Path through languages

Science Association Aranzadi has made a discovery that can be a landmark for the history of Basque language. In an Iron Age Vascon town of Irulegi, in the region of Aranguren (Nafarroa), an inscripted bronze hand from the 1st century BCE has surfaced. It’s the longest and oldest Basque text until now. It’s written in a variation of the Iberian alphabet, adapted by Vascons to our language. According to experts, the hand could have been a lucky charm to bring good luck and shoo bad luck away. 

The first word reads sorioneku - please compare to nowadays Basque word zorioneko (for good luck, luckily).

THIS. IS. HUGE.

It’s the first Vasconic text - not single words - that has been found so omg, we’re super excited!!!

TANXUGUEIRAS – Pano Corado (Videoclip Oficial)

Words of Arabic origin in:

🇪🇸 Spanish, 🇵🇹 Portuguese,

🇦🇩 Catalan, & 🇮🇹 Sicilian

—🌴🏰👑—

Al-Andalus (الأَنْدَلُس) was the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula. The term is used by modern historians for the former Islamic states based in modern Portugal and Spain from 711 AD to 1492 AD.

Much of the Arabic influence upon Spanish came through the various Arabized Romance dialects that were spoken in areas under Moorish rule, known today by scholars as Mozarabic. This resulted in Spanish often having both Arabic and Latin derived words with the same meaning.

Examples of Arabic and Latin derived words in Spanish with the same meaning:

aceituna & oliva (olive), 🫒

alacrán & escorpión (scorpion), 🦂

jaqueca & migraña (migraine), 🤕

alcancía & hucha (piggy bank).🐖

The influence of Arabic is more noticeable in the Spanish dialects from regions with a longer history of Muslim rule than those where it was shorter-lived. For this reason, the dialects of the southern half of the country show a higher degree of preference for Arabisms.

Northern Spanish dialects tend to prefer Romance synonyms to terms of Arabic origin. Because Canarian and all Hispanic American dialects are mainly derived from Southern Castilian, Spanish words of Arabic origin are common in most varieties of Modern Spanish.

The Emirate of Sicily (إِمَارَة صِقِلِّيَة) was an Islamic kingdom that ruled the island of Sicily from 831 to 1091. Its capital was Palermo (Bal'harm), which during this period became a major cultural and political center of the Muslim world.

More Spanish words that come from Arabic:

azul (lāzaward, ultimately from Sanskrit)

café (qahwa)

pantalones (bantalon)

camisa (kamis)

alacrán (aqrab)

barrio (barri, from Andalusian Arabic)

cúrcuma (curcum)

jarra (ǧarrah)

fulano (fulan)

rincón (rukn)

almohada (al-makhada)

The Mozarabic/Andalusi Romance language... this is so cool.

Arabic-influenced Romance dialects spoken in the Muslim-controlled areas of Iberia, known as Al-Andalus. It was spoken until around the 13th century when it was displaced, mostly by Spanish, which adopted a lot from it.

Mozarabic vs Spanish:

🌴Mozarabic:

Mío sidi Ibrahim,

ya wemne dolche!

vente mib

de nohte.

non, si non quieres,

iréyme tib:

garreme a ob

legarte

🏰Spanish:

Mi señor Ibrahim,

¡Oh tú, hombre dulce!

Ven a mí

de noche.

Si no, si no quieres,

yo me iré contigo,

dime dónde

encontrarte

"Inshallah" & "Mashallah" around the world & words descended from these terms:

‎🇪🇬 Arabic: إِنْ شَاءَ ٱللَّٰهُ (In sha'Allah)

‎🇪🇸 Spanish: Ojalá

‎🇪🇸 Asturleonese & Galician: Oxalá/Ogallá

‎🇵🇹 Portuguese: Oxalá

‎🇲🇹 Maltese: jekk Alla jrid

‎🇮🇷 Persian/Farsi: ان‌شاءالله

‎🇨🇷 Costa Rican Spanish: Machalá

‎🇨🇾 Cypriot Greek: ίσσαλα (ishalla)

1. “In sha'Allah” or “Inshallah” an Arabic language expression meaning "if God wills" or "God willing".

2. In Cypriot Greek the word ίσσαλα, ishalla is used with the meaning "hopefully".

3. ‎The word "oxalá" in Asturleonese, Galician, & Portuguese; also present in Spanish as "ojalá" all come from the Arabic لو شاء الله law šā’ l-lāh. It means "we hope" or "I hope".

4. A similar expression exists in Maltese: jekk Alla jrid (if God wills it). Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily and later in Malta between the end of the 9th century and the end of the 12th century.

5. The word “Machalá” descended from the Arabic “Mashallah” is used in Costa Rican Spanish.

In Costa Rica, it means the opposite of "ojalá", so it means “I hope not” instead of hopefully.

You can say something like:

“Machalá, machalá, toco madera"

in order to keep bad luck away.

End of thread:

https://wikitongues.org/language-revitalization-accelerator/

please reblog and help share this with potential language activists!

I’ve decided on doing a post about the most known tv shows in Spanish and I am focusing on shows with POC and queer representation because I am POC and queer, no other reason. Enjoy! 

