@quietstuff.bsky.social
Pinned
semitic linguistics bonanza
root of "name" in arabic; god of the hebrew bible and all that; daughter 🦇; roman jewish guy that proposed a bunch of nations descended from 35 down; farming thing with a bajillion names. baydar, ʔand...
crosshare.org
i made a crossword this year 🫡 i don't think it's solvable but it should be fun
the south lebanese village of zrarieh was basically the same as my family's ~nearby village during jussi aro's visit from finland in the 1970s (basically the same generation of speakers as those i learned arabic from)
November 12, 2025 at 3:33 AM
the south lebanese village of zrarieh was basically the same as my family's ~nearby village during jussi aro's visit from finland in the 1970s (basically the same generation of speakers as those i learned arabic from)
Reposted
respectful, euphemistic terms of address from tripoli 1954 (altho due to the subject matter probably found across lebanon)
ḥåḍərtak حضْرتك, "your presence": to anyone
janǟbak جنابك, "your sides (kinda)/vicinity?": to anyone
saɛå̄ttak سعادتك, "your happiness": to a bey, pasha, or high-ranking official
ḥåḍərtak حضْرتك, "your presence": to anyone
janǟbak جنابك, "your sides (kinda)/vicinity?": to anyone
saɛå̄ttak سعادتك, "your happiness": to a bey, pasha, or high-ranking official
November 10, 2025 at 4:54 AM
respectful, euphemistic terms of address from tripoli 1954 (altho due to the subject matter probably found across lebanon)
ḥåḍərtak حضْرتك, "your presence": to anyone
janǟbak جنابك, "your sides (kinda)/vicinity?": to anyone
saɛå̄ttak سعادتك, "your happiness": to a bey, pasha, or high-ranking official
ḥåḍərtak حضْرتك, "your presence": to anyone
janǟbak جنابك, "your sides (kinda)/vicinity?": to anyone
saɛå̄ttak سعادتك, "your happiness": to a bey, pasha, or high-ranking official
the word اللي lli, usually a relativizer (الزلمة اللي هون l-zalame lli hōn "the man that's here"), has a weird alternate usage: منيح اللي جيت mnīḥ lli jīt "good that you came"
i was proud of the og idea in the 2nd pic - BUT what prob actually happened (3rd pic) is so cool
(forgive clunky writing!)
i was proud of the og idea in the 2nd pic - BUT what prob actually happened (3rd pic) is so cool
(forgive clunky writing!)
![screenshot of the following wiktionary etymology with a mythbusters sorta "BUSTED" stamp overlaid on top:
Etymology 2:
Difficult to understand as an extension of the above [i.e. the relativizer اللي] due to the differences in syntax. Instead, perhaps a construction like *مْلِيح إِن (*mlīḥ ʔin, literally “good that”) underwent assimilation to become *مْلِيح ال (*mlīḥ (ʔ)il, “good that”), where the resulting *ال (*(ʔ)il) was reanalyzed as اللي (lli)'s byform ال (l-). This reanalysis would have allowed all other byforms, including اللي (lli) itself, to be used in this construction. Only later would the construction have spread to allow for adjectives other than مْلِيح (mlīḥ, “good”) as described in the usage note below.
Both terms of the proposed original *مْلِيح إِن (*mlīḥ ʔin, literally “good that”) are now unorthodox: مْلِيح (mlīḥ) is an archaic or rural form of what is now predominantly مْنِيح (mnīḥ, “good”), and a bare إِنْ (ʔin, “that”, complementizer) is absent from most Levantine varieties today in favor of a form with a fused expletive pronoun, إِنُّو (ʔinno). This reanalysis would have occurred before both of these terms fell from prominence. (Note, however, that Henri Fleisch recorded multiple Lebanese varieties that retained forms like إِنْ (ʔin) in his 1946–1974 studies of Lebanese Arabic.)
