Re: E D S for Abdulaziz

[Youcef Rabah Rahal <rahal at arabeyes dot org>]

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Salam,

On Tuesday 13 April 2004 19:54, Munzir Taha wrote:
> On Tuesday 13 April 2004 02:53 am, Youcef Rabah Rahal wrote:
> > Salam,
> >
> > Actually I like كنية ;-) Laqab now means more and more 'Family Name'
> > which can create a confusion. Yeah, I know that originally it meant
> > 'Nickname', but keep in mind that the language evolves.
>
> Oops! Arabic language evolves in the sense of new words to cope with new
> terminology is correct but for the Arabic language evolving doesn't mean by
> any mean that what we studied in school regarding it's grammar can be
> changed. This a substantial difference between arabic and English. English
> grammar and rules can change but Arabic grammar can't. Fullstop.

Did I say Arabic _grammar_ evolves ??? I'm talking about _vocabulary_ ! and 
that one _evolves_... This is common for all languages on earth (BTW, I'm not 
sure how you can state that the English _grammar_ can evolve and not the 
Arabic one...).

Anyway, talking about the _vocabulary_, it is (almost) a natural feeling for 
people that are afraid for the spread of their language to hesitate in 
adding/changing words... In the first stages of the Islamic civilisation, 
Arabs had no problems in Adding 
Persian/Greek/Latin/Chinese/Turkish/Indian/Tamazight... words into the 
language. Now they are (far) more hesitant. The English people nowadays have 
no problems in using new words (even from other languages). The hesitation is 
not only about Arabic. The french are very afraid to 'loose' their language 
by adding 'anglicisms' (and it happens that most fearful ones are those who 
live in Quebec, they use for example the word 'chien-chaud' to designate a 
'hot-dog', while people in France simply say 'hot-dog' ;-).

> > My 2c (I'll keep the arguing for QAC :-).
>
> For QAC to live and do it's job properly, their work should not depend on
> what a certain Arabic community thinks about a word. You believe in
> something; I believe in another; we disagree; a thread about demogracy and
> detorine is opened; a split happens; ....  ;)  (I have finished my lecture,
> can I hear clapping? ;)

It's not about 'believing' in a word or not. It's about finding the _right 
word_ while translating (sometimes, that word simply does not exist yet)...

As an example, I was suggesting 'kunya' for nickname. Now I happen to like 
more the word 'ism musta3ar' suggested by Ossama. So, it's not about 
'believing' (in that case I'd have said معزة و لو طارت:-)

> QAC should refer first to official rules that are well documented in Arabic
> Grammar/Tasreef/Quameese and follow this without questioning. If not found,
> then QAC can propose or RFC a rule.

Read above, it's not about grammar (QAC is only about vocabulary).

> Finally, I am happy with QAC, I count myself as a member though not an
> active member maybe. I think Youcef Rabah is a good person to guide QAC and
> he needs to hear from us all so let's help QAC form rules by discussions.

BTW, I'm not guiding the QAC, I'm just giving my opinions as anyone here.

BTW2, please be at the meeting (you and those who care).

Salam,

- -- 
Youcef R. Rahal
Arabeyes.org
http://www.arabeyes.org/~rahal
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