El Cabbage
@alcabbage045.bsky.social
He/him/هو/إيّاهُ; Particle physics PhD candidate with a love for science and the humanities
Question for Semiticists: The Semitic root ḥ-r-m (related to holiness, consecration, taboo) has a pharyngeal in West Semitic languages, even those that preserve velar/uvula fricatives. However, an apparent Akkadian cognate is ḫarmu. Why not the expected a>e coloring instead of a velar if this was…
October 19, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Question for Semiticists: The Semitic root ḥ-r-m (related to holiness, consecration, taboo) has a pharyngeal in West Semitic languages, even those that preserve velar/uvula fricatives. However, an apparent Akkadian cognate is ḫarmu. Why not the expected a>e coloring instead of a velar if this was…
When I’m giving an experimental particle physics presentation and inevitably get to the “results” section
October 6, 2025 at 5:28 PM
When I’m giving an experimental particle physics presentation and inevitably get to the “results” section
Damn, Duolingo didn’t have to come for me like that 😭
July 7, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Damn, Duolingo didn’t have to come for me like that 😭
I did much better on this version of the quiz than the last one. How well can you tell apart Nazi propaganda from that of Zionists and Israeli nationalists? zionism.wtf
May 27, 2025 at 9:58 PM
I did much better on this version of the quiz than the last one. How well can you tell apart Nazi propaganda from that of Zionists and Israeli nationalists? zionism.wtf
You know, at this point I’ll try anything, why not?
May 23, 2025 at 10:27 PM
You know, at this point I’ll try anything, why not?
…would be less phonologically problematic than the reverse direction. Although *h₂stḗr also seems to have a good PIE-internal etymology, so the resemblance may be a coincidence en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconst...
![Apparently from *h₂e(h₁)s- (“to burn, glow”) + *-tḗr (agentive nominal suffix), so that the result literally meant “glower, shiner”. Compare *h₂éh₁tēr (“fire”).
Noun
edit
*h₂stḗr m[1][2]
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April 29, 2025 at 2:19 PM
…would be less phonologically problematic than the reverse direction. Although *h₂stḗr also seems to have a good PIE-internal etymology, so the resemblance may be a coincidence en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconst...
*h₂stḗr to PS *ʕaṯtar, it’s quite hard to explain phonologically. Why the voices reflex of h₂? Why the low vowels in PS? Why the dental fricative?
Wiktionary also suggests possible Berber and Chadic cognates to ʕaṯtar, but I don’t know how sound these are en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconst...
Wiktionary also suggests possible Berber and Chadic cognates to ʕaṯtar, but I don’t know how sound these are en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconst...
April 29, 2025 at 12:26 PM
*h₂stḗr to PS *ʕaṯtar, it’s quite hard to explain phonologically. Why the voices reflex of h₂? Why the low vowels in PS? Why the dental fricative?
Wiktionary also suggests possible Berber and Chadic cognates to ʕaṯtar, but I don’t know how sound these are en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconst...
Wiktionary also suggests possible Berber and Chadic cognates to ʕaṯtar, but I don’t know how sound these are en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconst...
Another thing to consider is that jinn and terms derived from it, almost exclusively related to madness, are found in Modern South Arabian languages as well as several Ethiosemitic languages. If the former at least are post-Islamic Arabic loans, that wouldn’t tell us much about its etymology, but…
April 7, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Another thing to consider is that jinn and terms derived from it, almost exclusively related to madness, are found in Modern South Arabian languages as well as several Ethiosemitic languages. If the former at least are post-Islamic Arabic loans, that wouldn’t tell us much about its etymology, but…
…latter were likely borrowed from the former, Al-Jallad argues.
The myriad attestations of (t)gn(n) “to go mad” (lit. “possessed by a Jinn”) do indeed contradict Falconer’s position that jinn were not a part of pre-Islamic Arab mythology. As for jinn’s proposed etymology, it is supported by AAWAB…
The myriad attestations of (t)gn(n) “to go mad” (lit. “possessed by a Jinn”) do indeed contradict Falconer’s position that jinn were not a part of pre-Islamic Arab mythology. As for jinn’s proposed etymology, it is supported by AAWAB…
April 7, 2025 at 2:36 AM
…latter were likely borrowed from the former, Al-Jallad argues.
