(Why I love the Arabic language - and many languages)
So, today, since I don't actually have a meaningful post-idea, I'm simply going to bore you guys with a random tangent about why I love Arabic, and also just languages in general.
Now, I probably have already discussed these reasons for my passion for the Arabic language, especially for anyone who speaks Arabic and understood the video I posted.
Eh, whatever. ^^
So basically, one thing that really drew me to Arabic was the gorgeous letters and calligraphy. I saw pictures in books and on the Internet, and I found it absolutely fascinating and beautiful. I saw it as an ingenious way of making a work of art, out of nothing more than written words. And we don't really do that in English.
But to me, even the printed, naskhi Arabic that I saw when fiddling around with Google Translate looked like elegant artwork. I was drawn to it; I knew that I wanted to know how to form those tantalizingly unknown, mesmerizingly beautiful forms. Not to mention the rich legacy of literature.
Another reason was simply because I thought it was a beautiful spoken language. I heard people speaking it, and was drawn to it instantly: the fast-flowing rhythm, the sounds that were fascinatingly inexistent in any other language I had ever been exposed to. I liked it, and wanted those words and sounds to flow from my mouth.
An additional reason would be that I love how interconnected the words in the language are. A large system of three-letter roots exist that give rise to multitudes of related words that derive from them. An example would be the root "ك ت ب," or "K T B," which indicates something related to writing but doesn't really have a meaning of its own, from which come the heaps of possible verb conjugations for the verb yaktib (to write), and related words such as maktaba (bookstore or library), maktab (office), katib (writer), kitab (book), maktoob (written), muktab (declared), et cetera.
Yet another reason that caught my attention was that Arabic is a very useful language. It has official status in about twenty-six countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, EGYPT, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, many of which are countries that I am very interested in visiting. Also, I feel that it is important for the West and the Middle East to improve their relations, and more Westerners knowing Arabic would definitely be a big step forward.
Arabic also has a very powerful position as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam, which not only means that knowledge of Arabic gives one a major insight into the fascinating world of Islam, but also that languages spoken in non-Arab but majority Muslim countries, languages such as Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian/Malay, and many other languages around the world, have many words of Arabic origins -
a perfect example would be that, when Carson and I were connecting in Istanbul via Turkish Airlines en route to Egypt, I actually saw several words in the planes and the Istanbul Airport that I was able to understand, because they were very visibly Arabic in origin, such as dekika (minute), saat (hour), subah (morning), tarih (history), and harita (map).
So yeah, all of these reasons combined together gradually, and I was left with a passion for Arabic. :3
That's basically it for Arabic.
Now, I'm going to make a quick list of other languages I'd like to learn, along with a short blurb stating why, inspired by a post made by my amazing friend Donny who I miss VERY MUCH, in his blog, Skies of Gentian Blue (CHECK IT OUT IN THE MY BLOG LIST TO THE RIGHT. GIVE HIM LOTS OF VIEWS. Please and thank you.)
1) Suomi - Finnish: For years now, Finnish has always been my number two language after Arabic. I'm drawn to Finnish mainly because I think it's so mysterious and beautiful. It comes from a language group called the Finno-Ugric group, of which there are only three languages with a significant amount of speakers (Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian). Therefore it's a mysterious, unique language, unlike anything I've ever been exposed to before. I also think it's gorgeous and musical sounding language, I love the rhythm and accent. I also think Finland is a very beautiful country, and I see something about it that I really like and want to connect with.
2) Deutsch - German: Many people say that German is an ugly language. I disagree. Even though it might not have the most gorgeous set of phonetic sounds, I like it a lot. I think it's a very nice-looking written language, and from the little bits that I know about the grammar, it has a very elegant one. And, given that it's such a descriptive language, there has been a large amount of literary work that came from German writers. Also, I think that German is a fairly important language for business, given Germany's current economic power. Plus, it's spoken in very beautiful countries, namely Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, that I would love to visit and connect with. Also, I've heard my German AFSer friends here in Egypt speaking it a lot, and I really want to be able to join in. :3
3) Português - Portuguese: Basically, with Portuguese it boils down to the fact that the language is freaking GORGEOUS. I'm serious, I think that, especially in the Brazilian accent, Portuguese if one of the most beautiful languages in the world. It's just so sweet and rhythmic and musical, ahh I love it! It's also spoken in equally gorgeous countries that I'm very interested in traveling to, namely Brazil, Cape Verde, and Portugal. But above all, Brazil. I find the blended, multicultural society, beautiful cities, and stunning rainforest, beaches, and other natural scenery to be very alluring.
