ari
@toomuchpiano.bsky.social
singer-songwriter (https://linktr.ee/toomuchpiano), aspiring semiticist :D
i was surprised to see there was a Medina, Texas, and am now pleasantly bemused that there are *three*. (no relation to the former Yaṯrib though.)
November 20, 2025 at 6:17 PM
i was surprised to see there was a Medina, Texas, and am now pleasantly bemused that there are *three*. (no relation to the former Yaṯrib though.)
si fuera romanista, me encargaría enseguida :P
November 18, 2025 at 5:29 PM
si fuera romanista, me encargaría enseguida :P
dios, qué maravilla! hay alguna descripción escrita de la variedad? no sabía que había lenguas romances con sintaxis SOV
November 18, 2025 at 5:03 PM
dios, qué maravilla! hay alguna descripción escrita de la variedad? no sabía que había lenguas romances con sintaxis SOV
i hear a lot of /i u/ → [e o] in stressed syllables (i.e., كده [ˈkeda], هو [ˈhowwa]), but word-finally it seems to waffle a bit more. i hear قوي [ˈʔawe] and اللي [ˈelle] quite a bit, but content words like III-y verbs seem to have more [i], like يمشي [ˈjemʃi]
November 16, 2025 at 1:11 PM
i hear a lot of /i u/ → [e o] in stressed syllables (i.e., كده [ˈkeda], هو [ˈhowwa]), but word-finally it seems to waffle a bit more. i hear قوي [ˈʔawe] and اللي [ˈelle] quite a bit, but content words like III-y verbs seem to have more [i], like يمشي [ˈjemʃi]
i do!
i'm not certain, but what i'm referring to i think is like half the Levantine merger: word-final vowels lose their length contrast, and the resulting -i ← *-ī/-iyy is sometimes lowered to [e] (not sure the conditions), while -a ← *-ah/-ā doesn't undergo raising.
i'm not certain, but what i'm referring to i think is like half the Levantine merger: word-final vowels lose their length contrast, and the resulting -i ← *-ī/-iyy is sometimes lowered to [e] (not sure the conditions), while -a ← *-ah/-ā doesn't undergo raising.
November 16, 2025 at 11:06 AM
i do!
i'm not certain, but what i'm referring to i think is like half the Levantine merger: word-final vowels lose their length contrast, and the resulting -i ← *-ī/-iyy is sometimes lowered to [e] (not sure the conditions), while -a ← *-ah/-ā doesn't undergo raising.
i'm not certain, but what i'm referring to i think is like half the Levantine merger: word-final vowels lose their length contrast, and the resulting -i ← *-ī/-iyy is sometimes lowered to [e] (not sure the conditions), while -a ← *-ah/-ā doesn't undergo raising.
it's marra tānya in Cairene as well. final /a/ in that variety is fairly open (though not as far back as in Moroccan), but final /i/ does some weird lowering things in rapid speech that i haven't *quite* figured out.
November 16, 2025 at 10:37 AM
it's marra tānya in Cairene as well. final /a/ in that variety is fairly open (though not as far back as in Moroccan), but final /i/ does some weird lowering things in rapid speech that i haven't *quite* figured out.
i'd hazard that there are few people able to both handle the qāmūs-swallowing of most saǧʕ writers and render that sort of wordplay in dignified English (which would take some Joycean literary chops)
November 15, 2025 at 10:03 PM
i'd hazard that there are few people able to both handle the qāmūs-swallowing of most saǧʕ writers and render that sort of wordplay in dignified English (which would take some Joycean literary chops)
wild. there's an English rendering of al-Harizi's Hebrew maqāmāt as well (by Segal) which i thought was impressive, though i'm not certain whether it holds up for a full work. (maybe i'm just hard to impress :P)
November 15, 2025 at 9:51 PM
wild. there's an English rendering of al-Harizi's Hebrew maqāmāt as well (by Segal) which i thought was impressive, though i'm not certain whether it holds up for a full work. (maybe i'm just hard to impress :P)
leba-non-classical lexicographical is inspired.
