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Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 121 of 152 09 January 2015 at 5:10pm | IP Logged |
1st January happens to be Ashraf's birthday, so I wished him a happy birthday in Arabic.
In response, I got شكراُ جزبلاً and some New Year greetings.
New words
Saha صحة truth, correctness
Sa'ida سعادة happiness
***
Also, some Arabic satirical pictures in the wake of Charlie Hebdo attack: link
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| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 122 of 152 18 January 2015 at 11:59am | IP Logged |
Not much on the languages end of things - writing a term paper.
I was just checking sound streaming devices (think Oticon Streamer or Phonak iCom) but I don't think they are for me - five times as pricey as the Bluetooth loop and because they are constantly on and there are no replacement batteries, their lifetime is around two years, and once they die, you have to buy a new device. The only advantage they have over the induction loops is that you don't have to switch the hearing aid to the T setting - which has the side effect of crackling static when there's no input via the loop (and the static can't really be avoided, since it just picks up electromagnetic radiation all around).
Right now I'm testing a Blucom (some local Polish company) Bluetooth induction loop. The loop's pretty funny, since it's a mish-mash of a (local Polish company) M-Life ML-01 phone headset Bluetooth module and Blucom's only part is the loop itself. But they charge four times the headset's price lol.
I've had to install new Bluetooth drivers for my laptop because the old ones didn't support audio via Bluetooth. The new ones are spiffy, and on the way, I learned why Bluetooth is named so.
Apparently whoever invented the name liked Norse history and thought of the king who connected disparate tribes - Harald Bluetooth. The name stuck and now most BT devices flash blue and/or have a blue icon :)
BT in Arabic is supposedly بلوتوث according to Google.
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6060 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)
| Message 123 of 152 18 January 2015 at 3:21pm | IP Logged |
Zireael wrote:
Apparently whoever invented the name liked Norse history and thought of the king who connected disparate tribes - Harald Bluetooth. |
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It was a Swedish company that thought of that. I heard a slightly different story: Harald managed to become king of both Denmark and Norway, i.e., two countries separated by sea. In doing so, he managed to establish a "communication" between two places physically unconnected. Hence the symbolism.
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| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 124 of 152 19 January 2015 at 7:06pm | IP Logged |
Read a Polish translation of a Spanish novel set in Al-Andalus.
Features Avenzoar and Averroes and Avicenna is mentioned, too. I bet you already noticed the common link to all those Latinized names - they all start with Av-. This made me wonder, since there is no Av- or even remotely close to it in the Arabic names ابن زهر, ابن رشد, ابن سینا .
And then I noticed a note on one of the Wikipedia pages (I think it was Avenzoar), that the name was first translated to Hebrew. Ibn became Aben, and from here it was easy to see Aben-Zohar becoming Avenzoar or Aben-Rois becoming Averroes (note: Spanish pronunciation of b and v is almost identical therefore the spelling change)
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6060 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)
| Message 125 of 152 20 January 2015 at 1:19am | IP Logged |
Well, a lot of concepts entered Europe through the Arab presence here in Al-Andalus (yes, here).
For instance, in a formula, Arab mathematicians (they invented algebra, الجبر) called the unknown "thing", that is, شيء, (pronounced more or less "shay"). Well, in both Portuguese and Spanish, it would be with an "x".
As a consequence, we all search for the value of "x", the first letter of "thing" in Arabic.
The number of Arabic words in both Portuguese and Spanish is huge.
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| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 126 of 152 21 January 2015 at 10:12am | IP Logged |
Wrapping up the term paper.
The BT loop allows me to talk on the mobile phone even in noisy conditions, but the time to turn it on and connect is a bit too long (2 mins last time I tried).
The nice thing I found is that an app I use to save articles and web pages on my computer has a mobile version, and said mobile version has a TTS option. Now that I'm testing the loop, I discovered I can actually *understand* the TTS output without setting the mobile speaker to full volume and disturbing everyone around.
I didn't like the Google Spanish voice, so I started looking for other solutions. The free version of eSpeak (eyes-free) didn't want to work on my device, making me REALLY wary of trying the paid version. SVOX took some time to install, but has a free 2 week trial of any voice I want, and after that they're priced 4 euros each (nearly 10 złoty). I've also seen Acapela Voices app, but I don't know their price for voices (supposedly five euros, so slightly more, but I've used their on-line trial and liked it).
Any TTS recommendations? I'd love to get an app which has Arabic offered, so that I can actually get used to the sound of the language.
Edited by Zireael on 21 January 2015 at 11:30am
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| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 127 of 152 24 January 2015 at 9:22pm | IP Logged |
17.01, Omar Sharif's (عمر الشريف) ex-wife Haten Hamama فاتن حمامة dies.
23.01, King Abdullah bin Abd' al-Aziz [of Saudi Arabia] dies and is succeeded by his half-brother Salman.
(Yes, I looked through the list of Hamama's roles on Wikipedia. As good a way to learn some new words as any)
New words & phrases
Manzil raqam 13 منزل رقم house number 13
Rosassa رصاصة bullet
Dunya دنيا world, universe
Malak ملاك angel
Sitt ست lady
Sira' صراع struggle
al-hob الحب love
maw'ed موعد date, appointment
hallan حلاً solution
uridu أريد I want
tutf' تطفئ extinguish, put out
lahn لحن melody
al-Dalem الظام tyrant
irham ارحم have pity on
dumu دموع tears
al-rimal الرمال the sands
tareeq طريق road, way
waqt وقت time
al-akheera الأخيرة last, recent
mur مر bitter
hilw الحلو sweet (adj.)
Al-madi الماضي the past
ayyamna أيامنا our days
Al-yatimatain اليتيمتين orphans (fem. dual)
al-ahlam الأحلام dreams
Sharif شريف noble
Malaki ملكي royal
Kanisat كنيسة church, temple
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| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4650 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English
| Message 128 of 152 27 January 2015 at 5:12pm | IP Logged |
I've browsed through some old English textbook someone dumped in a charity bin. Not useful at all, save for one little snippet in question tags description.
New words
A-laysa kaðalik أليس كذلك isn't it so?
Edited by Zireael on 28 January 2015 at 9:32am
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