Hava Bas-Idis
@havabasidis.bsky.social
/ˈχɑvʌ bɑˈsɪdɪs/. she/her 🏳️⚧️. TESOL by day; by night, Afroasiatic languages, the Pleistocene-Holecene transition in Africa and the "ANE", and the complex relationships between linguistic academia, indigenous rights, and empire. Member of the SIL hate club.
I've started private tutoring Biblical Hebrew on the side, and it's been so fun. Got called a "born teacher" and I feel like this 🥰
November 16, 2025 at 12:39 AM
I've started private tutoring Biblical Hebrew on the side, and it's been so fun. Got called a "born teacher" and I feel like this 🥰
Was the sound shift *w > /v/ in postvernacular Hebrew precipitated by a corresponding shift in vernacular Aramaic? Or does it represent an independent development?
October 14, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Was the sound shift *w > /v/ in postvernacular Hebrew precipitated by a corresponding shift in vernacular Aramaic? Or does it represent an independent development?
Is Robert Alter the only English translator to render תֹּהוּ as 'waste' in Gen 1:2? (correctly imo)
October 8, 2025 at 2:21 AM
Is Robert Alter the only English translator to render תֹּהוּ as 'waste' in Gen 1:2? (correctly imo)
The more Sumerian I learn the more I wonder if they really were aliens after all...I'm going to find the Martian who invented the /ba-/ prefix and give him a piece of my mind
September 23, 2025 at 3:04 AM
The more Sumerian I learn the more I wonder if they really were aliens after all...I'm going to find the Martian who invented the /ba-/ prefix and give him a piece of my mind
I got my first real linguistics research job this week :D (it's a pretty junior role but even so!! I'm being paid money?? to do research??)
September 17, 2025 at 5:40 AM
I got my first real linguistics research job this week :D (it's a pretty junior role but even so!! I'm being paid money?? to do research??)
My Sumerian teacher told me I have to learn German, sink or swim. I'm sinking about it...
September 4, 2025 at 1:45 AM
My Sumerian teacher told me I have to learn German, sink or swim. I'm sinking about it...
Reposted by Hava Bas-Idis
Now that this got a solid 4 likes, I think I’ll follow the trend and offer *1 opinion about Libyco-Berber for 1 like*
A few years ago, Mansour Ghaki published a new Libyco-Berber text from Dougga, which consists of 7 lines of Libyan text, 1 line of (unrelated) Punic text, and two lines that are unreadable.
In line 2, he reads SYN GLDT W MQLZ GLDT WTQN MWSNT
"ŠYN the gld, son of MQLZ(?) the gld, son of ṬQN the mwsn"
In line 2, he reads SYN GLDT W MQLZ GLDT WTQN MWSNT
"ŠYN the gld, son of MQLZ(?) the gld, son of ṬQN the mwsn"
August 21, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Now that this got a solid 4 likes, I think I’ll follow the trend and offer *1 opinion about Libyco-Berber for 1 like*
Recently learned that Gilgamesh's name 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌 is supposed to be read "Bilgamesh" and I'll never recover
Ok folks: what is your favorite fact that you share with people (maybe a bit too) eagerly?
August 21, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Recently learned that Gilgamesh's name 𒀭𒄑𒉋𒂵𒎌 is supposed to be read "Bilgamesh" and I'll never recover
Peeping out my cave to tell you all that I have overcome my fear of the evil little triangles. 𒋗𒌌𒈬𒌝!
August 21, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Peeping out my cave to tell you all that I have overcome my fear of the evil little triangles. 𒋗𒌌𒈬𒌝!
Bad Semitic linguistics from the 1940s: "Gesture Origin of Semitic Languages" by Alexander Jóhannesson in 1944. Made the argument that the Semitic and Indo-European languages derive from the "imitation by the organs of speech of the movements of the hands". www.nature.com/articles/154...
