Tag Archive for "Arabic"
I was using WordPress posts to study Genesis verses in a variety of languages that I’ve studied (Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish) and to look at what online commentaries had to say about those verses.
Then one day I upgraded to WordPress 2.2 and the language coding in a whole bunch of past posts turned to unrecognizable mush. I found that rather discouraging and never got around to fixing it.
This morning I stumbled across a blog post that showed a very simple fix for the problem. All a person had to do is remove four characters from the wp-config.php file.
So now the previously described code mush looks like Hebrew and Arabic again. You can see what I’m talking about here.
This may just mean that I’ll have to return to my occasional or even constant verse study exercises.
The Arabic translation of Genesis 1:1 uses the verb khalaqa for the verb “to create”.
في البدء خلق الله السموات والارض
This is the verb that is used in the Qur’an to describe the same form of divine activity, at least in surah 2:29 (surat al-bakarah or “the cow surah”).
Surah 2:29 reads” ((”For the Qur’anic Arabic I’m clipping and pasting from this site“))”:
هُوَ الَّذِي خَلَقَ لَكُم مَّا فِي الأَرْضِ جَمِيعاً ثُمَّ اسْتَوَى إِلَى السَّمَاء فَسَوَّاهُنَّ سَبْعَ سَمَاوَاتٍ وَهُوَ بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ عَلِيمٌ
In the Pikthal English translation” ((”This site works its way through the Qur’an, providing three English translations of each verse or passage of verses”))”, this Qur’an verse reads: “He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things.”
The reason I was interested in looking at how this verb is used is because I might have expected that the Arabic translation of the Hebrew Bible would use an Arabic verb that was a cognate of the Hebrew “bara”.” ((”Here is a site that offers a word-study of bara))” There is an Arabic cognate bara’i or bary but it is not chosen.
Recently I was in a bookstore, looking at the language study section, and came across these “Arabic in A Flash, Vol. 1″ cards. I was impressed by the demo images on the back of the box. On each card the word being studied appears in a sentence, as well as other variations of the words based on the same Arabic word root. Another plus - the cards are relatively inexpensive.
I’ve only barely started using them, but I am finding they are very helpful. It’s a great way to study a language while I’m on the go.
Last night I was in a convenience store where I have some Yemeni friends. It’s fun to chat with them about Middle East events and other stuff. Since I had a pack of the cards with me, I showed it to them. After looking at them for about a minute, one of the guys pulled out a twenty-dollar bill and asked me if I could pick him up a set. Although these cards were designed to teach Arabic to English speakers, he wants to use them to learn English. I wonder if the creator of these cards has given that application any thought.
It will take some time to get through all of these cards, but I’m already looking forward to purchasing Arabic in A Flash, Vol. 2, when it comes out.