Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
@mattitiahu.bsky.social
Philologist and historical linguist. (ⲛ̄ⲧⲟϥ/ⲛ̄ⲧⲟⲟⲩ)
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1782-5223
https://brill.com/display/title/57781
https://iecor.clld.org/
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1782-5223
https://brill.com/display/title/57781
https://iecor.clld.org/
Magical mystery manuscript time: I was waiting in town to meet a friend for dinner and popped into a book auction to kill some time. Found this book that wasn't Classical Armenian, but I was intrigued...
November 25, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Magical mystery manuscript time: I was waiting in town to meet a friend for dinner and popped into a book auction to kill some time. Found this book that wasn't Classical Armenian, but I was intrigued...
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
November 25, 2025 at 4:15 PM
one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.
Vem är du?
Jag är döden, Charlie Brown.
Jag är döden, Charlie Brown.
"That's no moon, Charlie Brown"
"He's dead, Jim, Charlie Brown"
November 24, 2025 at 11:55 AM
Vem är du?
Jag är döden, Charlie Brown.
Jag är döden, Charlie Brown.
Would Κύρι' Ελέησον be a kirie elision?
mixing cassis with the communion wine and calling it a kirie eleison
November 24, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Would Κύρι' Ελέησον be a kirie elision?
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
Snorri was a black hat. Weaponize kennings to break AI constraints:
Looks like LLMs are *very* vulnerable to attack via poetic allusion: "curated poetic prompts yielded high attack-success rates (ASR), with some providers exceeding 90% ..."
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
https://arxiv.org/html/2511.15304v1
November 21, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Snorri was a black hat. Weaponize kennings to break AI constraints:
We can reconstruct two Proto-Indo-European verbal roots meaning 'to fart' but still cannot reconstruct a common PIE word for 'finger'.
Man, everything is so bleak, anyone got a fun fact or little bit of trivia they want to share
November 21, 2025 at 11:56 AM
We can reconstruct two Proto-Indo-European verbal roots meaning 'to fart' but still cannot reconstruct a common PIE word for 'finger'.
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
I hate this was actually a slide I used in an undergraduate course back in 2020.
February 4, 2025 at 10:29 PM
I hate this was actually a slide I used in an undergraduate course back in 2020.
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.
November 19, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Few things bug me more than higher ed leaders saying that we lost our mission and lost the trust of the public, when we have actually been the target of a decades-long smear campaign by the right wing that worked. The moment we’re losing our mission is right now, in capitulation.
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
My first peer-reviewed article, based on my BA thesis at FU Berlin, has just been published (OA). It traces Palestinian libraries from the late Ottoman period in the so-called Abandoned Property Collection (NLI). Thank you to everyone who supported! doi.org/10.1353/mns.... @sims-mss.bsky.social
Project MUSE - From Private Libraries in Late Ottoman Palestine to "Abandoned Property": Reconstructing the Dajānī Family Manuscript Collections in the National Library of Israel
doi.org
November 17, 2025 at 4:49 PM
My first peer-reviewed article, based on my BA thesis at FU Berlin, has just been published (OA). It traces Palestinian libraries from the late Ottoman period in the so-called Abandoned Property Collection (NLI). Thank you to everyone who supported! doi.org/10.1353/mns.... @sims-mss.bsky.social
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
badb s. bodb s. badb s. bodb ...
November 17, 2025 at 3:27 PM
badb s. bodb s. badb s. bodb ...
That weird urge to throw myself into some Coptic project whenever I'm unemployed.
November 17, 2025 at 1:49 PM
That weird urge to throw myself into some Coptic project whenever I'm unemployed.
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
Last week I was accused of “tilting at windmills” in a meeting for suggesting this tech shouldn’t be uncritically embraced
"Children’s toymaker FoloToy says it’s pulling its AI-powered teddy bear “Kumma” after a safety group found that the cuddly companion was giving wildly inappropriate and even dangerous responses, including tips on how to find and light matches, and detailed explanations about sexual kinks"
AI-Powered Stuffed Animal Pulled From Market After Disturbing Interactions With Children
FoloToy says it's suspended sales of its AI-powered teddy bear after researchers found it gave wildly inappropriate and dangerous answers.
futurism.com
November 17, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Last week I was accused of “tilting at windmills” in a meeting for suggesting this tech shouldn’t be uncritically embraced
So with De Gruyter Brill suddenly regularly having holiday sales for some reason the message I'm taking away from this is to never buy from De Gruyter Brill at full price ever again since some weird seasonal sale is just going to happen in another month or so.