The myriad attestations of (t)gn(n) “to go mad” (lit. “possessed by a Jinn”) do indeed contradict Falconer’s position that jinn were not a part of pre-Islamic Arab mythology. As for jinn’s proposed etymology, it is supported by AAWAB…
The myriad attestations of (t)gn(n) “to go mad” (lit. “possessed by a Jinn”) do indeed contradict Falconer’s position that jinn were not a part of pre-Islamic Arab mythology. As for jinn’s proposed etymology, it is supported by AAWAB…
Thanks to the internet, we have so many equivalents of Anne Frank’s diary documenting life under genocide in real time. I wonder if they’ll also become required reading someday long after we let their authors die
March 25, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Thanks to the internet, we have so many equivalents of Anne Frank’s diary documenting life under genocide in real time. I wonder if they’ll also become required reading someday long after we let their authors die
Interesting: a short post in Western Neo-Aramaic in Arabic script, by an author from the Aramaic-speaking Sunni Muslim village of Bakh’a: www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/guest-post... #Semitic
February 20, 2025 at 12:59 AM
Interesting: a short post in Western Neo-Aramaic in Arabic script, by an author from the Aramaic-speaking Sunni Muslim village of Bakh’a: www.aymennaltamimi.com/p/guest-post... #Semitic
Allegedly it comes from Manichaean Middle Persian: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B4%...
February 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Allegedly it comes from Manichaean Middle Persian: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%B4%...
I picked up some Pashto, including the days of the week, when I worked with Afghan students, and somehow it didn’t hit me until just now that the names are literally “one/two/three… from Sabbath”
From Kotyk’s “Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity”
From Kotyk’s “Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity”
February 17, 2025 at 2:01 AM
I picked up some Pashto, including the days of the week, when I worked with Afghan students, and somehow it didn’t hit me until just now that the names are literally “one/two/three… from Sabbath”
From Kotyk’s “Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity”
From Kotyk’s “Sino-Iranian and Sino-Arabian Relations in Late Antiquity”
Ironic then, that Frankism has also become the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories 🙃
January 20, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Ironic then, that Frankism has also become the subject of antisemitic conspiracy theories 🙃
How big would the Mongol empire be if we accepted its claim to uninhabited and sparsely inhabited land it had limited control over, like we do with modern colonial empires?
Pretty damn big www.academia.edu/37799970
Pretty damn big www.academia.edu/37799970
January 12, 2025 at 4:37 AM
How big would the Mongol empire be if we accepted its claim to uninhabited and sparsely inhabited land it had limited control over, like we do with modern colonial empires?
Pretty damn big www.academia.edu/37799970
Pretty damn big www.academia.edu/37799970
Benjamin Franklin? The guy who wrote a whole essay making the case that horny young men should have sex with older women? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advice_...
January 6, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Benjamin Franklin? The guy who wrote a whole essay making the case that horny young men should have sex with older women? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advice_...
I think this might be the first time the work of Ahmad Al-Jallad, and recent Old Arabic research in general, was cited in a genetics paper. At least, it’s the first I’ve seen www.nature.com/articles/s41...
January 4, 2025 at 1:44 AM
I think this might be the first time the work of Ahmad Al-Jallad, and recent Old Arabic research in general, was cited in a genetics paper. At least, it’s the first I’ve seen www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Every official statement released by Jolani during the offensive:
December 18, 2024 at 9:16 AM
Every official statement released by Jolani during the offensive:
Thanks for the helpful and relevant description here Wikipedia
December 16, 2024 at 9:49 AM
Thanks for the helpful and relevant description here Wikipedia
Them: Oh, you work in physics? What’s your job title?
Me:
Me:
December 13, 2024 at 10:03 PM
Them: Oh, you work in physics? What’s your job title?
Me:
Me:
“Group theory isn’t scary, there’s nothing to be afraid of”
Group theory:
Group theory:
December 13, 2024 at 4:55 AM
“Group theory isn’t scary, there’s nothing to be afraid of”
Group theory:
Group theory:
Found this on the other site and had to repost
December 4, 2024 at 11:32 PM
Found this on the other site and had to repost
That’s why I said “comparatively”. If it wasn’t interesting, I wouldn’t have made a career of it! But we wouldn’t be the main obstacle to an alien invasion lol
I wouldn’t get my hopes too high for detecting gravitons: arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/06... But we may yet discover some other new particle that…
I wouldn’t get my hopes too high for detecting gravitons: arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/06... But we may yet discover some other new particle that…
November 26, 2024 at 4:12 AM
That’s why I said “comparatively”. If it wasn’t interesting, I wouldn’t have made a career of it! But we wouldn’t be the main obstacle to an alien invasion lol
I wouldn’t get my hopes too high for detecting gravitons: arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/06... But we may yet discover some other new particle that…
I wouldn’t get my hopes too high for detecting gravitons: arxiv.org/pdf/gr-qc/06... But we may yet discover some other new particle that…