4) Türkçe - Turkish: I'm drawn to Turkish for many of the same reasons that I'm drawn to Finnish.
Also, it's got a very interesting grammar from what I know. And as I mentioned before, it also has a large
amount of Arabic words that I would be able to know almost automatically.
Additionally, Turkey is yet another country that I am very interested in visiting, as it is a beautiful place
with an equally fascinating history.
That's another thing about the language, it has an interesting history. Basically, it started off as a language
spoken by Mongolian nomads. Subsequently, a Turkish clan called the Seljuqs invaded Anatolia and imposed
the use of their language throughout the resulting empire, which became the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Turkish
is very different from modern Turkish, as it was written in Arabic letters, and had a huge amount of Persian
and Arabic influences. When Kemal Atatürk became the Turkish president, he introduced a huge set of reforms, such as switching to the Roman alphabet, and essentially overhauling the language back to its original form.
5) فارسی - Persian: This is a language that, until very recently, I knew almost nothing about at all. It's a language that's largely unknown in the west. I had no idea what it sounded like, or what kind of language it was, or anything at all about it other than that it was the official language of Iran, and written in Arabic letters, until earlier this year, when I saw the Iranian movie "A Separation." I instantly was mesmerized by the sound of Persian, and when I realized how rich of a culture, and a legacy of beautiful architecture and literature and artwork there is in Persia, I decided to learn it. That, plus the fact that we really need to promote some cultural understanding between the USA and Iran, settled the matter for me.
6) Magyar - Hungarian: This is a language that I want to learn mainly for heritage reasons. My American grandpa is of Hungarian descent, and my whole life I've heard many Hungarian quotes and sayings, and have heard many stories about the history of the country from him. I'm very curious to learn more about my Hungarian ancestry. And I'm curious to know the language, because no one in my family apart from him knows how to say much more than "Mondunk neked vol a mitt (at least I THINK that's how it's spelled - Hungarian speakers, please correct me if I'm wrong!)", which means "I have something to tell you." This is another language that I'm interested in because of its interesting grammar. It also is very unique and mysterious - it's a Finno-Ugric language, but it's about as close to Finnish as English is to Persian - so not much at all.
7) Svenska - Swedish: This is another language I'm drawn to for heritage reasons, as my American grandma is of Swedish descent. But in this case, the language was lost even sooner, because her family had stopped speaking it before she was born, as they had been living in the US for several generations already. Sweden is also a beautiful country that I've wanted to visit for a long time, and I'd like to be able to speak to people while exploring its lovely cities and natural landscapes.
10) íslenska - Icelandic: I'm into Icelandic mainly because it has a very interesting history. We're going to paraphrase, but I will give a short explanation: Basically, all of Scandinavia used to speak a language called Old Norse in the Middle Ages, that was originally from modern-day Norway. Its speakers were Vikings. During the Viking explorations in which they colonized what is today Iceland, they set up a colony on the uninhabited island. These colonists were the ancestors of the Icelandic community. Basically, on the mainland Old Norse developed into Swedish, Danish, and modern Norwegian, which are quite different from Icelandic. But Icelandic survived, a virtually unchanged version of Old Norse, frozen in time. To this day, a speaker of Icelandic can very easily read a saga, a poem, or anything, really, in Old Norse, THAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE 15TH CENTURY, and understand it without any difficulty at all. I think that this is nothing less than incredible, and I want in on this secret. :3 It's also very pretty - it's light, flowing, and it has a nice sound to it.
Bye!
