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mihalyfy.bsky.social
David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
@mihalyfy.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1K following 530 posts
🙋 Dayjobber
📚 PhD in Religion
☀ Obsessed with Egyptian-Coptic historical linguistics

Bylines on everything from cults to culture.

Low-volume posting (focusing on writing and research!).

www.mihalyfy.com

🇺🇲 Illinois, U.S.A.
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mihalyfy.bsky.social
David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦 @mihalyfy.bsky.social · Nov 11
👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻

HELLO EVERYBODY!

👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻 👋🏻

I suddenly have a lot of new followers, so I guess I'm on a list...?

Anyhow, a quick introduction to me and my recent work (especially on religion & Egyptian-Coptic historical linguistics).

CC: #Egyptology #Linguistics #LangSky

⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️
mihalyfy.bsky.social
The library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a marvel.

I just found a rare gap in Classics -- they didn't have László Török's 1997 classic overview of Kush (Napata, Meroe).

And, within like an hour of finding out, the responsible librarian ordered it.
brill.com/display/titl...
brill.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
nathanielbdemiller.bsky.social
The German word for "furlough," as in what federal employees are returning from, is Zwangsurlaub, which literally means "compulsory vacation."
November 13, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
mattboot.bsky.social
AFAIK, this phenomenon of redundant prepositional conjugation is similar to what happened in Irish, where (going even further) some of the 3ms forms became grammaticalized as new prepositions:

Irish faoi "under, about" < Old Irish foí "under (fo) him"

Irish as "from" < Old Irish ass "from (a) him"
Pronominal Anticipation with Prepositions. Prepositions with noun complements are often anticipated by a redundant prepo-sition with a pronominal enclitic complement agreeing with the noun complement of the following, "real" prepositional phrase. Thus, either ba-mditta or bah ba-mditta for 'in the city,' and either emret l-gabra or emret leh l-gabra for 'I said to the man.' These constructions are extremely frequent in Syriac narrative prose.
November 13, 2025 at 3:44 PM
mihalyfy.bsky.social
A very enjoyable listen --

The triple concerto of Eric Ewazen, played by the Buffalo Philharmonic under.JoAnn Falletta.

I'd never heard his music before this... Really fun stuff!
youtu.be/R9udNGnOuV8?...
Triple Concerto for Three Trombones and Orchestra: 1. Andante sostenuto; Allegro energico
YouTube video by Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra - Topic
youtu.be
November 13, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
karlgalle.bsky.social
The original journal article for this research is open access and very readable, and touches on a range of ancient pharmacopeia topics for any #HistMed folks: scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/jemahs/...
November 13, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
nataliepeluso.com
As a former opera singer this makes perfect sense. Consonants are typically brief, & plosive sounds can't be sustained. But vowel sounds can be sustained for long durations (how much breath do you have?) and with more volume - perfect for underwater long distance communication 🐳
November 12, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
indyfromspace.bsky.social
GATHER ROUND A 🧵 on an ancient drug heist from a famous king (Tut), revealed for the first time:

This study revealed presence of opium on the interior of an Alabaster vessel from ca 400BC (Xerses). It's published in a good journal by respected scholars so legit! 1/?

phys.org/news/2025-11...
Opium use in ancient Egypt: Alabaster vase residue points to widespread use
Examination of an ancient alabaster vase in the Yale Peabody Museum's Babylonian Collection has revealed traces of opiates, providing the clearest evidence to date of broad opium use in ancient Egypti...
phys.org
November 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
kristadalton.bsky.social
I am pleased to announce that John Penniman, Emanuel Fiano, and I are launching a new book series for the study of religion in late antiquity with Fordham University Press. If you have a book-in-progress looking for a home, please reach out to discuss your project!
fordhampress.com/theoria
November 12, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
mattitiahu.bsky.social
New Open Access volume in the Stockholm Studies in Indo-European Language and Culture series:

Indo-European Afterlives, ed. by Jenny Larsson, Thomas Olander & Anders Richardt Jørgensen.
Indo-European Afterlives | Stockholm University Press
<p>This volume brings together scholars from archaeology, historical linguistics and comparative mythology to explore how early Indo-European communities imagined death and what lies beyond. From poet...
www.stockholmuniversitypress.se
November 12, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
mattboot.bsky.social
taking Thackston's description of Syriac stress at face value, the 2mp & 2fp perfects are stressed differently:

masc. /kə-ˈθav-ton/ vs. fem. /kə-θav-ˈteːn/

is this correct? and/or do the main Syriac traditions abide by this?