An alternative possibility is that the original phrase was already *مْنِيح إِن (*mnīḥ ʔin, literally “good that”) and that it shifted to *مْنِيح ال (*mnīḥ (ʔ)il, “good that”) in the process of dissimilation rather than assimilation.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreigj6t6uuvdk2jm2olanmr53vjuxusde2y4uy3iql4rtz23qy6d6sa@jpeg)
![screenshot of wiktionary quotation. the words اللي and illi are highlighted and bolded:
1902, Henry Minor Huxley, “Syrian Songs, Proverbs, and Stories: Collected, Translated, and Annotated”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society[1], volume 23 (overall work in English), Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: American Oriental Society, passage #103, pages 242–244:
الوزير علّم مرة حتّى توقف على الدرب وصارت تسبّ وتقول الحمد للّه اللي مات الشيخ الفاخوري يخرب بيته اللّه يغمّق له عمره ما يرجع. قال لها لو كنت مش ميّت كنت بقوم ليكي.
l-wazīr ʕallam mara ḥatta tūʔaf ʕala d-darb w ṣārit tasibb w tʔūl l-ḥumdilla illi māt š-šayḵ l-fāḵūri yaḵrub baytu ʔaḷḷa yiḡammiʔlu ʕomru ma yərjaʕ. ʔallha law kunt muš mayyit kunt baʔūm layki.
[original: il-wezîr 3allem mara ḥɒtta tûʾaf 3ala'd-derb ū-ṣârit tesibb witʾûl il-ḥomd ílla illī mä̂t iš-šêḫ il-fāḫûrī yaḫrub bêtu ɒlla yiǧɒmmíʾlū 3omrū ma yörja3. ʾallha lau kunt muš mêyit kunt beʾ̂ūm lêki.]
The vizîr instructed a woman to stand on the road; she began to curse and say, "Praise be to God that he who has died is the jar-maker, (who was) an elder. May his house be destroyed; may God make his grave deep, and may his life not return." The jar-maker replied, "Were I not dead, I would rise against you!"
The given English translation is Huxley's. He somewhat misunderstands the expression عُمْرُه مَا يِرْجَع (ʕumro ma yirjaʕ, “may he never return for his entire life”, used this way even though the sheikh is allegedly already dead). It is unknown whether he similarly misunderstood the expression with اللي (lli), which in modern times would be understood as الحمدالله اللي مات الشيخ (l-ḥamdilla lli māt š-šayḵ, “thank God that the sheikh died”), or if it had indeed not yet undergone the reanalysis in question in 1902.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreihjnaws7q4u5yskyfed7pkq62ns3yh5qd57mvde6ghn4tq2clkv6q@jpeg)
November 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
the word اللي lli, usually a relativizer (الزلمة اللي هون l-zalame lli hōn "the man that's here"), has a weird alternate usage: منيح اللي جيت mnīḥ lli jīt "good that you came"
i was proud of the og idea in the 2nd pic - BUT what prob actually happened (3rd pic) is so cool
(forgive clunky writing!)
i was proud of the og idea in the 2nd pic - BUT what prob actually happened (3rd pic) is so cool
(forgive clunky writing!)
if u reduce someone's workload you are literally "cutting out" part of that workload for them how am i supposed to understand the passive voice as the exact opposite 😭
i still understand "has their work cut out for them" as the opposite of what it's supposed to mean and i don't think i'm ever going to be able to get it right
November 9, 2025 at 2:11 AM
if u reduce someone's workload you are literally "cutting out" part of that workload for them how am i supposed to understand the passive voice as the exact opposite 😭
tried to get some work done on the bus and got completely sniped by two ppl sitting somewhere behind me speaking a language that i swear has ʕ and õ# that i can't pick up on anything else from
November 8, 2025 at 11:55 PM
tried to get some work done on the bus and got completely sniped by two ppl sitting somewhere behind me speaking a language that i swear has ʕ and õ# that i can't pick up on anything else from
there's a sort of r-like, *maybe* retroflex pronunciation of d found throughout south lebanon, you can hear it in the vid in the last post
anecdotally i think i've heard it (+ for other voiced coronals) from east leb too
to that point here are fleisch's 1946 notes on zahle… what is dâl niṭʿiyya?
anecdotally i think i've heard it (+ for other voiced coronals) from east leb too
to that point here are fleisch's 1946 notes on zahle… what is dâl niṭʿiyya?