Also, on another note, today I was able to meet the awesome Lisa Wolleschensky, a German girl who was hosted here in Alexandria last year! I went to meet her and a small group of her friends in the Montazah, and I went there and back by taxi - and alone. :D
I feel so independent!! ^^
But anyway, it was really great to meet her and talk with someone who has a very good perspective on this experience. And she's a wonderful person, as well as her friends. I had fun. :)
But now I really do need to get going, because I have to get up really early tomorrow for the trip to Ismailia, and being the procrastinator I am, I have not packed yet. :/
SO BYE!!! :p
So, today, since I don't actually have a meaningful post-idea, I'm simply going to bore you guys with a random tangent about why I love Arabic, and also just languages in general.
Now, I probably have already discussed these reasons for my passion for the Arabic language, especially for anyone who speaks Arabic and understood the video I posted.
Eh, whatever. ^^
So basically, one thing that really drew me to Arabic was the gorgeous letters and calligraphy. I saw pictures in books and on the Internet, and I found it absolutely fascinating and beautiful. I saw it as an ingenious way of making a work of art, out of nothing more than written words. And we don't really do that in English.
But to me, even the printed, naskhi Arabic that I saw when fiddling around with Google Translate looked like elegant artwork. I was drawn to it; I knew that I wanted to know how to form those tantalizingly unknown, mesmerizingly beautiful forms. Not to mention the rich legacy of literature.
Another reason was simply because I thought it was a beautiful spoken language. I heard people speaking it, and was drawn to it instantly: the fast-flowing rhythm, the sounds that were fascinatingly inexistent in any other language I had ever been exposed to. I liked it, and wanted those words and sounds to flow from my mouth.
An additional reason would be that I love how interconnected the words in the language are. A large system of three-letter roots exist that give rise to multitudes of related words that derive from them. An example would be the root "ك ت ب," or "K T B," which indicates something related to writing but doesn't really have a meaning of its own, from which come the heaps of possible verb conjugations for the verb yaktib (to write), and related words such as maktaba (bookstore or library), maktab (office), katib (writer), kitab (book), maktoob (written), muktab (declared), et cetera.
Yet another reason that caught my attention was that Arabic is a very useful language. It has official status in about twenty-six countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, EGYPT, Eritrea, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates, many of which are countries that I am very interested in visiting. Also, I feel that it is important for the West and the Middle East to improve their relations, and more Westerners knowing Arabic would definitely be a big step forward.
Arabic also has a very powerful position as the liturgical language of the religion of Islam, which not only means that knowledge of Arabic gives one a major insight into the fascinating world of Islam, but also that languages spoken in non-Arab but majority Muslim countries, languages such as Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Indonesian/Malay, and many other languages around the world, have many words of Arabic origins -
a perfect example would be that, when Carson and I were connecting in Istanbul via Turkish Airlines en route to Egypt, I actually saw several words in the planes and the Istanbul Airport that I was able to understand, because they were very visibly Arabic in origin, such as dekika (minute), saat (hour), subah (morning), tarih (history), and harita (map).
So yeah, all of these reasons combined together gradually, and I was left with a passion for Arabic. :3
That's basically it for Arabic.
Now, I'm going to make a quick list of other languages I'd like to learn, along with a short blurb stating why, inspired by a post made by my amazing friend Donny who I miss VERY MUCH, in his blog, Skies of Gentian Blue (CHECK IT OUT IN THE MY BLOG LIST TO THE RIGHT. GIVE HIM LOTS OF VIEWS. Please and thank you.)
ENJOY. :P Again, I'm sorry to bore you all, as, given my huge passion for languages, this is likely to be very long. Please bear with me.
1) Suomi - Finnish: For years now, Finnish has always been my number two language after Arabic. I'm drawn to Finnish mainly because I think it's so mysterious and beautiful. It comes from a language group called the Finno-Ugric group, of which there are only three languages with a significant amount of speakers (Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian). Therefore it's a mysterious, unique language, unlike anything I've ever been exposed to before. I also think it's gorgeous and musical sounding language, I love the rhythm and accent. I also think Finland is a very beautiful country, and I see something about it that I really like and want to connect with.
