⚕ Regarding my health: I got some good news from my oral surgeon yesterday. Although I have tremendous bone loss in my mandible from the keratocystic odontogenic tumor, the panoramic x‐ray taken yesterday showed the first signs of slow but significant bone tissue regrowth compared to the image from three months ago. At that rate, he estimated another six months to a year before the final surgery to cut out the tumor. (The bad news is that he’s moving on to another institution and I’ll be assigned another surgeon in the new year.)

👅 Regarding language: Two other surgeons, both Jewish, were also looking at the radiographs, and the older one used a Yiddish expression that the handsome younger one, bedecked in a kippa, did not understand. (Unfortunately, I missed the expression itself, only paying attention once I heard them discussing the Yiddish language.)

Also, I don’t associate the neighborhood with Semitic languages but rather with Indo‐European and Sino‐Tibetan ones; however, another attractive Semitic man was talking emphatically in Arabic into his mobile telephone on 82^nd Street and then a couple sitting next to me in the hospital waiting room were talking in Arabic as well.

Sunday at the Ethical Humanist Society of Queens, we were joined by Richard L. Koral from the American Ethical Union and the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester who also joined us for our monthly luncheon thereafter at Jax Inn.

Six Exotic Jews group members also gathered Sunday for an “Exoticon” in Upper Manhattan. We met at General Grant National Memorial where Ariel emphasized Grant’s racism by reading aloud General Order Nº. 11 and then spitting on the site. (See the video.) A British tourist inquired about it, and after explaining, a number of us eventually got onto the topic of libertarianism (and their implying that we were a group of libertarians annoyed me because we are not, but rather a Jewish cultural group). There was also a large group of adolescents there rehearsing a dance routine.

After briefly visiting Sakura Park, those of us who were hungry got food from a local supermarket and we sat, talked and ate on public benches. Then we went to Riverside Park which was really gorgeous and we located what we believe is the Freedom Tunnel. Then came rehydration and dessert at other local venues and more talking and sitting on benches. Afterwards, we rode the subway together to Times Square and then little by little separated from one another as our paths diverged.

While waiting with one of them in Jackson Heights for his bus, our topics turned unsurprisingly towards linguistics (Arabic ligatures, and why the letter jim is a moon letter even though it’s usually coronal).

From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, 27 December–2 January 2009.

▴ …found another reason to be on a low-carbohydrate diet: Bread is scary. —2 January (HoldTheToast Press) { , }

▴ My pictures of my birthday dinner at Ichi Umi 一海, Murray Hill, Manhattan, and “Daddy” at Vlada, Midtown/Hell’s Kitchen. —1 January {}

▴ …wonders if you can find the picture of him in this article. —1 January (Jeffrey Tastes) { , }

▴ —1 January (The Thinking Atheist on YouTube) { }

▴ …is curious whether you say “twenty ten” or “two thousand ten.” —1 January { }

▴ Imani, the final Kwanzaa principle, comes from Arabic إيمان iman (faith), from the same root as Hebrew אמונה emuna (faith) and אמן amen. —1 January { }

▴ Happy Gregorian New Year from the vantage point of the North American Eastern Time Zone! —1 January { }

▴ The name of the Karamu feast on the sixth day of Kwanzaa comes from Arabic كرم karam (generosity), also the source of the name كريم Karim. —31 December { }

▴ The Kwanzaa principle of Nia (purpose) derives from the Arabic نية niyya (intent). Maybe Hebrew פניה peniyya and כונה kawwana are related? —30 December { }

▴ —29 December (morn1415 on YouTube via Unreasonable Faith) { }

▴ The Kwanzaa kinara not only resembles the Ḥanukka menora {מנורה}, they have the same Semitic root as Hebrew נר nēr (lamp), Arabic نور nûr (light). —29 December { }

▴ …is yet another atheist who appreciates minarets {منائر‎}. —29 December (Friendly Atheist) { , }

▴ I was recently talking to a friend about the “rock’n’roll en español” to which I used to listen in the 1990s. “Ay Tenochtitlán” is a good example. —28 December (seguridadsocialrock on YouTube) { }

▴ …bought half-price Christmas chocolate at Walgreen’s on his weekly carbohydrate day. —28 December { }

▴ The Kwanzaa principles of Ujima (collective work) and Ujamaa (cooperative economics) both come from Arabic جمع jamaʻa (gather together). —28 December { }

▴ The seven principles of Kwanzaa are “nguzo saba” in Swahili, from Arabic سبعة sabʻa (seven), the same root as Hebrew שבעה šibʻâ (seven). —27 December { }

• A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5mi7bMS3Y.
• Additional comments on this article may be available on FriendFeed.