November 8, 2025 at 7:59 PM
there's a sort of r-like, *maybe* retroflex pronunciation of d found throughout south lebanon, you can hear it in the vid in the last post
anecdotally i think i've heard it (+ for other voiced coronals) from east leb too
to that point here are fleisch's 1946 notes on zahle… what is dâl niṭʿiyya?
anecdotally i think i've heard it (+ for other voiced coronals) from east leb too
to that point here are fleisch's 1946 notes on zahle… what is dâl niṭʿiyya?
writers block but i literally just need to finish annotating a paragraph i don't even need to come up with any ideas
November 8, 2025 at 4:43 AM
writers block but i literally just need to finish annotating a paragraph i don't even need to come up with any ideas
here i will yap abt خِتْيَار xityār, خِتْيَارة xityāra, عَجُوز ʕajūz, and عَجُوزِة ʕajūze
1) the most common levantine word for 'old man' is خِتْيَار xityār
it's a resolution of the weird onset of some form like *خْتْيَار *xtyār, from *خْتِيَار *xtiyār, the form that underlies the arabic word اِخْتِيَار ixtiyār 'choice'
1) the most common levantine word for 'old man' is خِتْيَار xityār
it's a resolution of the weird onset of some form like *خْتْيَار *xtyār, from *خْتِيَار *xtiyār, the form that underlies the arabic word اِخْتِيَار ixtiyār 'choice'
November 8, 2025 at 4:30 AM
here i will yap abt خِتْيَار xityār, خِتْيَارة xityāra, عَجُوز ʕajūz, and عَجُوزِة ʕajūze
1) the most common levantine word for 'old man' is خِتْيَار xityār
it's a resolution of the weird onset of some form like *خْتْيَار *xtyār, from *خْتِيَار *xtiyār, the form that underlies the arabic word اِخْتِيَار ixtiyār 'choice'
1) the most common levantine word for 'old man' is خِتْيَار xityār
it's a resolution of the weird onset of some form like *خْتْيَار *xtyār, from *خْتِيَار *xtiyār, the form that underlies the arabic word اِخْتِيَار ixtiyār 'choice'
i read el-hajjé 1954 le parler arabe du tripoli liban (left) first and had insane deja vu the instant i saw nakhla 1937 grammaire du dialecte libano-syrien (right)
el-hajjé does have nakhla in his bibliography so i guess he used him as a guide for this part kinda, the rest of the chapter diverges
el-hajjé does have nakhla in his bibliography so i guess he used him as a guide for this part kinda, the rest of the chapter diverges
November 8, 2025 at 3:18 AM
i read el-hajjé 1954 le parler arabe du tripoli liban (left) first and had insane deja vu the instant i saw nakhla 1937 grammaire du dialecte libano-syrien (right)
el-hajjé does have nakhla in his bibliography so i guess he used him as a guide for this part kinda, the rest of the chapter diverges
el-hajjé does have nakhla in his bibliography so i guess he used him as a guide for this part kinda, the rest of the chapter diverges
Reposted
#Incredible ! There is good evidence that Greek literacy was relatively widespread among the ancient Arabs east of Ḥawrān. Here, our #Safaitic author partially writes out the Safaitic letters in the Greek order, omitting vowels!
Find more on #OCIANA: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...
Find more on #OCIANA: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...
November 5, 2025 at 8:51 AM
#Incredible ! There is good evidence that Greek literacy was relatively widespread among the ancient Arabs east of Ḥawrān. Here, our #Safaitic author partially writes out the Safaitic letters in the Greek order, omitting vowels!
Find more on #OCIANA: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...
Find more on #OCIANA: ociana.osu.edu/inscriptions...
quick map of what's on record for lebanon
does not include survey results (eg from fleisch's inquests or bergstraesser's atlas), nor the one grotzfeld paper with fun facts on bludan & stuff, nor a collection of fleisch recordings i just found (next post). also saida has no materials idk why green
does not include survey results (eg from fleisch's inquests or bergstraesser's atlas), nor the one grotzfeld paper with fun facts on bludan & stuff, nor a collection of fleisch recordings i just found (next post). also saida has no materials idk why green
November 5, 2025 at 8:13 AM
quick map of what's on record for lebanon
does not include survey results (eg from fleisch's inquests or bergstraesser's atlas), nor the one grotzfeld paper with fun facts on bludan & stuff, nor a collection of fleisch recordings i just found (next post). also saida has no materials idk why green
does not include survey results (eg from fleisch's inquests or bergstraesser's atlas), nor the one grotzfeld paper with fun facts on bludan & stuff, nor a collection of fleisch recordings i just found (next post). also saida has no materials idk why green
"and they held a funeral and afterwards they took him to the cemetery and buried him, god have mercy on his soul... he died an awful death, butros"
...
"as for the question of how 3rd-weak verbs conjugate in the perfective, the dialect of hammana has adopted an original solution,"
...