why does f. *-tina yield long /eː/ but m. *-tunu yields short /o/?
Stress may fall on any of the final three syllables in a word. (1) Ultimate stress. Any final syllable (ultima) that is closed and contains a long vowel is stressed, as in hakkim (hak-kim'), nebnon (neb-non), bdneyn (bd-neyn), saddarndk (sad-dar-ndk'), bndt (bd- ndf), hzayt (hd-zayf), qatluh (qat-luh'), sappirdn (sap-pi-rdn). (2) Penultimate stress. If the final syllable is not stressed, then the next to last syllable (penultima) receives stress if it contains a long vowel or is closed, e.g., malkd (mal'-kd), bdne (bd'-ne), emret (em'-ret), qatleh (qaf-leh), qtalton (qd-taV-ton), attat (at'-tat). (3) Antepenultimate stress. If the criteria set forth in (1) and (2) above are not met, then stress recedes to the syllable before the penultimate, the antepenultimate, e.g., madbra (mxid'-bd-rd), atttd (at'-t9-td), malktd (mal'-ka-td), etqtel (et'-q9-tel). In no instance may an open syllable with a short vowel be stressed. In such a situation stress falls forward to the next stress- able syllable, as emar (e-mar'), hzd (hd-zd'), end (e-nd'), qtal (qd- taV). § 2.1 The Perfect: Full Inflection. Following is the full inflection of the perfect. The masculine-feminine distinction is maintained in both the second and third persons; the first persons are of common gender. Because the third-person masculine singular form is the basic lexical form of the verb, all paradigms begin with that form, in accord with general Semitic usage. SINGULAR PLURAL 3m ktab ktab or ktabun f ketbat ktab or ktaben 2m ktabt ktabton f ktabt ktabten I c ischium ketbet ktabn or ktabnan
November 7, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Aya Tarek, Egyptian street and mural artist from the city of Alexandria who creates outdoor art to be accessible to all #WomensArt
Photo featuring a mural artist up a tall stepladder in the act.of painting a large scale painting on a building of the head and shoulders of a woman
November 12, 2025 at 6:17 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
elisabethjkerr.bsky.social
Today in linguistic example sentences 🍅

(Source: Gueche Fotso's 2024 illustration of resumptive pronouns for left-dislocated topics in Nda'Nda')
Nda'Nda' example sentences "This tomato, it is disturbing you."
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
mariazielenbach.bsky.social
Dutch, German and English all use a derivation of a form meaning 'bite' to mean 'a little bit'. And they are all etymologically related:
Dutch "beetje" < "beet", German "bisschen" < "Biss", and English "bit" (compare "bite") 1/2
#LessObviousDutchGermanCognates
November 10, 2025 at 6:14 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
womensartbluesky.bsky.social
Leah Gardner, contemporary Chicago-based oil painter #WomensArt
Painting of a glass transparent tea cup filled with dark red tea and with a label hanging over the side from the teabag insidecthe cup. A long shadows from the cup stretches leftwards across the white surface on which the cup stands
November 8, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
lindsaypowell.bsky.social
"Researchers previously tallied the extent of Roman roads as covering around 117,163 miles (188,555 kilometers). The new work shows nearly 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) of roads across the extent of the Roman Empire."
#RomanSiteSaturday apnews.com/article/anci...
All roads in ancient Rome stretched far longer than previously known, study shows
As the saying went, all roads once led to Rome — and scientists now say those roads stretched 50% longer than previously known.
apnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:09 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
mihalyfy.bsky.social
🚨🚨🚨 Reminder! 🚨🚨🚨

ARCE-MO virtual symposium this Saturday, on dealing with historic excavations with less-than-ideal record-keeping.

100% free, but registration required for Zoom link.