From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, 18–24 October 2009.

▴ My video of my friend Peter’s birthday celebration at Caja Musical, Elmhurst. —24 October (I on YouTube, Facebook and Facebook, Facebook|FriendFeed)

▴ My pictures of my friend Peter’s birthday celebration at Caja Musical, Elmhurst. —24 October (Facebook)

▴ …isn’t usually concerned with the world of sport, but…. —23 October (explosm.net, Facebook|FriendFeed|FriendFeed, Jaiku|FriendFeed)

▴ My pictures of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee happy hour at Bar los Recuerdos, Jackson Heights, and subsequent socializing at Friends’ Tavern, Jackson Heights, and Caja Musical, Elmhurst. —23 October (Facebook)

▴ —22 October (Ecomukti on YouTube, Facebook|FriendFeed)

▴ More of my pictures of autumn in New York City. —22 October (Facebook)

▴ Sexy Jew. Thanks, Chap. —22 October (SexyManFan on YouTube, Facebook|FriendFeed)

▴ Hear the endangered Cypriot Maronite variety of Arabic in this two-part documentary in Greek (with English subtitles). Look for the link to part two when part one is over, and please excuse the religious content. —21 October (gskordis on YouTube, Facebook|FriendFeed|FriendFeed, Jaiku|FriendFeed) {Already embedded in a prior article.}

▴ …has a pre-existing condition. —21 October (OK Go!, Facebook|FriendFeed|FriendFeed, Jaiku|FriendFeed)

▴ —20 October (davey wavey on YouTube, Facebook|FriendFeed)

▴ —20 October (ErialC on YouTube, Facebook|FriendFeed)

▴ My video of the Jackson Heights Merchants Association Diwali Mela (دیوالی میلہ), Jackson Heights. —19 October (I on YouTube and Facebook, Facebook|FriendFeed)

• A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5mO3WQFNI.
• Additional comments on this article may be available on FriendFeed.

Hodgepodge, 6 November 2009.

• An article about Dr. Tina Strobos’ hiding Jews during World War II specifically noted the ethics of atheists. (The New York Times via J.K.G. on Facebook)

“It’s the right thing to do,” she said with nonchalance. “Your conscience tells you to do it. I believe in heroism, and when you’re young, you want to do dangerous things.” ¶But such an outlook has an origin, what Donna Cohen, the Holocaust Center’s executive director, calls “learned behavior.” Dr. Strobos comes from a family of socialist atheists who took in Belgian refugees during World War I and hid German and Austrian refugees before World War II.

• The Coalition of Reason advertises atheism in the New York City subway system, but alas in Manhattan stations only. (City Room via J.B. on Facebook)

• The Institution for the Secularization of Islamic Society (ISIS). (Center for Inquiry)

• Hear the endangered Cypriot Maronite variety of Arabic in this two-part documentary in Greek. (YaLibnanTV and YaLibnanTV on YouTube, via جبل اللغة, via Languagehat, also available at gskordis and gskordis)➥ (Facebook/FriendFeed, Jaiku/FriendFeed)

A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5l5kCWl1K.

From Facebook Wall to Surface Web, 1–10 May 2009.

 Compiled below are my writings on my own Facebook wall 1–10 May 2009, as well as anything else that might be construed as an example of micro-blogging.

▴ Elyaqim is willing to walk quite the distance for the right salad. —2 May, 01:53 (Fb.|FF|FF, Jk.|FF)▴ It’s a Jackson Heights situation comedy: The Trade Fair at 75^th Street usually doesn’t have the store-made prepared green salads I like (with red cabbage, bell pepper and shredded carrot), so I walk all the way over to the Trade Fair at 89^th Street. I am further encouraged by often bumping into interesting supporting cast members along the way. —2 May, 02:10

♐ “Carl Sagan on Astrology,” critical thinking about astrology combined with scenes of Manhattan in the late 1970s, from the PBS mini-series Cosmos, episode “The Harmony of the Worlds,” 12 October 1980. —2 May, 16:24 (YT¹, Fb.|FF)

▴ Elyaqim ate at a restaurant near a young woman who limits her male Facebook friends so they don’t see her pictures without hijab {حجاب}, and then a gay man who said he kissed his male friend because he was horny. “What are friends for?” (I agree.) Such is Jackson Heights life. —2 May, 22:23 (Fb.|FF|FF)

▴ Elyaqim is drooling over the new character blocks in Unicode 5.2, due in autumn, including ☥Egyptian hieroglyphs☥. —5 May, 12:28 (BS², Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