"as for the question of how 3rd-weak verbs conjugate in the perfective, the dialect of hammana has adopted an original solution,"
![screenshot of book:
LA MORT DE MAÎTRE PIERRE.
Pierre était monté sur l'ânesse et allait l'abreuver à la source; un
petit peu avant qu'il n'arrive,. vint le chien des voisins et il aboyait contre lui. Pierre lui disait:« Va-t-en d'ici» et ille frappait de [son] bâton pour qu'il s'en aille. Il ne partait pas, si bien que l'ânesse s'effaroucha; elle s'effaroucha et se mit à fuir. Elle sautait, en haut, en bas; elle arriva près d'une grosse pierre et sauta par-dessus. Elle fit tomber Pierre par terre. Hélas! sa tête alla donner contre un gros rocher et le sang jaillit de sa tête à gros bouillons. Il n'y avait personne pour venir l'aider, pou:r venir le sauver et soigner sa blessure. Il resta sur place jusqu'à perte entière de son sang; deux, trois heures après, il était du nombre de ceux [promis] à la décomposition, Pierre était mort.
Les gens vinrent, s'attroupèrent autour de lui pour voir ce qui était arrivé; ils le trouvèrent raidi [par la mort]. Ils le portèrent à [sa maison] et commencèrent les lamentations: ils se mirent à pousser des clameurs, des cris; sa femme s'arrachait les cheveux, ses enfants pleuraient et tous se donnaient des coups. Ensuite ils l'emportèrent à l'église, firent les cérémonies funèbres; et ensuite ils l'emportèrent au cimetière et le mirent au tombeau, Dieu ait pitié de lui! Il mourut de mort affreuse le maître Pierre.
REMARQUE.
Dans la question de la conjugaison des verbes à 3e cons. radicale y,
à l'accompli, le parler de Hammâna a adopté une solution originale où](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreicxomro5dt5ulua3hazwdfcpwioflsjyff4rjnkrbw7xw3v6ntxmq@jpeg)
November 4, 2025 at 7:55 PM
"and they held a funeral and afterwards they took him to the cemetery and buried him, god have mercy on his soul... he died an awful death, butros"
...
"as for the question of how 3rd-weak verbs conjugate in the perfective, the dialect of hammana has adopted an original solution,"
...
"as for the question of how 3rd-weak verbs conjugate in the perfective, the dialect of hammana has adopted an original solution,"
just drew the connection between gemination and gemini. brain expanded. perhaps even doubled
November 3, 2025 at 8:44 PM
just drew the connection between gemination and gemini. brain expanded. perhaps even doubled
neat diminutive: mṣayra, ⟨mṣai̯ra⟩ (i would've thought mṣayriyye/⟨mṣai̯riyye⟩, but this might be forced by the rhyme)
for that matter, neat original singular i didn't know was used: məṣriyye 'a coin'
for that matter, neat original singular i didn't know was used: məṣriyye 'a coin'
![screenshot of book; "petits sous" at the end is highlighted:
[chapter title at top of page] TEXTES DIALECTAUX INÉDITS
[story title] HISTOIRE POUR LES PETITS ENFANTS
Il y avait une toute petite fille
qui balayait la petite natte;
elle trouva cinq petits sous.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreie67yleya3w3czwol7c7aw6sln3v7wblpau47gmabptrxins3iqk4@jpeg)
November 2, 2025 at 8:34 PM
neat diminutive: mṣayra, ⟨mṣai̯ra⟩ (i would've thought mṣayriyye/⟨mṣai̯riyye⟩, but this might be forced by the rhyme)
for that matter, neat original singular i didn't know was used: məṣriyye 'a coin'
for that matter, neat original singular i didn't know was used: məṣriyye 'a coin'
aura from a fun tv program where the guy on the right tells folk stories
November 2, 2025 at 6:50 AM
aura from a fun tv program where the guy on the right tells folk stories
Reposted
Excellent Shami accent too all things considered. The popular joke on Twitter already is that he speaks it better than King Abdullah
November 1, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Excellent Shami accent too all things considered. The popular joke on Twitter already is that he speaks it better than King Abdullah
Reposted
I think this Egyptian speaker has pausal glottalization of -VC to -VʔC#, it can be heard in ṭamāṭeʔm# baṭāṭeʔs# ʔalwāʔn# lamūʔn# tōʔm# semseʔm# ħelwīʔn# (I hear it clearer in some than in others). This occurrence is also mentioned for western Syria on map N. 67 of Behnstedt's Sprachatlas von Syrien.