La Casa de las Flores: A rich Mexican family discovers that the patriarch has a hidden life and a hidden family. Very entertaining series and has queer and trans characters (although the trans woman is played by a cis man, which I find… questionable, but I find the whole thing very respectful, talks a lot about transphobia and homophobia in my cis opinion), which is surprising for a series made in such a conservative country. Definitely recommend! Has been the origin material of many Mexican memes. Link to trailer 

Juana Inés: Mexican miniseries about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, from when she was a young teen until her death. Very dark academia, gorgeous cinematography and very accurate from what I could tell. Really really recommend! Link to trailer 

La Casa de Papel: I haven’t watched this one but everyone I know who has is obsessed with it. It’s an heist Spanish tv series, and has good queer and POC rep. Link to trailer

Club de cuervos: This was Netflix’s first Hispanic original series. Has very famous Mexican actors and it’s about two siblings trying to take control of their father’s sports team. Link to trailer 

Elite: A Spanish series about a private school called “Las Encinas” that welcomes three students from the working class. I’d describe this as the Spanish Riverdale, lots of teen drama, lots of sex and tension between students. Also has murder and investigations. Not my cup of tea but might be yours! Link to trailer 

Desenfrenadas: A coming of age story about a group of four young adults that go on a roadtrip in Mexico. Good story, amazing cast, very good musical choices, original! Link to trailer

Las chicas del cable: Set in 1928 in Madrid, Spain. Four women have just been hired in a new telecommunications company. Definitely a character-focused story, but I really dig it. Has a wlw couple and strong female characters! Link to trailer 

El ministerio del tiempo: The premise of this show is INSANE. A secret Spanish government organization that only very few people know about which purpose is to prevent that time travelers change the present time. I haven’t watched it either but it’s next on my To Watch list. Link to trailer 

Merlí: This is a Spanish series that follows the format of “Literature/Philosophy professor challenges their students’ view of their world through knowledge”, very similar to Dead Poets Society. You will learn a lot about different philosophers!  Link to trailer 

La jauría: This Chilean series just came out this year and follows an all-male group that is called “La Jauría” that assault female students from a catholic school, and the investigation that follows to take them down. Very empowering and with feminist values. Could be potentially triggering but if you like crime shows this might be right up your alley. Link to trailer. 

Hernán: This series is about the Spanish colonization that happened in the 15th century in American territories. I haven’t watched it because it pisses me off that the focus is on the colonizer and the event still hurts even six centuries later but I’ve heard is good! I consider it important to watch historical series about very rarely touched issues and it was extremely researched. It is still mixed people talking about indigenous people’s history but I haven’t watched it and cannot emit an opinion. Link to first episode 

La Rosa de Guadalupe: I guess I don’t have to tell you what this series is about. You know, I know you know but I’ll do it anyway. Just pure madness, the craziest situations about teen pregnancy, kidnappings, anime-loving teens, predators, addictions, just everything, but manages to be funny as hell because the acting is so incredibly bad. Link to the funniest and most memeable thing you’ll ever see. 

Mi marido tiene más familia: A Mexican telenovela that made news because it was the first widely distributed series with a gay teen couple. Link to all episodes 

Amar a muerte: Also a Mexican telenovela, also with a homosexual relationship, but this time is between two young women, Juliana and Valentina. I think they’re making a spin-off series based only on them?? Link to trailer and the trailer of Juliantina 

El chavo del ocho: Probably the most iconic children show in Mexico’s history. It started being televised in 1973 and it’s a situational comedy about a homeless child that lives in a neighborhood helped by his friends, and the funny situations he somehow gets himself in. Has had incredible impact to Mexican pop-culture. Very charming characters. Full episodes can be found on Youtube! Link to playlist

九 = jiǔ = nine

A gorgeous neon 九 from a restaurant in Taipei!

There's not much to say about the character... 9 is 9. But we can take a detour here to talk about discounts in Chinese, which work the opposite way than the western world and are thus a bit confusing at first: instead of telling you how much the discount is, they tell you how much percentage of the original price you have to pay.

So for instance, if something has a 10% discount, you'd say 九折 (jiǔ zhé), as in, you only paying 90% of the price. The lower the number before the 折 character, the higher the discount. Takes a bit of time to get used to!

There are a few expressions that say "most likely" using 9, like 十之八九 (shí zhī bā jiǔ) or 十有八九 (shí yǒu bā jiǔ). Both of these hint at something happening 8 or 9 times out of 10, so it's quite likely it'll happen.

Have you ever heard small children making up names? They don't stop at a single syllable. They don't stop at any sensible limit. They make up names that bear no resemblance to anything we use.

the word: [coincidentally starts showing up everywhere in the following days]

me:

compare with the real kanji

The vast majority (around 80%) of Chinese characters are made up of a radical (the general meaning) and a phonetic.

Radical 女 nǚ (woman) and phonetic 馬 mǎ (horse) = 媽 mā, mother (your mum sounds like a horse).

But a small minority are pictograms, that is to say a picture of the thing they represent.

Pictograms are the earliest characters, thousands of years old, but many are still used every day.

If you look at the oracle bone script for rat, tiger and elephant you’ll see they are clearly pictures of the animal they signify.

But if you look at the modern versions, you’ll notice something odd, they’re all rotated 90 degrees onto their sides.

Why? Why are all these characters written with the animals balancing on their tails?

Well, it’s for a straight-forward, practical reason.

For a couple thousand years before paper was invented writing materials were limited. We had silk (expensive), bronze (expensive and impractical), and oracle bones (religious use only).

And one more…

That was cheap, plentiful, durable, and easy to erase and rewrite characters. The wonder that is…

Bamboo!

It was cut into strips, and tied into books. Long thin strips of bamboo contributed to the Chinese custom of writing vertically, from top to bottom (and right to left).

But it also meant that it’s much easier to write some characters length-ways so that they easily fit onto the strip.

The international chain of smack talk!