Languages, Dialects, Accents (page 18)

LoveUniHateExams

Here are another two things about Gaelic that are odd:

1. There are two different words in Gaelic that are translated into English as am/are/is, and these are tha and is.

Tha is used when it describes a circumstance that can change. So:

Tha mi sgith - I am tired. Tiredness changes, comes and goes.

Tha is also used to form the present continuous:

Tha mi a' taidhpeadh anns a Ghàidhlig a-nis - I am typing in Gaelic now.

And the word is is used for circumstances that are fixed, e.g.

Is mise Iain - I am John/Ian. For some reason, the emphatic form of mi (which is mise) is used with is.

Is is often shortened to 's …

'S mise Iain - I'm John/Ian.

2. Gaelic doesn't actually have words for 'yes' and 'no'.

If you want to answer a question in the affirmative you just echo the verb but in the positive form:

A bheil thu sgith? - Are you tired?

Tha - Yes.

To answer in the negative: Chan eil - No.

The full answer would be:

Tha, tha mi sgith - Yes, I am tired.

Chan eil, chan eil mi sgith - No, I am not tired.

So, there are more forms of yes/no than in English.

An toil leat biadh Innseanach? - Do you like Indian food?

'S toil - Yes.

Cha toil - No.

Re this lack of straight yes/no, I think it's the same in all the other Celtic languages.

LoveUniHateExams

Arabic calligraphy is quite fascinating because there are many styles of written Arabic. The script that's fairly similar to the script usually used in books is called Naskh.

^^^ Three variants of the Naskh style. Each line says bismillah, ar-rahman, ar-raheem.('in the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful').

Kufi script stands out as very square, with points and straight lines.

^^^ Kufi style, saying the same as the Naskh lines.

Thuluth is similar to Naskh, but more elaborate.

^^^ Thuluth style.

Tughra has its own kinda character, and can be written into various shapes.

^^^ Tughra style.

LoveUniHateExams

Riq'a or ruq'ah style is very common for handwriting Arabic.

Its structure allows very rapid writing. I personally don't like this style. My handwritten Arabic incorporates some features found in this style, however. With letters that have two or three dots, these dots are written as a dash or as a circumflex (like a house's roof). I write two and three dots as dashes and roofy points, for speed.

The letter kaf has a little s-shaped character floating inside it ...

Image result for arabic letter kaaf in naskh

... but the riq'a style actually lets the writer connect this to the main body, again for speed. I write my Kaf's like the Ruq'ah style, too. But, apart from this, my handwriting looks more like the Naskh style, just not as elaborate.

LoveUniHateExams

The following series of videos is pretty good at teaching people the basics on how to write Arabic. It's how I learnt how to write Arabic script.

Arabic has 28 letters (plus three tiny symbols - fatHa, Damma, kasra - that represent the three short vowels).

Arabic is obligatory cursive (letters must be joined up, except for crosswords). Each letter has a beginning, middle and end form, although six letters - alef, waw, ra, zay, dal, dhal - have only two forms, the end and middle forms are the same because these 6 don't connect to the following letter in a word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RcgfyuBlz8&list=PLR0I0Z-Ey9jFLir6bs8kJChIbSAXLzrly&index=1

The first words I wrote in Arabic were bint and bayt, too.

LoveUniHateExams

I bought a book last year called An Introduction to Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

Very interesting.

Hieroglyphics were long thought to be 'picture-writing', but they're not. Some are inspired by pictorial representations, e.g. the Egyptian hieroglyph for 'r' is a mouth, and the Egyptian word for mouth starts with an r sound. At least one hieroglyph is onomatopoeic - the hieroglyph for 'f' is a snake. And a snake's hissing does sound a bit like the f sound, pretty neat, huh?

Hieroglyphs actually represent one, two or three consonants. Plus, some hieroglyphs are used as determinatives. These determinatives have no sound but reinforce other hieroglyphs.

Here are the hieroglyphs of one consonant:

Common hieroglyphs of two consonants:

Common hieroglyphs of three consonants:

Common hieroglyph determinatives:

Phizzy

Interesting ! so, with hieroglyphics there is room for ambiguity and a degree of exegesis has to be used, but seeing the illustration of actual words, it was a useful, practical Script, whereas I always thought of it for some reason as sort of mannered and showing off for religious reasons, but it isn't, it's a workaday script !

LoveUniHateExams

@Phizzy - it's practical but interesting at the same time.

Having hieroglyphs for one consonant and having different ones for two and three consonants doesn't sound practical, but this allows for interesting decorations and works of art.

Having an alphabet is probably more practical, but probably more boring, too!

But, you do get used to it. I read my book quite a lot last year and earlier this year and I got used to it ok.

In my previous post, the bottom hieroglyphs show determinatives, these reinforce the meaning of an Egyptian word.

But, sometimes, a word featuring a two or three consonant hieroglyph will have the second and third consonants reinforced by adding the one consonant hieroglyphs for those sounds.

For example, the word for 'strong' in Egyptian is nkht - normally written as nakht. In hieroglyphs the n sound is a lengthways ripple of water (see one-consonant heiroglyphs) and the kht sound is the branch-like hieroglyph in the two-consonant group. But, to reinforce those second two sounds (kh + t) there is often added the one-consonant hieroglyph kh (the round shape with the lines running horizontally) and the one-consonant hieroglyph t (the small loaf of bread-type shape).

As well as hieroglyphics, ancient Egyptians also wrote on papyrus using a cursive style of writing, called hieratic or demotic. I don't know anything about this, but would love to find a book about it!

Written Egyptian (hieroglyphs or hieratic) is one of the world's oldest systems of writing, in fact, it might be the oldest.

Here's a slate of Narmer, the first accepted Egyptian king. He ruled Egypt nearly 5,000 years ago, so hieroglyphs are at least that old, probably older.

Verso of Narmer Palette

His name appears in hieroglyphics in the square-like palace façade at the top - his Horus name, n'r-mr, or Narmer.

LoveUniHateExams

Just a quick return to this thread.

I think I may have already mentioned that Arabic is a language of roots and patterns. Most Arabic words have a triliteral (three-consonant) root running through them, in a certain order, to give the word a basic meaning. There are then different vowels arranged in different patterns to give different meanings to words.

So, kitaab, kitaaba, kataba, kaataba, maktab and kaatib (meanings: book, writing, to write, to write to each other, office & writer) all have the root k, t, b which means something to do with writing.

Here's a video about Lebanese Arabic from a native speaker. See if you can identify the triliteral root of all the words in the lesson …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmBuiYt0ims