November 1, 2025 at 8:02 PM
I think this Egyptian speaker has pausal glottalization of -VC to -VʔC#, it can be heard in ṭamāṭeʔm# baṭāṭeʔs# ʔalwāʔn# lamūʔn# tōʔm# semseʔm# ħelwīʔn# (I hear it clearer in some than in others). This occurrence is also mentioned for western Syria on map N. 67 of Behnstedt's Sprachatlas von Syrien.
does this levantine "hal-" fit into this hierarchy or is it some discourse thing that's unrelated? (well except maybe if a noun needs to be at a specific level before u can opt to add hal-?)
afaict it's used only when narrating and its purpose is/
(…also insane attestation of ياباني of all words)
afaict it's used only when narrating and its purpose is/
(…also insane attestation of ياباني of all words)
![screenshot of wiktionary (awful wall of text for a screenreader sorry, the important bit is this phrase: in arabic script صار يسرق بهالدجاج or in henri fleisch's transcription ṣā̊r yisroʾ bᵊ-had-džǟž, translated into english as just "he started stealing chickens" and into french as "il volait les poules")
full original text:
c. 1964–1974, Henri Fleisch, “Première série: Textes non différentiels”, in Études d'Arabe Dialectal [Studies of Dialectal Arabic], Limite entre parles différentials et non différentiels (overall work in French), Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, sourced from informant نبيل الحاج (Nabîl al-Hajj, /l-ħaʒʒ/), published 1974, →ISBN, →OCLC, Texte I. Antoûra, page 147:
Abū Dīb. marra ʾabū dīb kǟn ʾǟʿed waḥdo biš-šite̠. baʾa ṣā̊ṛ yisroʾ bᵊ-had-džǟž u yǟku̱l. byǟkol ʿa waʾto småḷḷā̊h ḫamsᵊ džǟžǟt waḥdu̱, wulli bišūfo̱ biʾūl hǟda ma fīš yǟkol ᵊrġīf ʾadᵈ månno ḍʿīf u ʾåṣīr ʾåṣīr mətl əl-yā̊bā̊ne̱.
[(أبو ديب.) مرّة أبو ديب كان قاعد وحدو بالشتي. بقا صار يسرق بهالدجاج وياكل. بياكل عوقتو سمالله خمس دجاجات وحدو، واللي بيشوفو بيقول هادا ما فيش ياكل رغيف قد منّو ضعيف وقصير قصير متل الياباني.]
Abu Dib. One day Abu Dib was sitting by himself in the winter. He started stealing chickens little by little and eating. He would take his sweet time eating; goodness, five chickens all by himself! And anyone who sees him would say “that guy couldn't even eat a piece of bread” because he’s so skinny — and short, short like a Japanese person.
[original: Abou Dîb. Une fois Abou Dîb était assis seul en hiver. Au reste il volait les poules et mangeait. Il mangeait pour chaque repas, le nom de Dieu [le protège]! cinq poules tout seul; et celui qui le voyait disait: « Celui-ci il ne peut manger un pain, tant il est maigre et petit, petit comme un Japonais. »]
Fleisch's interpretation of عَ وَقتُو (ʕa waʔto) is “pour chaque repas,” or, per the remarks a page later, literally “en son temps [de manger],” but in context it may instead be similar to عَ مَهْلُو (ʕa mahlo, “taking his time”).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreib23wrquo2wxf35jflympsxbhyn6ttrztdqyi7bekiypwigbkmuu4@jpeg)
October 31, 2025 at 9:35 PM
does this levantine "hal-" fit into this hierarchy or is it some discourse thing that's unrelated? (well except maybe if a noun needs to be at a specific level before u can opt to add hal-?)