#Egyptology
#AncientBlueSky
November 7, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
petertarras.bsky.social
Wichtige Beobachtung, die in der #WissKomm zu wenig diskutiert wird: "Wenn nur noch der KI-Text als Antwort genutzt wird, wird also nicht mehr auf wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse, sondern auf Marketingtexte von Firmen zurückgegriffen. Damit wird Wissenschaftskommunikation ausgehebelt."
Zerstört KI das wissenschaftliche Bloggen
Zerstört KI das wissenschaftliche Bloggen und damit eine Form der Wissenschaftskommunikation? Ich habe diese Befürchtung. Nicht, weil Wissenschaftler*innen KI zum Schreiben von Blogbeiträgen nutzen, s...
sozmethode.hypotheses.org
November 7, 2025 at 8:09 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
valyrina.bsky.social
I have my students co-develop class policies, and they pretty much unanimously chose to ban AI in the class. There were a few questions about using Grammarly, but those were the only real exceptions any students expressed (and even then, we talked about alternatives to that and they were open to it)
November 7, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
lameensouag.bsky.social
For that first verb, cf. Al-Idrīsī describing Gafsa:

wa-ahluhā mutabarbirūna wa-aktharuhum yatakallamu bi-l-lughati l-laṭīniyy il-ifrīqiyy

"And its people are Berberised, and most of them speak the African Latin language"

lughat.blogspot.com/2007/07/berb...
Latin-speaking Muslims in medieval Africa
In the Middle Ages as today, Christians and Jews regularly called God "Allah" when speaking Arabic, just as Muslims did . It is perhaps no...
lughat.blogspot.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:30 PM
mihalyfy.bsky.social
🚨🚨🚨 Reminder! 🚨🚨🚨

ARCE-MO virtual symposium this Saturday, on dealing with historic excavations with less-than-ideal record-keeping.

100% free, but registration required for Zoom link.

#Egyptology
#AncientBlueSky
November 7, 2025 at 2:50 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
andrewgarrett.bsky.social
Work in the California Language Archive to support language reclamation:

news.berkeley.edu/2025/11/06/2...
23 boxes and a suitcase full of tapes: How a linguist's lifelong work is shaping Indigenous language today - Berkeley News
Collections at UC Berkeley's California Language Archive help keep Indigenous languages alive. This is the story of one of them.
news.berkeley.edu
November 7, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
npr.org
Twenty-nine sailors drowned when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in the Great Lakes' icy waters on Nov. 10, 1975. The ship was immortalized in a surprise hit 1976 folk ballad by Gordon Lightfoot. n.pr/3JKj19D
50 years ago, the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 'rock star' ship, sank in Lake Superior
Twenty-nine sailors drowned when the Edmund Fitzgerald went down in the Great Lakes' icy waters on Nov. 10, 1975. The ship was immortalized in a surprise hit 1976 folk ballad by Gordon Lightfoot.
n.pr
November 6, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
romanpalace.bsky.social
Wow! 😮🤩
There's a new interactive map of Every Known Road in the Roman Empire!! 🤓

itiner-e.org

We might have to have a lie-down.
A map of part of Britiain and northern europe showing loads and loads of roman roads, picked out in red.
November 6, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
lameensouag.bsky.social
This article contains the longest consonant cluster I've ever come across in a Semitic language other than Moroccan Arabic, from a Hebrew article written in 1897:

hit-ašknz-u "they Germanised", a denominal verb from Ashkenaz (which, in this context, meant "Germany")
yairwallach.bsky.social Yair Wallach @yairwallach.bsky.social · 10d
In a new article (open access!) I argue that the Ottoman state played a crucial role in creating Ashkenazi identity in Jerusalem - as an overarching category for Yiddish speaking Jews from Central and East European countries.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The Ottoman Production of Ashkenazi Identity
The familiar grouping of Yiddish speaking Jews of Central and Eastern Europe into the single overarching identity of ‘Ashkenazim’, emerged initially in multi-lingual Jewish contexts. This article e...
www.tandfonline.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by David Mihalyfy 🇺🇦
jamesbejon.bsky.social
Question: Hoch has examples in (Egyptian) syllabic orthography of what appears to be *yomm (‘sea’) from the late 2nd millennium. How should these be explained?

The effect of the Canaanite Shift on a stress-lengthened *a? Or the Phoenician Shift? (When does the latter date?)
November 5, 2025 at 11:22 PM