2) Deutsch - German: Many people say that German is an ugly language. I disagree. Even though it might not have the most gorgeous set of phonetic sounds, I like it a lot. I think it's a very nice-looking written language, and from the little bits that I know about the grammar, it has a very elegant one. And, given that it's such a descriptive language, there has been a large amount of literary work that came from German writers. Also, I think that German is a fairly important language for business, given Germany's current economic power. Plus, it's spoken in very beautiful countries, namely Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, that I would love to visit and connect with. Also, I've heard my German AFSer friends here in Egypt speaking it a lot, and I really want to be able to join in. :3
3) Português - Portuguese: Basically, with Portuguese it boils down to the fact that the language is freaking GORGEOUS. I'm serious, I think that, especially in the Brazilian accent, Portuguese if one of the most beautiful languages in the world. It's just so sweet and rhythmic and musical, ahh I love it! It's also spoken in equally gorgeous countries that I'm very interested in traveling to, namely Brazil, Cape Verde, and Portugal. But above all, Brazil. I find the blended, multicultural society, beautiful cities, and stunning rainforest, beaches, and other natural scenery to be very alluring.
4) Türkçe - Turkish: I'm drawn to Turkish for many of the same reasons that I'm drawn to Finnish.
Also, it's got a very interesting grammar from what I know. And as I mentioned before, it also has a large
amount of Arabic words that I would be able to know almost automatically.
Additionally, Turkey is yet another country that I am very interested in visiting, as it is a beautiful place
with an equally fascinating history.
That's another thing about the language, it has an interesting history. Basically, it started off as a language
spoken by Mongolian nomads. Subsequently, a Turkish clan called the Seljuqs invaded Anatolia and imposed
the use of their language throughout the resulting empire, which became the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman Turkish
is very different from modern Turkish, as it was written in Arabic letters, and had a huge amount of Persian
and Arabic influences. When Kemal Atatürk became the Turkish president, he introduced a huge set of reforms, such as switching to the Roman alphabet, and essentially overhauling the language back to its original form.
It worked so well that, ironically, Atatürk's own speeches
are barely comprehensible to modern Turkish speakers.
5) فارسی - Persian: This is a language that, until very recently, I knew almost nothing about at all. It's a language that's largely unknown in the west. I had no idea what it sounded like, or what kind of language it was, or anything at all about it other than that it was the official language of Iran, and written in Arabic letters, until earlier this year, when I saw the Iranian movie "A Separation." I instantly was mesmerized by the sound of Persian, and when I realized how rich of a culture, and a legacy of beautiful architecture and literature and artwork there is in Persia, I decided to learn it. That, plus the fact that we really need to promote some cultural understanding between the USA and Iran, settled the matter for me.
6) Magyar - Hungarian: This is a language that I want to learn mainly for heritage reasons. My American grandpa is of Hungarian descent, and my whole life I've heard many Hungarian quotes and sayings, and have heard many stories about the history of the country from him. I'm very curious to learn more about my Hungarian ancestry. And I'm curious to know the language, because no one in my family apart from him knows how to say much more than "Mondunk neked vol a mitt (at least I THINK that's how it's spelled - Hungarian speakers, please correct me if I'm wrong!)", which means "I have something to tell you." This is another language that I'm interested in because of its interesting grammar. It also is very unique and mysterious - it's a Finno-Ugric language, but it's about as close to Finnish as English is to Persian - so not much at all.
7) Svenska - Swedish: This is another language I'm drawn to for heritage reasons, as my American grandma is of Swedish descent. But in this case, the language was lost even sooner, because her family had stopped speaking it before she was born, as they had been living in the US for several generations already. Sweden is also a beautiful country that I've wanted to visit for a long time, and I'd like to be able to speak to people while exploring its lovely cities and natural landscapes.
