Linguaphiles

The English word climax has two seemingly incompatible meanings of "climax" and "orgasm". Yet, we should not forget that the word has not only a specific meaning, but also a more general, broader meaning, not of a 'specialized' term.

Let's illustrate this via an example: a person may have a profession of a lawyer - yet, within this profession there are many specialties: a judge, an arbitrator, a prosecutor, a notary...

The general meaning for the word climax is 'the highest point, the culmination.' But there are several applied, special, narrower meanings. Climax is the culmination of adulthood - yet, climax as 'orgasm' is the culmination of pleasure.

The etymologist is obliged to grasp a common semantic core, which allows different meanings to co-exist under one 'sound roof'.

I was once amazed that the Arabic word شراء [SHARA] means both “buy” and “sell” at the same time. And now I look at this calmly: both narrow, special meanings go back to the broader, general meaning: "to engage in trade."

Valeriy D. Osipov
Ph.D.

YULE, JUL, JULEN, JOULU, JÕULUD

The French, the British, the Germans, the Scandinavians and the Baltic Finns call Christmas with the following word that remains from pagan times: Yule (Eng.), Jul, Julen (Sw., Dan., Norw.), Jól (Icelandic), Joulu (Finnish, Izhorian), Jõulu(d) (Estonian, Votic) - allegedly considered to be a word 'of unknown origin': https://www.etymonline.com/word/yule .

Noteworthy, however, is that the followers of the Zoroastrian (Persian, Iranian) tradition use the same name when celebrating the winter Solstice: they call the longest and darkest night of the year as Shab-e Yalda, or Shab-e Chelleh (Çillə). [Spoiler (click to open)]In Zoroastrian tradition it is considered to be a particularly inauspicious night when the evil forces of Ahriman are imagined to be at their peak. One is advised to stay awake most of the night, to avoid any misfortune. People gather in safe groups of friends and relatives, and share their last remaining fruits of the past summer. The following day (the first day of Dae month) is a holiday. The word Yalda supposedly means 'the Birth' or 'to give birth'.

It is further comparable to:
[yuladu] يولد (Arab.), [yalad] יָלַד (Hebrew) - to give birth;
[hуlad] הוּלַד (Hebrew) - was born;
[yalud] יָלוּד (Hebrew) - newborn[Spoiler (click to open)];
[eled; yaldo] יַלדו ; יֶלֶד (Hebrew) - a boy, a child
– i.e. the infant Sun, which is 'born' each year at winter solstice).
Source: https://ich-neu-mon.livejournal.com/68150.html .

It is obvious that the Birth of the new Sun is exactly what the name of the holiday, the Yule, reflects.

( Collapse )

Below is the text of my presentation at the 2nd International Conference "The Great Eurasian Partnership: Linguistic, Political and Pedagogical Aspects", arranged to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Moscow Oblast State University (MGOU).

Abstract. The similarity of the sound of a number of names of the same birds between Asian and European languages testifies to more ancient linguistic connections and influences than it is commonly believed when establishing lexical borrowings.

Keywords: names of birds, Arabic, language classification.

This paper deals with words that sound similar in Arabic and English. It considers, in particular, the possible reason why the organ of smell was named with the help of this particular combination of sounds, namely, the word NOSE in English and the word ANF “nose” in Arabic. The author puts forward his own version (hypothesis) of the origin of these two words, and also gives some evidence that both words, Arabic and English, may have the same origin.

( Collapse )

These are from a novel from Philip Roth. I'm sure the author doesn't speak Arabic, so presumably he had somebody to translate and transliterate those. He gives the pronunciation and the English translation.

I need to know if the English translation and transliteration are accurate.(I tried to Google-translate them and the results were rather dissappointing)

1\ Ad-daroori lih achkaam. ‘Necessity has its own rules.’

2/'the shifting sands'--ramal mutaharrika

I'm working on something and wanted some feedback. I'm needing to do some translations that simply state "I speak..." Like "I speak French" - "Je parle français".. But I wanted to double check my translation on the following. If you are fluent in any of the following can you let me know your thoughts on accuracy?

Thank you in advance!

I speak Vietnamese
Tôi nói tiếng Việt

I speak Cantonese (Traditional Chinese)
我說廣東話

I speak Japanese
私は日本語を話します

I speak Tagalog
Ginagamit ko tagalog

I speak Arabic
 أنا أتكلم العربية

Hello! I'm a local historian working on a series of articles about London Road, Croydon, and I could do with some help interpreting an archived shopfront image from Google Street View.

The shopfront in question is the yellow one on the left in this Street View image. Could someone give me a transcription and translation of the non-English words on the frontage, please?

This restaurant is no longer open, but I suspect from its name and the dishes it used to serve (I've seen an old takeaway menu at the local archives) that the chef was Kurdish. The restaurant that replaced it and is still there today is definitely Kurdish.

Thank you for reading!

I like to watch the TV series „Arrow“, where John Barrowman plays Malcolm Merlyn aka the Dark Archer.

He was recently seen sharpening a scimitar and I’d like to make one in small scale for my action figure. Can someone please recognize and tell me what the inscription would look like in complete if his hand was not hiding part of it? I did screenshots of the episode, we see both sides of the blade from the way he is holding it. I think they look different.

I have no idea what kind of language this is supposed to be. Ra’s al Ghul has been speaking Arabic, yet the mythologic place Nanda Parbat is supposed to be set in Tibet. Of course Malcolm could have picked up this sword anywhere, but he has connections to Ra’s al Ghul and Nanda Parbat so that would be my best guess. I'll tag the post properly once someone has confirmed.

Many thanks!

What does this say?

( Collapse )

This came up in one of my two current rpg campaigns: A player gave me a background for his character that involves his struggling against an archenemy who works through an organization called "Soldiers of the Usurper." I'm bringing them on stage by having them work through a group of underground organizations whose native language is Egyptian Arabic. So I'd like to give an Arabic phrase that translates as "soldiers of the usurper." Could someone provide a translation?

It doesn't have to be literally "usurper." It could be "overthrower" or "upriser" or something like that.