(has anybody done a good job of rendering saǧʕ in english? it feels a little silly in the best of circumstances)
(has anybody done a good job of rendering saǧʕ in english? it feels a little silly in the best of circumstances)
November 15, 2025 at 8:30 AM
leba-non-classical lexicographical is inspired.
(has anybody done a good job of rendering saǧʕ in english? it feels a little silly in the best of circumstances)
(has anybody done a good job of rendering saǧʕ in english? it feels a little silly in the best of circumstances)
i don't mean to rub it in, but the first snows of winter just fell on the Sierra Nevada yesterday. if it's not too drizzly tomorrow i'll try and snap a pic :)
November 14, 2025 at 9:21 PM
i don't mean to rub it in, but the first snows of winter just fell on the Sierra Nevada yesterday. if it's not too drizzly tomorrow i'll try and snap a pic :)
i’ve got some reading to do!
November 10, 2025 at 6:20 AM
i’ve got some reading to do!
in any case he describes his د as naṭʕiyy, as are ت and ط, but not any of the fricatives (nor, curiously enough, with ظ, which he categorizes as šaǧriyy along with ج and ش; i assume he realized it [ɮˤ])
November 9, 2025 at 9:49 PM
in any case he describes his د as naṭʕiyy, as are ت and ط, but not any of the fricatives (nor, curiously enough, with ظ, which he categorizes as šaǧriyy along with ج and ش; i assume he realized it [ɮˤ])
al-Xalīl for instance describes both ك and ق as lahawiyy, a term which today means "uvular", and all of ع ه خ and غ as ḥalqiyy, today "pharyngeal"
November 9, 2025 at 9:41 PM
al-Xalīl for instance describes both ك and ق as lahawiyy, a term which today means "uvular", and all of ع ه خ and غ as ḥalqiyy, today "pharyngeal"
i don't know if this helps or hurts, but part of the problem here is that this terminology was coined by classical grammarians (as early as al-Xalīl!) and has only recently been adapted to the modern western language of place of articulation
November 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM
i don't know if this helps or hurts, but part of the problem here is that this terminology was coined by classical grammarians (as early as al-Xalīl!) and has only recently been adapted to the modern western language of place of articulation
Namara inscription vs Mesha stele (king names better known from elsewhere :P)
November 7, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Namara inscription vs Mesha stele (king names better known from elsewhere :P)
hard to say! AA seems to have gone through both a loss of contrastive vowel length and some very heavy imāla, the details of which are unclear. Corriente doesn't posit a phonemic /e/ though
November 7, 2025 at 6:50 PM
hard to say! AA seems to have gone through both a loss of contrastive vowel length and some very heavy imāla, the details of which are unclear. Corriente doesn't posit a phonemic /e/ though
where is the quote from?? i'd love to read more
November 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM
where is the quote from?? i'd love to read more
Reposted by ari
16) the best historical pronunciation of Hebrew is the Provençal one, for the sheer audacity of its consonant shifts.
sorry, I mean:
fe beff hiftorical pronunfiasing of Hebrew iv fe Provençal wung, fokh fe seekh audafity of iff confonanf siff.
sorry, I mean:
fe beff hiftorical pronunfiasing of Hebrew iv fe Provençal wung, fokh fe seekh audafity of iff confonanf siff.
![The very unusual pronunciation tradition of Hebrew can be seen in these examples: the characteristic pronunciation of Hebrew ṯ, s, ś, ṣ, and word-final ṭ and ḏ as [f], z as [v], and š as [s], word-final r as [χ], and syllable-final /n/ and /m/ as [ŋ].](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fujsnmqkn7n4pcmd5ybt7jld/bafkreihdjlyzfdte2j3caycwnw7vpnlzajr236hjpenbtm5dec7ttceaga@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 9:26 AM
16) the best historical pronunciation of Hebrew is the Provençal one, for the sheer audacity of its consonant shifts.
sorry, I mean:
fe beff hiftorical pronunfiasing of Hebrew iv fe Provençal wung, fokh fe seekh audafity of iff confonanf siff.
sorry, I mean:
fe beff hiftorical pronunfiasing of Hebrew iv fe Provençal wung, fokh fe seekh audafity of iff confonanf siff.