10) íslenska - Icelandic: I'm into Icelandic mainly because it has a very interesting history. We're going to paraphrase, but I will give a short explanation: Basically, all of Scandinavia used to speak a language called Old Norse in the Middle Ages, that was originally from modern-day Norway. Its speakers were Vikings. During the Viking explorations in which they colonized what is today Iceland, they set up a colony on the uninhabited island. These colonists were the ancestors of the Icelandic community. Basically, on the mainland Old Norse developed into Swedish, Danish, and modern Norwegian, which are quite different from Icelandic. But Icelandic survived, a virtually unchanged version of Old Norse, frozen in time. To this day, a speaker of Icelandic can very easily read a saga, a poem, or anything, really, in Old Norse, THAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE 15TH CENTURY, and understand it without any difficulty at all. I think that this is nothing less than incredible, and I want in on this secret. :3 It's also very pretty - it's light, flowing, and it has a nice sound to it.
11) עִבְרִית
- Hebrew: I'm interested in Hebrew mainly because I find Jewish history to be
fascinating. I don't really even know why, all I know is that for some reason,
it sparks my interest.
The history of Hebrew is interesting to me as well. I mean,
it was spoken in an ancient kingdom, and then essentially frozen in time in
religious texts for almost 3,000 years. Plus, the letters are gorgeous.
And, I'm not going to get into politics or point any
fingers...But, being the peace-lover I am, I really want to help calm down
conflict in the Middle East (although I'm not sure what I can do), and I feel
like knowing Hebrew would be helpful for that.
Plus, it's actually very similar to Arabic, so I would have
a leg-up.
12) Euskara - Basque: I'm drawn to Basque because of its simple and sheer complexity and mystery. For anyone who may not have heard of it, Basque is a language spoken in a region that includes a chunk of northeastern Spain and a smaller chunk of southwestern France. And it is a language isolate, meaning that there is no other language on Earth that is related to it. Many people think that it dates back to a language family spoken in Europe before the arrival of Indo-Europeans from the east - many people believe that Basque is descended from the language of Cro-Magnon cavemen. Even though I don't know very much at all about this language or even much about how it sounds, I think that it is absolutely fascinating, and I would love to delve a little deeper into this incredible language and the culture of the people who speak it.
That is all.
I honestly hope that I did not bore you all to tears, as I'm sure that I did.12) Euskara - Basque: I'm drawn to Basque because of its simple and sheer complexity and mystery. For anyone who may not have heard of it, Basque is a language spoken in a region that includes a chunk of northeastern Spain and a smaller chunk of southwestern France. And it is a language isolate, meaning that there is no other language on Earth that is related to it. Many people think that it dates back to a language family spoken in Europe before the arrival of Indo-Europeans from the east - many people believe that Basque is descended from the language of Cro-Magnon cavemen. Even though I don't know very much at all about this language or even much about how it sounds, I think that it is absolutely fascinating, and I would love to delve a little deeper into this incredible language and the culture of the people who speak it.
That is all.
Bye!
 |
| Many languages :P |
 |
| For putting up with my endless blathering :) |
 |
| Hey there! |
 |
| True stuff right here. |
Also, on another note, today I was able to meet the awesome Lisa Wolleschensky, a German girl who was hosted here in Alexandria last year! I went to meet her and a small group of her friends in the Montazah, and I went there and back by taxi - and alone. :D
I feel so independent!! ^^
But anyway, it was really great to meet her and talk with someone who has a very good perspective on this experience. And she's a wonderful person, as well as her friends. I had fun. :)
But now I really do need to get going, because I have to get up really early tomorrow for the trip to Ismailia, and being the procrastinator I am, I have not packed yet. :/
SO BYE!!! :p
this is also beautiful.
ReplyDeletethanks so much again C:
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I also really enjoyed to meet you! the languages...didnt we just talk about that on our way back home? ;) But finally i know all the languages you want to learn. good luck with that!
ReplyDelete...there is an opportunity, that i might be back in march/april, AND THEN WE HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE! ;)
hehehhe yes we did talk about that on the way back ;D
ReplyDeletethanks so much! to learn all these languages is one of my many dreams ^^
REALLY!?!?! YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYYY!!! :D
Can't wait to see you again then, inshallah! Keep me updated about it :)
For some reason, this post just made me really happy.
ReplyDeleteI'm really happy to hear that, Fareeda! That's what I'm here for ^_^
ReplyDelete