A Kings Dream

Shaykh Maseehullah rahmatullahi alayh relates,‘Once a king had a dream wherein he observed a very large tray containing many varieties, shapes and sizes of flowers. Suddenly a knife appeared from above and cut these flowers; it would cut both large and small flowers.At this point the king awoke and began to ponder upon the meaning of this strange dream. He related it to his Court Mu’abbirs (

The grammar of talking to yourself

In the Dark Ages, too, linguists sometimes got a little worked up over theoretical differences (if a work of fiction is to be believed):

"Those were times when, to forget an evil world, grammarians took pleasure in abstruse questions. I was told that in that period, for fifteen days and fifteen nights, the rhetoricians Gabundus and Terentius argued on the vocative of 'ego' [I], and in the end they attacked each other, with edged weapons." - Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

In a sense, one would expect that "I" should really have a vocative - certainly people talk to themselves sometimes - yet Latin's lack of a vocative "I" is paralleled in English. If John (that old linguists' standby) tells himself "John, get up and do some work", the sentence is not grammatically odd; if he tells himself "*I, get up and do some work" or "*Me, get up and do some work", neither sentence is grammatically possible. Note that no such restriction applies to non-vocative uses; it would be equally grammatical for John to tell himself "I'm in luck!" or "You're in luck!" Even resorting in desperation to the archaic English vocative "O" yields nothing: "O I!" is ridiculous, and "Oh me!" is already in use as a rather silly exclamation. So why should the vocative of "I" be so hard to form?

Update: Thanks to Language Hat, I have learned of an interesting post on the very grammarian of whom Eco is writing.

Iraqi Geek

www.iraqigeek.com

As the name suggests, by large technology blog, with useful tutorials as to how to fix your own laptop, it is the sort of thing that would make Salam Adil proud. Sometimes, however, traces of humanity can still be detected, as evidenced by his recent posts. What makes it refreshing is that he doesn't talk about politics that much.

Hanbook for Students of Arabic

Click on the title of this post, or here for a free handbook about learning Arabic for students.

The following is taken from NMELRC.org

Handbook for Students of Arabic

This online handbook is an introduction to strategies and resources that can help you, the student, in your study of the Arabic language. It has been developed under the auspices of the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC)

This handbook is primarily for the beginning student, but intermediate and advanced students may also profit from this information.

This information is of course not comprehensive or exhaustive. Above all, we hope that you find this information practical and even the bits of “theory” applicable to your needs. This handbook helps fulfill the NMELRC's mission to be "a coordinated concentration of educational research and training resources for improving the capacity to teach and learn foreign languages."

A mind of a 13 year old Iraqi girl

I remember when I was 13. It was a time of mental conflict and intense confusion. What with puberty and discovering girls as something other than annoying aliens for the first time.

I really, really dont want to know what goes on in the mind of a 13 year old. So it is with some trepidation that I approached this blog. But this reminds me of the fun side of being 13. A time of approaching the grown up world without disappointments or inhibitions. Exploring new ideas with a sense of enjoyment.

35 Today!

Today is UAE National Day, ie the 35th anniversary of the formation of the United Arab Emirates. So Happy Birthday UAE, you've come an incredibly long way in a very short time.

It is also the 19th birthday of our very own offspring.

Traditionally in our house we put up the Christmas tree on this day, but there might be a problem today. Having lost the original metal/plastic stand many years ago, we usually stick the (fake) tree in a bucket of sand scavenged from outside. But it has rained continuously through the night, and is still tipping it down at 8am, so any sand we could get would be more like mud. Ho hum.

UPDATE: We've just unpacked the tree, and lo and behold, the plastic stand that has been missing for at least two years was sitting there in the box, looking all smug!

I miss Iraq

A&Eiraqi lived his dreams. He left Iraq months ago to pusue a career in medicine in London. But like many Iraqis he longs for home. And this is what he misses:

A special smile, which expresses thankfulness and a few words with which people pray to Allah asking him to give his mercy to my parents.
Neighbors, who didn’t mind knocking my door even at midnight seeking for help.
Friends who always supported me and I supported them.
The Iraqi poetry which, I recall wherever I go. That sadness which covers every aspect of our life.