tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post2504382024696226806..comments2024-03-20T01:06:12.181-04:00Comments on MEI Editor's Blog: Linguistic Notes on the RevolutionUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post-39680144840438769492011-02-16T02:02:09.419-05:002011-02-16T02:02:09.419-05:00Jonsathsan:
one last point: while I agree with yo...Jonsathsan:<br /><br />one last point: while I agree with you otherwise, I still think it's "you don't understand ME" since the dots under the last character seem to add a first person object to the negative suffix.Michael Collins Dunnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07398326467953722017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post-15021377775081572152011-02-16T01:55:44.072-05:002011-02-16T01:55:44.072-05:00Jonathan; you're right. I scewed it up, as my ...Jonathan; you're right. I scewed it up, as my wife and daughter were telling me to get ready to go to a Valentine's day dinner. I don't recall what Zimmer wrote but he's not the Arabic speaker. I've now corrected it.Michael Collins Dunnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07398326467953722017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post-58565020502017970602011-02-16T01:43:20.265-05:002011-02-16T01:43:20.265-05:00Jacob:
When I first lived in Egypt in the Sadat e...Jacob:<br /><br />When I first lived in Egypt in the Sadat era, despite a certain recognition that one must understand one's enemy, most available texts for learning Hebrew dealt with Biblical Hebrew, not modern Israeli. (I hope they weren't what military intelligence was studying, but that might explain a lot.) I knew an Egyptian journalist (forget his name: Rifaat something) who had his 15 minutes of fame during Menahem Begin's first visit to Egypt (reciprocating Sadat's to Jerusalem), when he asked a question in Hebrew. At the time I knew no Hebrew and today it's still pretty rudimentary, but I know Hebrew speakers thought it was awfully formal. With so many Israeli tourists in the Sinai I sort of assumed it had improved, but could thst explain the formality of the Tahrir signs?Michael Collins Dunnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07398326467953722017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post-50389880265343396842011-02-16T01:20:36.568-05:002011-02-16T01:20:36.568-05:00At Tahrir Square, I saw signs in French, German, R...At Tahrir Square, I saw signs in French, German, Russian, an East Asian language, hieroglyphics, and even an attempt at Hebrew. I say attempt, because the verb conjugation was both incorrect and they awkwardly used exceedingly formal language (to the extent that modern Hebrew has formality) to translate "ir7al".<br /><br />Real shame too, there are lots of great allusions one could make to the Exodus in protesting against Mubarak in Hebrew - and Mubarak is the same number of syllables as "Mitzrayim", which would make the possibilities numerous.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12336026257182221564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22261571.post-29865191745366169322011-02-15T03:48:45.893-05:002011-02-15T03:48:45.893-05:00Inexplicably, someone screwed up the transliterati...Inexplicably, someone screwed up the transliteration of the long word at the end of the slogan, and slightly mistranslated it. It should be mabtifhamshi (not mabitfahimshi, meaning 'you do not understand', made up of five separate elements, compressed according to Egyptian colloquial's rules for vowel omission:<br />ma - negative prefix<br />bi - mood marker<br />ti - you (sing) prefix<br />fham - understand (present)<br />shi - negative suffix (originally from shay', thing)Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10026403603195204802noreply@blogger.com