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Mark Shockley

@shjsat.bsky.social

310 followers 250 following 3.9K posts

Arabic | Books | Bible | Running | Local Color 📍Sharjah 🇦🇪 ✍️ Dissertation on Emirati dialects

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Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1h

We talk about his "pizzeria" when he's playing restaurant, but because of vowel reduction he parsed the word as pizza-ria.
In Texas we see panaderías, carnicerías, etc., but I don't know if he remembers them

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1h

Update: We are now at the food-ria

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1h

There is a reason that the -ria morpheme has not caught on, and it is the -rhea morpheme

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1h

Child English word of the day
ice-cream-ria
'a shop that serves ice cream'

n.b.
formed after "pizzeria".

Reposted by Mark Shockley

Anís del moro @anisdelmoro.bsky.social · 9h

B. Herin and E. Al-Wer, A Grammar of Jordanian Arabic, 2025 (Open Access).
www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 2h

brb going to my nesp to sip sappy soup

Reposted by Mark Shockley

Andrea Matranga @andreamatranga.bsky.social · 11h

We have to all learn Navajo so we can talk without AI unserstanding

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 10h

That is about as different from "no representation because no taxes" as you can get. Actually, they *do feel* represented, and they *would not mind* paying taxes.

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 10h

Tangent continued—
The reason that Gulf Arabs are ambivalent about whether they pay taxes, is (in my opinion) that they have a strong sense that they contribute to the building of their nation through their labor, their mores, and their families.
...

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 10h

Maybe they just meant the UK needs to be organized into tribes?

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 14h

There's certainly no incentive for them to create something like a pathway to citizenship like western countries have.

I guess one of the problems that gets talked about a lot is the gender divide. You bring in a couple million men (without their families) to do labor jobs ... 🤷‍♂️

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 14h

But as for the western expats, they often see us as transient and extractors, and it's justifiable. Most people stay a couple years, learn nothing about culture, make a little money (or a lot), complain, and leave.

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 14h

I would have to ask one of the authors of the paper I cited above^ ... I don't know what they think about migrant workers. There are certainly some who try to demonstrate personal kindness to people of all sectors ...

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 21h

Lastly, as insane as it sounds, it is definitely more than 85% non-citizens. The last numbers I saw were about 88% for both UAE and Qatar. (I think it was up to 90% in the UAE a couple years ago.)

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 21h

Within that tribal system, citizens do affect policymaking, as new ideas are constantly being floated and discussed. It is not democratic, but it is a mistake to say that Gulf Arabs are voiceless because they do not pay taxes.

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 21h

On National Day in Qatar, the tribes gather in special tents on a huge parcel of desert set aside, and the Emir visits the tents and greets tribal leaders.

Effectively, the state lends credence to the tribal structure that predates the nationbuilding project ...

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 21h

The transactional explanation of the rentier state (benefits ➡️ voicelessness) gets a lot of currency among people who have never lived in the Gulf.

In reality, Gulf Arabs live and move in a tribal system, and this tribal system is legitimized by Gulf monarchs. ...

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 21h

Tangent—
"Don't tax me bro" is a poor explanation of the rentier state.

Gulf Arabs receive a complex array of benefits from the state: education, health care, utilities, jobs, land, housing ...

In survey data from Qatar, "no taxes" ranks below all of those benefits!

Refinancing the rentier state: welfare, inequality, and citizen preferences toward fiscal reform in the Gulf oil monarchies

Justin J Gengler, Bethany Shockley, Michael C Ewers
Comparative Politics 53 (2), 283-317, 2021

Reposted by Mark Shockley

New town every hour @townsusa.bsky.social · 1d

Nightmute, Alaska
Pop: 317

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmute,_Alaska

Images: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3820538

picture of Nightmute, Alaska

picture of Nightmute, Alaska

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 23h

"Nightmute" sounds like a comic book setting, but it's phonosemantic matching from Yupik "Negtemiut"

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 23h

So there are basically two types of places: Places you can't stay even if you like it, and places you can't leave even if you hate it?

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1d

I do often wonder why the US doesn't just create legal pathways for larger numbers of immigrants to come and work, like the Gulf does; but I imagine the thing is that in the west you would have to pay them a living wage. 😕 I ruminate on this all the time.

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1d

It is sort of insane that your salary depends on your passport country and not the job you do. And yet people sign up in droves (incentives are obvious).

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1d

they often love their salaries (a few hundred USD/mo.), are supporting multiple people back home, and are (surprisingly) very content with their work.

There are some changes to visas here in UAE but I don't see the whole kafala thing going away ...

Mark Shockley @shjsat.bsky.social · 1d

I have read many of the criticisms, have plenty of my own issues with kafala, but when people look at the majority of people working in the Qatar ("migrant workers" who come through recruitment agencies & do not hold their passports, as opposed to "expats" who do) ...