Gesture Origin of Semitic Languages - Nature
Nature - Gesture Origin of Semitic Languages
www.nature.com
April 2, 2025 at 12:48 AM
Bad Semitic linguistics from the 1940s: "Gesture Origin of Semitic Languages" by Alexander Jóhannesson in 1944. Made the argument that the Semitic and Indo-European languages derive from the "imitation by the organs of speech of the movements of the hands". www.nature.com/articles/154...
Reposted by Hava Bas-Idis
Fascinated by the numbers for Maimonides here.
Fascinated by Charlemagne’s high unfavs in this @dhmontgomery.com poll.
Either anti-EU sentiment runs much deeper in the US than we think, or the Frank admin needs to ditch centrist consultants like Alcuin who haven’t won an election since the '90s.
(The 790s.) today.yougov.com/entertainmen...
Either anti-EU sentiment runs much deeper in the US than we think, or the Frank admin needs to ditch centrist consultants like Alcuin who haven’t won an election since the '90s.
(The 790s.) today.yougov.com/entertainmen...
March 27, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Fascinated by the numbers for Maimonides here.
I was recently reminded that it is not good form in certain Jewish study circles to publicly declare that you have quote "mad beef with Maimonides"
March 24, 2025 at 12:32 AM
I was recently reminded that it is not good form in certain Jewish study circles to publicly declare that you have quote "mad beef with Maimonides"
Seeing the LibGen / Meta news is so surreal, I literally had a nightmare a few weeks ago that Amazon announced that it had bought LibGen (somehow)
March 24, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Seeing the LibGen / Meta news is so surreal, I literally had a nightmare a few weeks ago that Amazon announced that it had bought LibGen (somehow)
Phoenician q: On the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, what does the curse "let [my defilers] have no root below nor fruit above nor form in the life under the sun" (ʔl ykn lm šrš lmṭ w pr lmʕl w tʔr b ḥym tḥt šmš) refer to in terms of Phoenician conceptions of the afterlife?
March 23, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Phoenician q: On the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II, what does the curse "let [my defilers] have no root below nor fruit above nor form in the life under the sun" (ʔl ykn lm šrš lmṭ w pr lmʕl w tʔr b ḥym tḥt šmš) refer to in terms of Phoenician conceptions of the afterlife?
Movies you've watched more than six times, gifs only
February 21, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Movies you've watched more than six times, gifs only
Reposted by Hava Bas-Idis
Bummed. The popular young nephew I've been preparing to rule after me has died under mysterious circumstances. Gonna cry on the shoulder of his charmless but ambitious brother, who was first to offer condolences to me
February 12, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Bummed. The popular young nephew I've been preparing to rule after me has died under mysterious circumstances. Gonna cry on the shoulder of his charmless but ambitious brother, who was first to offer condolences to me
Music is keeping my mind off of...all this. Terry Riley & Don Cherry in Köln in 1975, absolutely beautiful
youtu.be/i6449e2LsUI?...
youtu.be/i6449e2LsUI?...
Terry Riley / Don Cherry – Köln – February 23, 1975 [Full Album]
YouTube video by Tango Whisky
youtu.be
February 11, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Music is keeping my mind off of...all this. Terry Riley & Don Cherry in Köln in 1975, absolutely beautiful
youtu.be/i6449e2LsUI?...
youtu.be/i6449e2LsUI?...
Therapy today was about actionable steps to preserve digital knowledge ahead of looming Christofascist censorship. What I learned: 1) implore archives to back up their servers out of the US, 2) digitize your physical media that hasn't already been digitized, 3) print stuff out on acid-free paper.
February 10, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Therapy today was about actionable steps to preserve digital knowledge ahead of looming Christofascist censorship. What I learned: 1) implore archives to back up their servers out of the US, 2) digitize your physical media that hasn't already been digitized, 3) print stuff out on acid-free paper.
I made it up to Gen 5 last night...slow going but I am learning!
