#microfilm #libraries #arabic #history #histodons

Reposted #Introduction: I’m a #Linguistics professor in #Texas. Originally from #Chicago. Lived in Birmingham, UK & Hefei (Anhui province) #China. I do research in English lexical semantics, #pragmatics, health communication, and discourse markers, using corpus methods. Currently learning #Arabic on #DuoLingo. I edit #Wikipedia. I love contemporary fiction, science fiction, and #poetry. And #travel—as the budget allows. Loved my academic Twitter network. Great meeting you all!

#Palestinians, #Israelis co-exist in planned community

In a rare scene of #coexistence in #Israel, #Jewish and #Palestinian children attend #school together in Neve Shalom, or Wahat al-Salam — a community founded nearly 50 years ago to foster #peace.

Here, #students learn in both #Hebrew and #Arabic, and are taught not only math and history, but also about each other’s identities.

https://www.dw.com/en/palestinians-israelis-co-exist-in-planned-community/video-73884233?at_dw_language=en

a little bit on #Arabic (from outside, I don't speak it (...yet))

- writing system is nowhere near as difficult as Chinese or Japanese, it will take you 2-3 weeks tops, but *looks* as impressive as if you had memorised 5000 hànzì, which takes years. (also applies to Korean.)

- ridiculously pretty language. the prettiest words in my language are almost all from Arabic. the article is al- so it sounds constantly musical. the language *feels* like the writing system *looks*.

- not just pretty in phonotactics, but structurally. the (Classical/MSA) grammar has the algebraic elegance of a conlang. if you like derivational morphology, the root/pattern system will outright give you an orgasm.

- access to Arabic poetry which, I mean just fuckin look at it https://arabic.fi/

- the calligraphy is surprisingly easy to get competent at (like not artist-level ofc, but enough to look pretty, compared to the time needed even for a passable chancery hand)..

- "the Italian /r/ is too difficult" "the Brazilian /r/ is too difficult " "the German /r/ is too difficult" tired of struggling with the many sounds that get all thrown onto the same generic letter "r" even though they're completely different? why not learn these 3 all in one go for a single language (ر, خ, غ respectively)? you also get for free French and Danish which use غ generally but خ in some contexts. add in the English *and* the Kurdish /h/ while you're at it(هـ, ح), just to keelp them apart from the similar-sounding voiceless fricative rhotics, and even the Swabian/Sioux /r/ for good measure (ع). there. now you know all of them and use all of them in a single sentence. nothing can scare your anymore.

-if you learn, say, Romanian or Catalan, you can't claim "yeah I've learned Latin" "oh, nice! which type?" "Romanian Latin", and everyone assumes you can now talk in "Italian Latin" and "French Latin" and "Ladino Latin". But with Arabic you pick one Arabic and people don't say, you learned Egyptian or Levantine or Moroccan, they say you learned "Arabic", even though they're about as distinct as the Romance languages. (This also applies for the Chinese languages.)

- know both a Romance and an Arabic? you have unlocked the skill tree: Maltese

- talk to Palestinians directly and show that you care. in my experience they heartily welcome your interest and support. also they're great comrades you can count on.
- wanna also make comrades with the Kurds, with the Iranian anarchist movement, support MENA immigrants etc.? many of them speak an Arabic, and even if they don't, Arabic is a superstratum in their native languages, so it makes them more approachable for you to learn.

I got my vinyl copy of this 3 weeks early and would highly recommend pre-ordering it for tomorrow's Bandcamp Friday. Easily going to be in the top of my AOTY list (if I make one this year). So happy they're on Constellation now, a perfect match.

SANAM - Sametou Sawtan (2025)

https://sanambeirut.bandcamp.com/album/sametou-sawtan

Any recommendations for an app to learn Arabic?

Please avoid recommending DuoLingo.

Hey everyone, Yousef, @NouranKhaledGh’s brother in Gaza, is looking for remote work:

“Before the war, I was working as a copywriter in English and Arabic. I managed to get dozens of projects done successfully and I got a top-rated badge on Upwork.”

He wasn’t able to work during the war. In January, during the ceasefire, he was able to get short-term projects. He goes to a dedicated workplace every day even now, in the middle of an ongoing genocide, to have electricity and a working Internet connection to look for work but has been getting rejections on Upwork, likely because he’s based in Gaza.

“I just want to get back to work because I don’t want to lose everything in my life.”

This is his Upwork account:

https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~018cc9bd813d00e632

How can we help?

