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Arabic in bite-sized parts (now with doses of JP & RU)

Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2015 11:21 am
by Zireael
The previous parts of the log: link
Note: linking to UniLang as I worry about old HTLAL's stability and besides, Arabic font looks better on UniLang.

Today's note is very short: I dreamed of two prominent Baldur's Gate characters (I'm a diehard fan), Jaheira and Khalid. In the Polish and English voiceover the husband's name is pronounced /kalid/, with a clear K, and that's how I'd been pronouncing the name for years. They often feature in my dreams, and today was the first time when my mental voice did the proper Arabic pronunciation, /halid/.

Coincidentally, I asked around for the pronunciations of the Baldur's Gate names here: http://linguaphiles.livejournal.com/5568091.html. Jaheira's name is apparently pronounced [ʤə'hirʌ] in the original VO as opposed to /yaheira/ in the Polish soundtrack.

This led me to thinking on the origin of Jaheira's name. As BG characters, they were originally played by the devs in a pen-and-paper RPG game and no info is probably ever coming on why such names were picked.

Might Jaheira be a variant spelling of Jahira (Arabic: jewel)? No Arabic script here, sorry.

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 10:28 am
by Zireael
Attended a lecture on creating conlangs two days ago. It turned out to be more about the features that languages have (phonology/phonetics, syntax, grammar) and less about conlangs themselves.

Anyway, the lecturer claimed Semitic languages are alternating because they use alternating vowels instead of word position (positional languages) or cases. I can't find any evidence of "alternating" languages as different from "positional".

The q-t-l root was provided as an example of how Semitic word roots and vowel alternation work. There were more examples but I didn't have a pen handy - completely not expecting to hear any Arabic - and I initially misheard it :(

New words
Qatala قتل he killed
Yaqtul يقتل he kills

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2015 7:57 am
by Zireael
My Kurdish friend got married. Her new surname is Ikram Sheikh. Is that kind of a surname a common thing in Arabic countries? Does it mean her husband is a leader or simply descended from a leader?

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 7:06 am
by Zireael
My trousers have multilingual instructions appended, in 8 languages, including Arabic. :)

New phrases
صنع في بنجلاديش made in Bangladesh
أبقيها بعيدة عن النار keep away from fire
الالوان الاكنة تقسل متفصلة wash dark colors separately

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2015 11:49 am
by hp230
Zireael wrote:My Kurdish friend got married. Her new surname is Ikram Sheikh. Is that kind of a surname a common thing in Arabic countries? Does it mean her husband is a leader or simply descended from a leader?

Yes, that surname is common in Arabic countries but it has nothing to do with being a leader or descended from a leader. In fact, the word "sheikh" means "an old man" in MSA, though in some arabic countries, that word may refer to someone who is wise, religious and frequently visited by people to solve their problems and to take advice etc... One century ago, the sheikh had that leading role you're talking about, but that's not common nowadays except in the tribes leaving here and there in the deserts and small villages away from civilization (if they still exist).

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:35 am
by fiolmattias
It is also a title used in certain religious contexts for elders.

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2015 12:16 pm
by hp230
fiolmattias wrote:It is also a title used in certain religious contexts for elders.

Yes, in some countries, it refers to someone old who went to Mecca for pilgrimage, but people use more the word "Haj" to describe such a person. So there is always that relation with oldness, wisdom and being religious. "sheikhs" are those old men who preach people at mosques, (same role of the "imam").

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 9:35 am
by Zireael
Watching the athletics in Beijing and loving the Polish sports commentators who pronounce foreign names fairly well (with the exception of the Cote d'Ivoire sprinter Murielle Ahoure, who consistently gets mangled).

There is a new athlete in the Polish team, namely the 19-year-old Sofia Ennaoui, who has a Polish mother and a Moroccan father (sorta like my friends whose father is probably Senegalese). Since the surname is consistently romanized, I couldn't find the Arabic spelling until I recalled the Moroccan middle distance runner Malika Akkaoui. The Moroccan is also consistently romanized, but she has an Arabic Wikipedia page :) Her name in Arabic script is مليكة العقاوي.

Therefore I suppose Ennaoui's surname would be أنٌاوي

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 7:42 am
by Zireael
Ennaoui's surname seems to be الناوي and she has an Arabic wiki page... (thanks due to Eskandar from UniLang)

New words/phrases
al-indzazat ash-shahsiya الإنجازات الشخصية personal accomplishments

taxassas تخصص specialization
al-dzansiya الجنسية citizenship, nationality
at-taweel الطول height
al-wazun الوزن weight
al-indzazat الإنجازات accomplishments
ash-shahsiya الشخصية personal

***
M'abed معبد temple

Re: Arabic in bite-sized parts

Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2015 9:38 am
by Zireael
I got sucked into alternate history again. This time I'm looking at New Kingdom of Egypt, which means there's loads of Arabic placenames.

New words
Tell تَلّ hill, elevation
Hammamat حمامة bathrooms, baths, showers (pl.)
Banu بنو sons (pl.)