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The Frustrations About Not Being A Semiticist

docoflove1974

Entry posted by docoflove1974

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There are certain words in Old Castilian that occur in my dataset which I have traced their etymology...and they are Arabic borrowings. Not unusual at all; because of almost 800 years of Moorish rule, and the close contact between the Romance-speaking Iberians, the Jewish shopkeepers and the Arabic-speaking Moors, there's about 10% of the Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan vocabularies which is Semitic (mostly Arabic) in origin.

 

So, I have about 8 words in my dataset which are Arabic in origin, and I want to find out their gender in Arabic. I don't care so much about the gender inflection--Semitic inflection is different than Indo-European inflection, and they don't mix well. Often the word would be borrowed wholesale, and the gender that was associated with it would be applied (if possible).

 

Do you have any idea who difficult it is to look up words in an Arabic-English (or Arabic-French) dictionary when it is: (a) organized according to the Arabic alphabet, not the English (or French); and (2) all of the Arabic words are written in Arabic script??? I can't find a blessed thing. And this is frustrating; Stanford must have 10 different Arabic-English dictionaries, plus 2 Arabic-French ones. I can't find a bleeping word. I have no idea where to start. Not even the first one.

 

So, excusing me while I'm cranky...I have a headache from all the funny-looking symbols. :wacko:

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docoflove1974

I'd take Latin or any of its descendants, German, English, Greek...anything whose system of writing I can understand easily, and therefore cross reference with dictionaries. So inconsiderate, I tells ya.

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Rameses the Great

I know a little bit of the slang Arabic. It is quite easy to speak actually but reading and writing it is a whole different matter. When I first saw it it looked like scribbles. Also it is hard to follow since it is from right to left. The thing I would suggest is to become familiar with the sounds, and then try to read and write it.

 

I mean its not like a world a way like China, which is so much different. After all we did get our numbering system from them!

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docoflove1974
I know a little bit of the slang Arabic. It is quite easy to speak actually but reading and writing it is a whole different matter. When I first saw it it looked like scribbles. Also it is hard to follow since it is from right to left. The thing I would suggest is to become familiar with the sounds, and then try to read and write it.

 

That is much later, Ramses. Right now, I just need a couple of genders for a couple of words.

 

I mean its not like a world a way like China, which is so much different. After all we did get our numbering system from them!

 

Not to mention the concept of zero!

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