Happy International Septuagint Day to all who celebrate! In 2006, the International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies established February 8 as International Septuagint Day, a day to celebrate the Septuagint & encourage its study. What are you reading to celebrate?
February 8, 2025 at 7:19 PM
I made it up to Gen 5 last night...slow going but I am learning!
Okay so. This is terrifying.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
This is the blueprint
This is the blueprint
He’s anti-democracy and pro-Trump: the obscure ‘dark enlightenment’ blogger influencing the next US administration
Key figures in the incoming administration follow Curtis Yarvin, who’s pushing for an autocratic takeover of the US
www.theguardian.com
February 6, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Okay so. This is terrifying.
Reposted by Hava Bas-Idis
Open access!! www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...
The Samaritan Pentateuch: An English Translation with a Parallel Annotated Hebrew Text
This new translation into English seeks to introduce the reader to the character of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, while emphasising the fundamental differences between it and the Masoretic ...
www.openbookpublishers.com
February 5, 2025 at 8:37 PM
Open access!! www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116...
Reposted by Hava Bas-Idis
Coptic ⲃⲣϭⲟⲟⲩⲧ βrkʲɔ́wt "chariot"
a loan from Semitic *markab(a)t- (lit. "riding-place"; cf. Arabic rakiba "ride").
in the Akkadian cognate, the m..b dissimilate; so it's narkabtu(m)
it's one of my favorite wanderwörter; i have a pet theory that it somehow underlies Celtic *karbanto- "chariot"
a loan from Semitic *markab(a)t- (lit. "riding-place"; cf. Arabic rakiba "ride").
in the Akkadian cognate, the m..b dissimilate; so it's narkabtu(m)
it's one of my favorite wanderwörter; i have a pet theory that it somehow underlies Celtic *karbanto- "chariot"
![brkjowt (Crum 44b), 'chariot' = A I Jedf (Wb. II, 113, 4),
mrkbt, 'war chariot', from Semitic, cf. 79779; HINCKS, Transactions of the Roy. Irish Academy, 21, part II, p. 141 and pl. 1, no. 11 and 12 [1848, read in 1846].
CHABAS, Voyage, 129 [1866].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:26gfiesadzjgf44w2dv5yeo7/bafkreihv3yfdqpofgjbarc4bmb526lav6lwdwfhjp46tkwapfjeqcpxgia@jpeg)
February 5, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Coptic ⲃⲣϭⲟⲟⲩⲧ βrkʲɔ́wt "chariot"
a loan from Semitic *markab(a)t- (lit. "riding-place"; cf. Arabic rakiba "ride").
in the Akkadian cognate, the m..b dissimilate; so it's narkabtu(m)
it's one of my favorite wanderwörter; i have a pet theory that it somehow underlies Celtic *karbanto- "chariot"
a loan from Semitic *markab(a)t- (lit. "riding-place"; cf. Arabic rakiba "ride").
in the Akkadian cognate, the m..b dissimilate; so it's narkabtu(m)
it's one of my favorite wanderwörter; i have a pet theory that it somehow underlies Celtic *karbanto- "chariot"
I'm at the point where I can, armed with enough time and a dictionary, chip away at Koine Greek texts on my own, and I'm proud of myself hehe :^)
February 5, 2025 at 2:50 AM
I'm at the point where I can, armed with enough time and a dictionary, chip away at Koine Greek texts on my own, and I'm proud of myself hehe :^)
Reposted by Hava Bas-Idis
You can say this doesn’t matter because billionaires view normal people as instruments for their will but keep in mind we’re talking about a guy who cried after being booed at a Dave Chappelle stand up set
The Treasury Department right now. People are turning out against Musk and DOGE staging a takeover of the Treasury’s payment system. This crowd is big. The whole block is packed. “Lock him up,” everyone yells.
February 4, 2025 at 11:32 PM
You can say this doesn’t matter because billionaires view normal people as instruments for their will but keep in mind we’re talking about a guy who cried after being booed at a Dave Chappelle stand up set