A. Z. Foreman: Serious Philology, Silly Behavior
@azforeman.bsky.social
Russian-American linguist, 1st amendment nerd, translator. Posts re: medieval literature, free speech, translation, poetry, & linguistic history of Arabic, English and other languages.
C’est de loin la meilleure traduction française de Dante que j'ai jamais lue. Elle saisit quelque chose de lui qu'aucune autre version française n'arrive à rendre.
Fortement recommandée.
Fortement recommandée.
July 27, 2025 at 6:16 PM
C’est de loin la meilleure traduction française de Dante que j'ai jamais lue. Elle saisit quelque chose de lui qu'aucune autre version française n'arrive à rendre.
Fortement recommandée.
Fortement recommandée.
I have seen takes you people wouldn't believe.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
April 19, 2025 at 10:16 AM
I have seen takes you people wouldn't believe.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
Bill Kristol on fire with AOC's talking point.
I watched David Brooks' eye glitter remembering Bloody Sunday.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Hannania's Mea Culpa.
Time to cry.
Toxic nazgulinity
April 18, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Toxic nazgulinity
Another specimen of me reading in a reconstruction of a form of Iron Age Hebrew pronunciation in all its ejective glory: the beginning of Genesis 29.
April 3, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Another specimen of me reading in a reconstruction of a form of Iron Age Hebrew pronunciation in all its ejective glory: the beginning of Genesis 29.
And here's Psalm 117 performed with responsory which is probably how it was done in synagogues in Palestine/the Land of Israel in this period.
April 3, 2025 at 6:36 AM
And here's Psalm 117 performed with responsory which is probably how it was done in synagogues in Palestine/the Land of Israel in this period.
For another specimen of reconstructed Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, here's me reading psalm 120 from the Aleppo Codex.
April 3, 2025 at 5:26 AM
For another specimen of reconstructed Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, here's me reading psalm 120 from the Aleppo Codex.
Not only did I decide that Jabberwocky needs to exist in Middle English, but I also decided that it needed to be recorded.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
March 29, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Not only did I decide that Jabberwocky needs to exist in Middle English, but I also decided that it needed to be recorded.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
Lots of Old English words, particularly poetic ones, don't have reflexes that survive into Middle English. This was one very weird way to fix some instances of that.
OTOH here's a shot at how the passage might have sounded like in the Iron Age
I make some assumptions here (incl. that the passage existed in this form then). There's uncertainty re: some major sound changes' chronology
Heads up: don't listen if you don't like hearing the tetragrammaton pronounced
I make some assumptions here (incl. that the passage existed in this form then). There's uncertainty re: some major sound changes' chronology
Heads up: don't listen if you don't like hearing the tetragrammaton pronounced
March 29, 2025 at 8:43 PM
OTOH here's a shot at how the passage might have sounded like in the Iron Age
I make some assumptions here (incl. that the passage existed in this form then). There's uncertainty re: some major sound changes' chronology
Heads up: don't listen if you don't like hearing the tetragrammaton pronounced
I make some assumptions here (incl. that the passage existed in this form then). There's uncertainty re: some major sound changes' chronology
Heads up: don't listen if you don't like hearing the tetragrammaton pronounced
A reading of the famous "Once More Unto The Breach" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V in a reconstruction of very early 17th century pronunciation. The king gets surprised mid-speech.
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
March 29, 2025 at 8:25 PM
A reading of the famous "Once More Unto The Breach" speech from Shakespeare's Henry V in a reconstruction of very early 17th century pronunciation. The king gets surprised mid-speech.
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
(This is a relatively conservative accent for the period, w/ even the long mid-vowels still relatively low.)
If you're wondering about the labiodental vav & uvular resh, yes, those do seem to have been features of Tiberian reading
The Babylonian reading though had alveolar resh & labiovelar vav. Here's the same passage in a (very tentative) reconstruction of Old Babylonian pronunciation from the period...
The Babylonian reading though had alveolar resh & labiovelar vav. Here's the same passage in a (very tentative) reconstruction of Old Babylonian pronunciation from the period...
March 29, 2025 at 7:25 PM
If you're wondering about the labiodental vav & uvular resh, yes, those do seem to have been features of Tiberian reading
The Babylonian reading though had alveolar resh & labiovelar vav. Here's the same passage in a (very tentative) reconstruction of Old Babylonian pronunciation from the period...
The Babylonian reading though had alveolar resh & labiovelar vav. Here's the same passage in a (very tentative) reconstruction of Old Babylonian pronunciation from the period...
The beginning of the Shma read by me in Khan's reconstruction of Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. This pronunciation is the one the vowel diacritics we now know originally represented. This is the closest I think we can come to an idea of how Hebrew was read in liturgy in 10th century Abbasid Tiberias
March 29, 2025 at 7:19 PM
The beginning of the Shma read by me in Khan's reconstruction of Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. This pronunciation is the one the vowel diacritics we now know originally represented. This is the closest I think we can come to an idea of how Hebrew was read in liturgy in 10th century Abbasid Tiberias
Speaking of which, here's me reading the villainous opening speech from Richard III in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation.
March 29, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Speaking of which, here's me reading the villainous opening speech from Richard III in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation.
How big does a qamatz have to be before it constitutes a qamatz Gadol? Does it have to be a qamatz descended from Aaron?
March 25, 2025 at 4:06 PM
How big does a qamatz have to be before it constitutes a qamatz Gadol? Does it have to be a qamatz descended from Aaron?
Does…does she know what that emoji means?
March 20, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Does…does she know what that emoji means?
If someone showed me this interaction and told me it was parody I would believe them.
An increasing amount of online neurodivergence advice & discourse is basically bullshit. (A particularly stupid example is the periodically circulated thoughtmeme about autistic people being immune to propaganda.)
An increasing amount of online neurodivergence advice & discourse is basically bullshit. (A particularly stupid example is the periodically circulated thoughtmeme about autistic people being immune to propaganda.)
March 20, 2025 at 4:07 AM
If someone showed me this interaction and told me it was parody I would believe them.
An increasing amount of online neurodivergence advice & discourse is basically bullshit. (A particularly stupid example is the periodically circulated thoughtmeme about autistic people being immune to propaganda.)
An increasing amount of online neurodivergence advice & discourse is basically bullshit. (A particularly stupid example is the periodically circulated thoughtmeme about autistic people being immune to propaganda.)
"This world will never hold for you or me.
So just hold God to heart, and let it be.
Trust not this earthly kindom to be true.
You will not be the first it nursed then slew.
What does it matter, as your soul moves on,
Whether you die in dirt or on a throne?"
— Saadi of Shiraz
So just hold God to heart, and let it be.
Trust not this earthly kindom to be true.
You will not be the first it nursed then slew.
What does it matter, as your soul moves on,
Whether you die in dirt or on a throne?"
— Saadi of Shiraz
March 19, 2025 at 9:00 AM
"This world will never hold for you or me.
So just hold God to heart, and let it be.
Trust not this earthly kindom to be true.
You will not be the first it nursed then slew.
What does it matter, as your soul moves on,
Whether you die in dirt or on a throne?"
— Saadi of Shiraz
So just hold God to heart, and let it be.
Trust not this earthly kindom to be true.
You will not be the first it nursed then slew.
What does it matter, as your soul moves on,
Whether you die in dirt or on a throne?"
— Saadi of Shiraz
In which I read Shakespeare's Sonnet 15 in a reconsteruction of early 17th century pronunciation
March 11, 2025 at 2:06 AM
In which I read Shakespeare's Sonnet 15 in a reconsteruction of early 17th century pronunciation
Happy International Women's day.
In honor of which (& because I love how modern Tajik poets play w/ the Persianate tradition) here's me reading "Daughter's Song" by Zulfiya Atoi in Tajik.
My translation is on screen in the video with a Perso-Arabic transcription for the Cyrillically impaired.
In honor of which (& because I love how modern Tajik poets play w/ the Persianate tradition) here's me reading "Daughter's Song" by Zulfiya Atoi in Tajik.
My translation is on screen in the video with a Perso-Arabic transcription for the Cyrillically impaired.
March 9, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Happy International Women's day.
In honor of which (& because I love how modern Tajik poets play w/ the Persianate tradition) here's me reading "Daughter's Song" by Zulfiya Atoi in Tajik.
My translation is on screen in the video with a Perso-Arabic transcription for the Cyrillically impaired.
In honor of which (& because I love how modern Tajik poets play w/ the Persianate tradition) here's me reading "Daughter's Song" by Zulfiya Atoi in Tajik.
My translation is on screen in the video with a Perso-Arabic transcription for the Cyrillically impaired.
In which I read Shakespeare's Sonnet 81 in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation
March 7, 2025 at 10:07 PM
In which I read Shakespeare's Sonnet 81 in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation
This very mistaken passage from Robin Robbins' edition of the Complete Poems of John Donne sort of illustrates why I really think it's a bad idea for lit people to let old-school philology slide. I'm going to go through them one by one.
March 7, 2025 at 8:45 PM
This very mistaken passage from Robin Robbins' edition of the Complete Poems of John Donne sort of illustrates why I really think it's a bad idea for lit people to let old-school philology slide. I'm going to go through them one by one.
Ok but that line needs to be farther south. The top half of France (if not the top two thirds) should be green as well
March 7, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Ok but that line needs to be farther south. The top half of France (if not the top two thirds) should be green as well
Crazy Diamond Design makes amazing paleographic fonts. For that doubtless enormous constituency of people who feel like translating a text into late 14th century English and making the reader deal with late 14th century English handwriting, there's nothing better.
March 6, 2025 at 12:47 AM
Crazy Diamond Design makes amazing paleographic fonts. For that doubtless enormous constituency of people who feel like translating a text into late 14th century English and making the reader deal with late 14th century English handwriting, there's nothing better.
This was a bad idea
March 3, 2025 at 10:55 AM
This was a bad idea
How does a snake organize a trip like that?
March 2, 2025 at 11:22 PM
How does a snake organize a trip like that?