Please share + talk to people you know who might benefit from Yousef’s expertise.

Thank you!

@palestine

i just noticed that one of arabic's words for "ant" (نمل / numal) kinda looks like an ant....

10 Aug 1636: Edward Pococke gives his inaugural lecture as first Professor of #Arabic at #Oxford #otd (Bodleian library)

Arabi.gay is a Glitch Mastodon server for Arabs, people from the SWANA region or Arabic speakers (including all dialects) who are LGBTQIA+. Anyone over 18 is welcome to join.

https://arabi.gay

You can find out more at https://arabi.gay/about or contact the admin @ishraaf

#storySeedLibrary status update:

We have #English, #Polish, #Italian and #French . Some awesome people are working on #German, #Ukrainian , #Arabic and #Hindi. Today I was approached about #Esperanto :D

...is this a good moment to start exploring an open source translation software? I don't feel like building a pipeline auto-updating the page, but it's getting big.

Should I make a bpage comparing how #solarpunk is translated to different #languages ?

https://storyseedlibrary.org/

Palestinian Arabic On-line Course.

Level 1. For beginners. Starting August 9th.

13 hours. 57€.

Experiencied teacher from Gaza.

Learn real conversation skills and support a Palestinian family.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSffY--DYkkM4aIZtPEief-0Pfv9CKi0t7Sx2AqxLaI37RBk3A/viewform

Humiliated by the Hamas attack in 2023, the country’s military intelligence agency is reviving an Arabic-language recruitment program for high school students and training all troops in Arabic and Islam. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/08/02/world/israel-spy-training/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #worldnews #israel #israelhamaswar #espionage #hamas #arabic #middleeast

Hey Mastodon, I need your help! Any #arabic or #polish learners who would be interested in testing out my new #languagelearning app? You'd get a lifetime access, and if you want, you let me know if you have any suggestions or see any bugs. The content is 100% human-made. The app has vocabulary, easy stories and SRS-based reviews (for all the #Anki fans out there). I programmed it myself, and I put my heart (and savings ;)) into it. Any help would go a long way.
Thank you so much! :)
#fedihelp

Interested in helping us out?
We are looking for volunteers to talk with mostly trans folks reaching out from dangerous places on messenger clients.
Familiarity with the #MiddleEast or #Arabic is lovely but not necessary. Willingness to be semi 'on' quite a bit, compassion mixed with street smarts needed.
It's a 'do when you can' role, being available when you are.
Drop an email to volunteer@transrescue.org

@lgbtqia
@lgbtq
@lgbtq_plus
@queer

From Gaza to Cuba - 10/06/2024

[A #video on #PeerTube about #Cuba from the video collective #BellyOfTheBeast]

The #US continues to fund #Israel's genocide in #Gaza, while Cuba, branded a State Sponsor of Terrorism by the U.S., is quietly training hundreds of #Palestinian doctors for free.

From Gaza to Cuba tells the story of Murid Abukhater, a Palestinian medical student from Gaza studying at Cuba’s #LatinAmericanSchoolOfMedicine (#ELAM). While his family and friends face the daily onslaught of Israel’s bombing, Murid struggles to focus on his studies. He dreams of returning to Gaza as a doctor to help save lives.

in #Arabic with #English subtitles, with #French as a CC option
Traduction en #français : Romane Frachon

https://cuddly.tube/w/eoCYxq3BGRMBwz6XRRa6jG

#StopGazaGenocide
#StopStarvingGaza
#VivaCuba #LetCubaLive #CubaSi #EndTheBlockade #CubaSolidarity #EndTheEmbargo
#EndSanctionsAgainstCuba #OffTheList
@palestine@lemmy.ml
@cubainfo

@palestine@a.gup.pe

Are there any other non-white-European people from the region of #Karlsruhe and #Strasbourg in my timeline ? I'm looking for other #Kurdish, #Arabic, #Indian, #BIPoC etc. people to maybe get to know closer because I miss spending time with other non-euronormative people since I moved here !

(I'm sometimes just annoyed by all my friends having only their European sight on the world. That's why the uncommon search.)

Do you know any #arabic , #spanish or #mandarin #translator who might be interested in translating https://storyseedlibrary.org/ , a #solarpunk #art and #writing site with lots of #Copyleft materials?

Sadly, there's no funding for the project, only bringing more human-made, intentional, optimistic #climate #futurism materials to new audiences!