Re: CHAT: feckly off-topic (was: THEORY: Storage Vs. Computation)

On Mon, 21 Jun 1999, Joshua Shinavier wrote:

> Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
<on the sounds of Arabic>

>
> But it's words just seem ugly as well (plus it makes extensive use of the
> schwa, which I can't stand).  The only concrete example I know is a prayer
> call from "The English Patient": Allah-oo-ugbut, Allah-oo-ugbut, etc.
> "Ug" indeed.  I think the script is beautiful, though.
>
> Josh
>
Well, de gustibus etcetera. I like the taste and shape of words like
_hardun_ 'earth', _xamrun_ 'wine' or _rihun_, 'wind'. Both my courses
in Arabic very quickly go over to using the script without giving a
transcription, and I've just tiniest bit of trouble reading it ;-)...
I rather like: 'Kana xammarun yasifiru bixamrin lahu wama?ahu qirdun
wakana yamzuju laxamra bilmai...' (and so on, from one of the first
lessons of the old Teach Yourself Arabici, apparently taken from Thousand
and One Nights.)

Transcription can wreak havoc with a language - I was ever so surprised
when I compared the recording of a Teonaht song Sally presents on her
webpage with the text! Detailed instructions on how to pronounce sequences
of signs aren't half as helpful as being able to hear the language.

Boudewijn Rempt  | http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt