Browsing Tag
Ancient Greek
8 posts
A Fortnight in the Life of a Hyperpolyglot
How do you manage to maintain and speak multiple languages? Reginald (Reggie) Hefner speaks more than ten languages. For Arabic for Nerds, he wrote down his daily language revision routine and shared his routines and tips.
Are the Arabic verb forms XI to XV (11-15) really so rare?
There are ten verb forms in Arabic. That is what most people learn - even at universities. But that is not the end of the story, as we will learn in this article.
20 questions for: Nikolaos Van Dam (#21)
Episode #21 of my series "9273 roots": 20 questions for the ambassador and authority on Syria who worked in almost all Arab countries: Dr. Nikolaos Van Dam.
20 questions for: Reginald Hefner (#13)
20 questions for the man who speaks all the languages which the famous Middlebury Language School offers (except for Korean): Reginald Hefner
20 questions for: Badrul Aini Sha’ari (#2)
Episode #2 of my series "9273 roots": 20 questions for the man who brings Arabic to South-East Asia: Badrul Aini Sha’ari.
Come to prayer! حي على الصلاة – What form is hayya?
Hayya حَيَّ is used in the call of the Muezzin: Come to prayer! حَيَّ عَلَى الصَّلاةِ. It is a special word type: a Ism al-Fial (اسم فعل).
Pasha, Mister, and Baksheesh – etymology of Arabic words (part 3)
In Arabic, there are words that don’t look Arabic - and they aren't. The etymology of basha, bakshish, sitt, efendim, khan, dulab, fingan and Khorchide.
Prison, ice cream, and shoes – etymology of Arabic words (part 2)
In Arabic there are words that don’t look Arabic - and they aren't. The etymology of liman, odah, dondurma, shish tawouk, gazma, dughry, fihris.
