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 howeverContinue reading “Two Other Ways to Refer to the Arabic Language”
Tag Archives: foreign language
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 secondContinue reading “The Sabaic Language and a Much Awaited Deadline”
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 guessContinue reading “Resource: Recorded Lectures from a Palestinian University”
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 fewContinue reading “Arabic-Turkish Observations: Imprinting”
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’tContinue reading “Travelling and Teaching as an Anxious Introvert”
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—butContinue reading “Andalusi Arabic: to Revive or Not to Revive?”
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 expressionContinue reading “One-Letter Imperatives in Arabic”
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 toContinue reading “Post-Sleep Linguistic Observations and Finds”
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 alsoContinue reading “Arabic Observations: Another Collection of Word Twins”
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 analyseContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: Struggling to Connect”
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 getContinue reading “Night-time Ramblings of an Arabic PhD Student”
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 recentlyContinue reading “Arabic-Akkadian Observations: talmīd, تِلميذ, and a Lost Root”
Fixed-Form Passive Participles with Prepositions
شَرْح root: ش-ر-ح / form I verbal noun / definition: explanation One of my classmates, a while back, asked me if I could clarify the grammar of the phrase غير المُبلَغ عنه, which translates as “unreported”. We’ve talked before about the different meanings of غَير—here, it gives the word its un- prefix in English, soContinue reading “Fixed-Form Passive Participles with Prepositions”
Delving into لَلأَسَف
اِكفِهْرار root: ك-ف-ه-ر / form IV quadriliteral verbal noun / definition: gloom It’s mid-November and my winter blues are bursting vibrantly into full swing. I sort of feel like I’m in a gloomy room with a heartbroken flamenco dancer who keeps passionately swishing her black skirt in my face whilst I’m trying to draft anContinue reading “Delving into لَلأَسَف”
Dictionary Finds: عَطَن
جَمَل root: ج-م-ل / noun / plural: جِمال / definition: camel I didn’t realise it’d been so long since our last proper Dictionary Finds post, especially as I’m always adding to the list of intriguing vocabulary I’ve stumbled upon whilst consulting the dictionary for one reason or another. So today I’ve chosen a word fromContinue reading “Dictionary Finds: عَطَن”
Reading Arabic Literature: يالنجي and يبرق
طَبَق root: ط-ب-ق / noun / plural: أَطباق / definition: dish Hearing about the sudden passing of the Syrian novelist Khaled Khalifa a few weeks ago, I was overcome by an unexpected grief. I was still, at the time, partway through reading his novel, لا سكاكين في مطابخ هذه المدينة. I guess you feel aContinue reading “Reading Arabic Literature: يالنجي and يبرق”
Arabic and Akkadian Case Endings
إعْراب root: ع-ر-ب / form IV verbal noun / definition: inflection Thanks to an unexpected but very welcome email from one of my Akkadian teachers I met during my summer course, I’m happily resuming my Akkadian language studies this week! I wrote about some of the Arabic-Akkadian lexical similarities I noticed back in July, butContinue reading “Arabic and Akkadian Case Endings”
The Exclamation of Lament
أَسَف root: ء-س-ف / noun / definition: grief We’re all familiar with the vocative particle (حَرف نِداء) that is يا, which we use to call on someone. (And you can find another use of يا explained in the comments under Wehr Wednesdays #174…) But how many of us have heard of the particle وا, whichContinue reading “The Exclamation of Lament”
Resource: Palestinian Literature Arabic Podcast
تَضاؤُل root: ض-ء-ل / form VI verbal noun / definition: waning It’s an unseasonably warm evening here in London and I’m feeling grateful for this flare of heat that’s allaying the melancholy that inevitably arises from the waning of summer. But with my graduate school inductions beginning in less than two weeks, I sit hereContinue reading “Resource: Palestinian Literature Arabic Podcast”
Arabic-Turkish Observations: the Mediterranean Sea
أَبيَض root: ب-ي-ض / adjective / definition: white Anyone who knows both Turkish and Arabic might have realised that the terms for the Mediterranean Sea in both languages include the word “white”: we have Akdeniz in Turkish, and البحر الأبيض المتوسّط in Arabic. But the reasons this sea is described as “white” in these twoContinue reading “Arabic-Turkish Observations: the Mediterranean Sea”
The Arabic Pages 