost Root

مَهرَقان

root: ه-ر-ق / noun / definition: ocean, related to “spill”

Yesterday, the two writing prompts my friend messaged me triggered a flood—okay, more like a small spill—of creativity. Inspiration at last! (“This could be a line in a novel,” she said, “Save the sentence”!)

And something else, a certain Akkadian word, inspired me recently and triggered a dictionary dive. I previously wrote about some Akkadian words that are very similar to their Arabic equivalents, but this one definitely needs a deeper look.

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