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Arabic in bite-sized parts | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4648 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes  Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 65 of 152 25 October 2013 at 2:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why would نانا look better than نونو?
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6058 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 66 of 152 28 October 2013 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
For me, that's not the worst part, but rather the fact that he accepted whatever was being proposed to him without discussion. Anyway, unless someone is using a tattoo like the Sanskrit OM, I guess they can write whatever you want, under the assumption that 99% of the people they'll meet will not be able to read it and just think it's "cool". The other 1% are either natives or nerds... :P P.S.: Even OM will be recognised by how many people outside this forum (and India, of course)? 3%? 5%? Edited by Luso on 28 October 2013 at 12:37am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| KSAKSA Groupie Australia Joined 5142 days ago 65 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Gulf) | Message 67 of 152 28 October 2013 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh I'm not sure - OM is actually widely used in popular culture....I reckon if OM was tattooed incorrectly it would be noticed.
It's a gas though that this guy was all, 'yeah, whatever' when getting something put on his body for life. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4648 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 68 of 152 02 November 2013 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Next week came and went. Had classes with the Yemenis, again, so I grabbed the birthday gift and stuffed it into my backpack.
On Tuesday, a Kurdish friend gave me some materials for Niaz, so I brushed the dust off my Arabic conjugation skills and told her: لكي , من صديقكي No clue how to spell Guelas (ue = u umlaut) :P Then Niaz wanted to know which girl she'd be partnering with for her presentation so when I finally spotted the one I said: هذه هي. On Wednesday, when I arrived for the Intercultural Communication class (laugh if you will, the class is made up of roughly 80% foreigners - Yemeni, Spanish, Japanese - and 20% Polish; and so is the Tuesday Crosslinguistic Influence class), I saw the three plus Guelas and one Polish guy. The three were talking in Arabic back and forth, too quick for me to get anything besides some function words :P Then a Polish boy wanted to know Niaz's name, so she wrote it down and pointed out that her surname comes from the name of her birthplace, and I asked: هل شميري من اليمن؟ .. and the boy's jaw like, fell down when he heard me speaking Arabic. Granted, it was very slow and I needed to repeat myself, but I think it's a combination of my pronunciation - which must surely be awful to native speakers' ears - and Niaz not expecting to hear Arabic. Then Niaz asked us about a few Polish phrases, so I spent the lulls in the lesson leafing through the dictionary to look up "want" and Niaz spotted the Arabic on the cover and took a look at it. At the end of the lesson, I asked her: توريدي درس البولاندية؟ (yes, blame me, I forgot "هل" at the start) and she said that a girl in her dormitory is already teaching her Polish. Being replied to in English is a little discouraging, but I'm not to be let down by such a minor quibble! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4648 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 69 of 152 18 November 2013 at 12:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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There were no classes on Tuesday and Niaz did the class presentation on Wednesday, so there were no opportunities to speak to her. On the other hand, I saw her drag another Arabic girl into the class, so I jumped at the chance to ask the girl Men ayna anti? and Ma ismuki? and the girl was completely stumped until Niaz told her in English "She can speak a little Arabic". It turns out the girl was Iranian but I didn't catch her name, blame my hearing :(
On the other hand, I found this excellent picture on Wikipedia illustrating the Arabic forms:  .
And I've also found a site with some Arabic phrases. New phrases Kam huwa omrak(i) كم هو عمرك How old are you Takalam bebot min fadlek(i) تكلم ببطء من فضلك Speak slowly please Ma ismuhu bi-arabiyya ما أسمه بالعربية What's that called in Arabic? Keif taqul kalamat X bi-arabiyya كيف تقول كلمة "X" بالعربية؟ How do you say X in Arabic? La taqlaq(i) لا تقلق Don't worry! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6058 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 70 of 152 18 November 2013 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Picking up the "X" example:
The reason we use this letter in particular to express the unknown in mathematics is due to the Arabic word شيء (thing), which begins by the letter ش. In the Iberian Peninsula languages, we translate this letter as "X", rather than "SH". Why the Iberian Peninsula and not any other place? Because Arab knowledge entered Europe via this zone. Toledo, for instance, was a place where northern europeans came to learn. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Andrew C Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom naturalarabic.com Joined 5187 days ago 205 posts - 350 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written) | Message 71 of 152 18 November 2013 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
That is a romantic etymology, but I think it is probably not correct, unfortunately. See here, which suggests the truth is more prosaic: x y and z were chosen by Descartes arbitrarily. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6058 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 72 of 152 18 November 2013 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | ||
I think "suggests" is the key word here. If you take the Wikipedia page for "variable (mathematics)" in Arabic, it states unequivocally that it was the letter used for the variable and that it was translated into Spanish. As I'm not a specialist, I can't be very assertive in this matter. Maybe the page you give is correct. But I wouldn't be surprised if it weren't. I must nevertheless thank you, since I found other interesting trivia there. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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