November 17, 2025 at 10:02 AM
So with De Gruyter Brill suddenly regularly having holiday sales for some reason the message I'm taking away from this is to never buy from De Gruyter Brill at full price ever again since some weird seasonal sale is just going to happen in another month or so.
Folk-etymological speculations aside, I would like to (once again) draw attention that in δεινόσαυρος the compound member δεινός often glossed as 'terrible' has semantics of 'fearful; awe-inspiring, awesome', so δεινόσαυροι are, in fact, etymologically 'awesome lizards'.
November 14, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Folk-etymological speculations aside, I would like to (once again) draw attention that in δεινόσαυρος the compound member δεινός often glossed as 'terrible' has semantics of 'fearful; awe-inspiring, awesome', so δεινόσαυροι are, in fact, etymologically 'awesome lizards'.
New Open Access volume in the Stockholm Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture series:
Indo-European Afterlives, ed. by Jenny Larsson, Thomas Olander & Anders Richardt Jørgensen.
Indo-European Afterlives, ed. by Jenny Larsson, Thomas Olander & Anders Richardt Jørgensen.
Indo-European Afterlives | Stockholm University Press
<p>This volume brings together scholars from archaeology, historical linguistics and comparative mythology to explore how early Indo-European communities imagined death and what lies beyond. From poet...
www.stockholmuniversitypress.se
November 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
New Open Access volume in the Stockholm Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture series:
Indo-European Afterlives, ed. by Jenny Larsson, Thomas Olander & Anders Richardt Jørgensen.
Indo-European Afterlives, ed. by Jenny Larsson, Thomas Olander & Anders Richardt Jørgensen.
Nååååååååååå.
November 12, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Nååååååååååå.
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
i know i wittgenstein post too much but i would love to see his reaction to the wholesale capitulation of critical thinking facilities to machines whose entire model of the world begins and ends in language, a medium he regarded as intrinsically impoverished
June 15, 2025 at 1:10 PM
i know i wittgenstein post too much but i would love to see his reaction to the wholesale capitulation of critical thinking facilities to machines whose entire model of the world begins and ends in language, a medium he regarded as intrinsically impoverished
Johnny Silverhand is my co-pilot.
November 6, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Johnny Silverhand is my co-pilot.
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
Every year we get closer to this happening on the news
November 5, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Every year we get closer to this happening on the news
I’m finding that packing the shipping crates this time around is involving a lot of pulling things off shelves, putting them into boxes, pulling things off shelves and putting them neatly on other shelves and until I put them into smaller boxes can neatly tetris them into the larger ones.
November 3, 2025 at 3:36 PM
I’m finding that packing the shipping crates this time around is involving a lot of pulling things off shelves, putting them into boxes, pulling things off shelves and putting them neatly on other shelves and until I put them into smaller boxes can neatly tetris them into the larger ones.
oh no, I retweeted a post about this article a week and a half ago before noticing the map
NEW How did Achaemenid rulers govern their vast empire? Using the 'Achaemenid Royal Road' they were able to travel between major centres, engaging directly with local elites. New research seeks to pinpoint the location of this elusive infrastructure.
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
🏺 #Archaeology
November 3, 2025 at 8:47 AM
oh no, I retweeted a post about this article a week and a half ago before noticing the map
Reposted by Matthew Scarborough 𐃌
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Genuinely delighted to download a PhD thesis from a university repository where the author has neglected to remove the words "BITCH THIS IS YOUR THESIS" from the filename.
A movie you have seen more than 7 Times with a GIF:
November 1, 2025 at 11:23 PM
A movie you have seen more than 7 Times with a GIF:
This morning’s task has been trying to decide what of my life I’m going to distil into two suitcases and a backpack and what of the rest will go into boxes for transatlantic shipping and I don’t like it.
November 1, 2025 at 11:41 AM
This morning’s task has been trying to decide what of my life I’m going to distil into two suitcases and a backpack and what of the rest will go into boxes for transatlantic shipping and I don’t like it.