Comments on: Language L has no word for X

By: geoff nunberg

geoff nunberg — Mon, 09 Jun 2003 04:52:26 +0000

My information on Arabic comes from Khalil Barhoum, who did his doctorate in linguistics at Stanford and now directs the Stanford program in Middle Eastern & African Languages and Literatures. I asked him about the comment from BlogalVillager (Colin Brayton) that the Arabic word for compromise is ‘taaradhin’, and Khalil wrote in reply: “The word ‘taaradhin’ means something like ‘reconciliation,’ not ‘reaching a middle ground,’ with the implication of a struggle or hard feelings being involved in the process.”

Of course it may be that ‘taaradhin’ renders “compromise” in some contexts (or maybe it means “undetached compromise clauses,” something the Mideast is in sore need of right now).

By: language hat

language hat — Sun, 01 Jun 2003 05:43:46 +0000

Although the identification of the morphemes of Guugu Yimidhirr is correct, the overall meaning is “the speech that uses yimi for ‘this’ (as opposed to the words other languages use).” Blake and Dixon (in Handbook of Australian Languages, Vol. 1, p. 29) say “As with the names of other languages of the region, the name distinguishes this particular language from its neighbours by seizing upon a distinctive word… The suffix -dhirr ‘with’ is cognate to the endings seen in the names of languages spoken to the South (for example, Gugu Yalandji) and to the North (for example, Guugu Nyiiguudji, formerly spoken near the mouth of the Jeannie River).”

Since we’re swapping esoterica…

By: blogal villager

blogal villager — Sat, 31 May 2003 17:12:40 +0000

Arabic for compromise is taaradhin, verbal noun from a Form VI (reciprocal action) verb, and a trilteral root meaning “to be content or satisfied”: They contented one another and each was satisfied.

Since we’re swapping esoterica …