Comments for dormir debout

Comment on a response to “the cosmopolitan tongue” by Bill Chapman

Bill Chapman — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:26:34 +0000

I’m pleased to see Brian’s comment here. Esperanto is a serious candidate for the role of international language.

Esperanto hasn’t yet gained the recognition it deserves. However, all things considered, it has actually done amazingly well. In just over 120 years, it has managed to grow from a drawing-board project with just one speaker in one country to a complete and living natural language with around 2,000,000 speakers in over 120 countries and a rich literature and cosmopolitan culture, with little or no official backing and even bouts of persecution. It hasn’t taken the world by storm – yet – but it’s slowly but surely moving in that direction, with the Internet giving it a significant boost in recent years.

Comment on a response to “the cosmopolitan tongue” by Brian Barker

Brian Barker — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:33:15 +0000

Concerning the campaign to save endangered and dying languages, can I point to the contribution, made by the World Esperanto Association, to UNESCO’s campaign.

The commitment was made, by the World Esperanto Association at the United Nations’ Geneva HQ in September.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eR7vD9kChBA&feature=related

Your readers may be interested in http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_YHALnLV9XU Professor Piron was a translator with the United Nations in Geneva.

A glimpse of Esperanto can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

Comment on comments on a Libyan descriptive grammar by deeda

deeda — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:28:03 +0000

i agree with john – chop chop.

i see several books that need to be written based on some of these blogs entries.

Comment on comments on a Libyan descriptive grammar by Nabila Farhin Jahan

Nabila Farhin Jahan — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:44:05 +0000

About the patterns, I think they are listed in the books more for working backwards than for guessing the plural of a noun directly, like – if someone sees a word and knows the root of the word and sees the word structure falling into one of these patterns, he’ll know that this word is a plural of that noun rather than being anything else. of course I’m saying this from the point of view of someone who is still new in the Arabic learning process.

Comment on comments on a Libyan descriptive grammar by John

John — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:11:08 +0000

Also, perhaps this is an indication that maybe you need to write the next sourcebook/grammar for Libyan Arabic. Get to it. Chop chop.

Comment on comments on a Libyan descriptive grammar by John

John — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:09:52 +0000

Good critique. This kind of ridiculous ideological linguistics needs to be called out for what it is.

Hot new theme too. Well done.

Comment on weekly poetry #3 by kato

kato — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:40:45 +0000

I must insist that any shades of beauty and emotion are lost in translation, my friend. But you’re right, it is Baudelaire, and indeed his youth was stormy, and the above poem is full of metaphors open to certain saucy interpretations, as it were.

And not only that, but that translation is awful and wrong in some places.

Comment on on mohammedans and conversion by bint battuta

bint battuta — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:50:16 +0000

Nice find…

Comment on on mohammedans and conversion by Hicham

Hicham — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:48:25 +0000

It’s notable these kinds of “stereotypes” that are living in the mentalities of people regarding ‘Islam’ and thus created such weird word that used to flaw on their writings; ‘Mohammedan’ and ‘Mohammedans’ whereas same writings are aware about the ’social equality’ that Islam calls for! For that matter, I wonder about the day when people understand themselves and others better!

Comment on weekly poetry #3 by H

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:31:23 +0000

A bit emo, don’t you think?

My youth has been nothing but a tenebrous storm,
Pierced now and then by rays of brilliant sunshine;
Thunder and rain have wrought so much havoc
That very few ripe fruits remain in my garden.

I have already reached the autumn of the mind,
And I must set to work with the spade and the rake
To gather back the inundated soil
In which the rain digs holes as big as graves.

And who knows whether the new flowers I dream of
Will find in this earth washed bare like the strand,
The mystic aliment that would give them vigor?

Alas! Alas! Time eats away our lives,
And the hidden Enemy who gnaws at our hearts
Grows by drawing strength from the blood we lose!