afaict it's used only when narrating and its purpose is/
(…also insane attestation of ياباني of all words)
afaict it's used only when narrating and its purpose is/
(…also insane attestation of ياباني of all words)
first-draft mumbo-jumbo that can and will be mercilessly deworded but some thoughts about trust
![screenshot of a document:
I am personally blown away by my encounters with Fleisch’s 1974 anthology of his lifelong studies of Lebanese Arabic, packaged under the unassuming title Études d’Arabe dialectal. In my book, (and literally in his book,) Fleisch is the most meticulous reference on Lebanese dialects from last century by a long shot. It changes your relationship to a text when you can trust its author enough to work off of their work rather than having to build your own relationship to their underlying data from scratch. For example, Aro’s 1979 treatment of the dialect of Zrarieh is brilliant and instructive (and he was out doing boots-to-ground fieldwork at the age of fifty!), but the fact that he neglects to mark stress when unpredictable — as it often is in a dialect with allegro-conditioned contractions, at least if trying to assign stress from a stressless transcription of the surface form — means that the reader needs to fill in this information for themselves and essentially become their own first-order evaluator the dialect. (Or at least of that feature of it.) I apply the same criticism to Huxley, the earliest reference in my list, who transcribes the original diphthongs ay aw with the very-monophthong-looking symbols ē ō (or if stressed ê ô), leaving it to the reader to freak out at the terrifying implication that Christian Beiruti in 1902 somehow monophthongized everything from lêli ‘night’ to 3alêyi ‘on me’(!) before settling into the second thought that Huxley is probably actually telling the truth when he states that e is ‘like ay in [American] English say’ and o is ‘like o in [American] English note’ and just that he is not being as faithful when he neglects to mark these sounds as ‘(diphthong)’s or transcribe them as ei ou.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreifobzcix424ex4jqicr3o2g3qeuul3pjpfrrhy6ytdiij773t3fbm@jpeg)
![screenshot of a document:
Rather than encourage such situations, an author should strive to predict as many qualms of the reader as possible so that the reader does not have to wear the hat of a critic or redo the author’s analysis for them. (Any analysis the reader does perform is ideally to be built atop the author’s.)
Suppose your reader encounters an unusual form or fact in your text that you neglect to expand on. If your reader trusts you, they can take your lack of statement to mean that the data in question was not remarkable or unusual to you, unwittingly a statement in its own right even if it still leaves them wondering. If your reader has reason not to trust you, however, they glean nothing because you have given them room to suspect that you might have made a typo or other mistake or that you misunderstand your own data. They won’t know which one it is and have to be forced to pick an assumption.
In the trustworthy case, you’ll have built that trust by continually preempting the reader’s questions to the best of your ability. Even if what you say is mistaken or questionable, it’s at least the correctness of the analysis that’s then subject to interrogation rather than the correctness of the data itself. This is like when Fleisch’s Zgharta study mentions žǟž ‘chicken’ < *žžǟž < *ᵊdžǟž < Classical daǧāǧu- (pg. 61, footnote 1) rather than the route we can reconstruct with alternative thinking, žǟž < *ǧāǧ < *dǧāǧ < […]. Or, for a better example, since forms like žāž “chicken” are commonplace and not untrustworthy, we may point to his opinion that ʿəddənnu « il parait que » (pg. 267), with variants ʿeddenno and ʾedenno, is from ʾadd ʾənno « autant que » (ibid., footnote 7). Even if one rethinks this analysis, it will be built atop the three variants Fleisch records, which are trustworthy and need no rethinking even though the word is peculiar to non-Northerners unfamiliar with it.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreiaqgjxya25xbu3e7n3afpkkqwteojttefo2iioob3r6ygfibkqtqe@jpeg)
October 30, 2025 at 7:31 AM
first-draft mumbo-jumbo that can and will be mercilessly deworded but some thoughts about trust
alright now that ive gotten this out of my system this paper, Henry Huxley (1902) Syrian Songs, Proverbs, and Stories, is actually su -- okay no there's one more
October 28, 2025 at 10:26 PM
alright now that ive gotten this out of my system this paper, Henry Huxley (1902) Syrian Songs, Proverbs, and Stories, is actually su -- okay no there's one more
oh just reading about semen dripping down a man's beard what's up
![screenshot of two paragraphs of a scanned paper, the first one in transliterated arabic and the second one the english translation. every occurrence of the word <semen> "butter" in the arabic transliteration is highlighted along with every instance of its translation (butter) in the english paragraph:
kä̂n fî nä̂sik 3and rijjä̂l ġɒni ū-her-rijjä̂l kä̂n kill yôm ya3ṭîh
šwaiyet semen ū-šwaiyet 3asel. fî yôm in-nä̂sik ʾa3öd 3ala
ferštū. kä̂n mṣemmid il-3asel wis-semen bi-jerra. ʾâl ana bebî3
jerret hes-semen wil-3asel ū-bištirī na3ji ū-hen-na3ji bitḫɒllif
ġêrha ū-hēdîk ġêrha ḥɒtta yikterū. ba3dên bebî3hum ū-bṣîr [5]
ġɒnī. bä̂ḫud bint tä̂jir il-flä̂ni ū-ba3mil 3ars ma ṣâr mitlū
ba3zum it-tijâr wil-akä̂bir ū-ba3mil welä̂yim ū-ba3dên byijîni
ṣɒbi ū-limma byikber ba3allmū il-felsefi wil-hendesi wiza šiftū
3âṣi 3alêyi bimsuk hel-3aṣa ū-biḍrubū fîha. refa3 il-3aṣâyi
ḥɒtta yiḍrub ibnū fîha. ijit 3ala jerret il-3asel keserítha. nizil
is-semen wil-3asel 3ala léḥyitū. [10]
There was a recluse at the house of a rich man, who every day
gave him a little clarified butter and a little honey. One day
the recluse was sitting on his mat, collecting the butter and the
honey in a jar. He said, "I shall sell a jar of this butter and
honey, and buy a she-lamb, and this she-lamb will bear another,
and this one another, until they multiply. Then I shall sell
them, and shall be rich. I shall marry the daughter of such- [5]
and-such a merchant, and I shall have such a wedding as there
never was before; and I shall invite the merchants and the
nobles, and I shall have wedding-feasts. And afterwards, I
shall have a son; and when he grows up, I shall teach him
philosophy and engineering; and if he is disobedient to me, I
shall take this stick, and beat him with it." He raised his stick
to beat his son with it. The stick struck the jar of honey and
broke it, and the butter and the honey fell on his beard. [10]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5gvygd24ilrqmbgsii2zzp3v/bafkreidovpjpybdzid3sfsn3ngilpmzsdgbalp5gfqeq3vktrytgt6lspm@jpeg)
October 28, 2025 at 10:21 PM
oh just reading about semen dripping down a man's beard what's up
the actual conjugation of this verb "to touch"*:
huwwe saṭaʕ
hiyye saṭaʕet
henne saṭaʕo
...
ʔenta sṭoʕᵉt
ʔente sṭoʕte
ʔento sṭoʕto
ʔana sṭoʕᵉt
neḥna sṭoʕna
(* usually npi as in like "don't touch" whereas otherwise "to touch" is daʔar b)
(the impfv is more boring it's just always -osṭaʕ-)
huwwe saṭaʕ
hiyye saṭaʕet
henne saṭaʕo
...
ʔenta sṭoʕᵉt
ʔente sṭoʕte
ʔento sṭoʕto
ʔana sṭoʕᵉt
neḥna sṭoʕna
(* usually npi as in like "don't touch" whereas otherwise "to touch" is daʔar b)
(the impfv is more boring it's just always -osṭaʕ-)
October 28, 2025 at 8:58 AM
the actual conjugation of this verb "to touch"*:
huwwe saṭaʕ
hiyye saṭaʕet
henne saṭaʕo
...
ʔenta sṭoʕᵉt
ʔente sṭoʕte
ʔento sṭoʕto
ʔana sṭoʕᵉt
neḥna sṭoʕna
(* usually npi as in like "don't touch" whereas otherwise "to touch" is daʔar b)
(the impfv is more boring it's just always -osṭaʕ-)
huwwe saṭaʕ
hiyye saṭaʕet
henne saṭaʕo
...
ʔenta sṭoʕᵉt
ʔente sṭoʕte
ʔento sṭoʕto
ʔana sṭoʕᵉt
neḥna sṭoʕna
(* usually npi as in like "don't touch" whereas otherwise "to touch" is daʔar b)
(the impfv is more boring it's just always -osṭaʕ-)
i wish there was a monograph titled "the arabic dialect of salam al-rassi". there's a good 18 hours of video from his tv shows uploaded to the youtube channel salamalrassi (let's say that's 10+ hours of just his own speech, prob much more). probably the only archive of a traditional hasbayya dialect
October 26, 2025 at 6:52 PM
i wish there was a monograph titled "the arabic dialect of salam al-rassi". there's a good 18 hours of video from his tv shows uploaded to the youtube channel salamalrassi (let's say that's 10+ hours of just his own speech, prob much more). probably the only archive of a traditional hasbayya dialect