‎٭ Gays are organizing in Morocco! A nascent group called Kifkif (كيفكيف) planned a conference in Marrakech {مراكش} last month. I have been informed it did indeed take place: “The conference was held on the 15^th in Marrakech and a few brave souls gathered outside to lend their support. It was a much more sedate event then promised, but a huge first steep for gay rights here. That’s what I keep telling myself to remember.” —5 May, 21:17 (F24³, Fb.|FF)▴ New York City is the greatest city on earth, but Marrakech is like my second home. It’s beautiful and friendly. I have not been back in about five years, and the things that are happening there now would probably not have been possible then.—7 May, 00:18

▴ Elyaqim misses three people whom he admits he didn’t know very well, but of whom he was quite fond and who dropped him as Facebook friend. :`( —6 May, 23:53 (Fb.|FF|FF, Jk.|FF)▴ …Look at the emoticon and see how they made me so sad that I shed a grave accent from my colon. (I of course mean the typographical, not the anatomical, colon.) —7 May, 00:35
▴ …Different folks have accounts for different reasons. I’m sure some people feel overwhelmed, or even that their privacy is compromised, if they have too many Facebook friends. Having over 600 friends, I am nearly immune to occasionally being dropped by some people I barely know. When I come home from a party, my friend list will increase dramatically, but two of the three to whom I refer in this status update were “stars” of the respective parties at which I met them, people who really contributed to making a memorable time for me and with whom I certainly wanted to maintain contact. —7 May, 17:17

☤ This is outstanding news. My father and his mother were destroyed by Alzheimer’s, so maybe there’ll be a cure should I develop the illness. —7 May, 09:47 (BBCN⁴, Fb.|FF)

▴ Elyaqim notes that the Persian suffix “-stān” (ـستان), as in the names of so many countries and regions, comes from the same Proto-Indo-European root (*stā-) as the Yiddish word “ştetl” (שטעטל), a small Eastern European town with a large Jewish population. —7 May, 17:40 (Fb.|FF|FF)▴ The English “-stead” and “stand” came from the same root. —7 May, 17:57

▴ Elyaqim sat next to super-villain Firebrand (a.k.a. Gary Gilbert) at a Jackson Heights pizzeria last night. Firebrand’s fights with Iron Man in the 1970s and ’80s did not come up in conversation. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firebrand_(Marvel_Comics). —8 May, 05:13 (Fb.|FF|FF)

⚘ It would be my first time back in the Bronx in over a year! —8 May, 08:12 (PGM on MU, Fb.)

▴ Elyaqim ordered food from Maharaja (ਮਹਾਰਾਜਾ) on 37^th Avenue, and the toothpick holder was labeled “Objects of domestic utility.” —8 May, 22:52 (SC⁵, Fb.|FF, Jk.|FF)

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 1. Carl Sagan, writer, “The Harmony of the Worlds,” episode of télévision series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, 12 October 1980, excerpt duplicated as “Carl Sagan on Astrology,” undercoverkptic channel of YouTube, 16 November 2006.
 2. Andrew West, “What’s New in Unicode 5.2 ?,” BabelStone, 27 April 2008.
 3. Samir Barkachi, “Morocco’s Gays Come out of the Shadows,” The Observers (France 24), 26 March 2009.
 4. “Trial Drugs ‘Reverse’ Alzheimer’s: US Scientists Say They Have Successfully Reversed the Effects of Alzheimer’s with Experimental Drugs,” BBC News, 6 May 2009.
 5. Anna Broadway [Christi Foist], “Objects of Domestic Utility,” Sexless in the City, 25 April 2005.

A version of this article is reproduced at webcitation.org/5h1BaTm4r.

Ḥabîbî to mohabbat: Egyptian pop song to Bollywood filmī song.

 On Thursday, 13 March, I was in Apna Bazar Cash and Carry, a market here in Jackson Heights, and I was surprised to hear a Hindi/Urdu version of the 1996 Egyptian song “Nûru‐l‐ʻayin” (نور العين), composed by Nasser el-Mizdawi (ناصر المزداوي). The video of the recording by Amr Diab (عمرو دياب), with the original Arabic lyric by Ahmed Sheta (أحمد شتا), can be seen on YouTube here, here, here, here and elsewhere.

 The staff in the store were of no help identifying this later version for me even though they were playing it. A little research on the Internet revealed it was “Mohabbat hō nā jāyē,” a song from the 2001 Indian film Style. The Urdu/Hindi lyric, according to the Indian Movie Directory and Bollywoodlyrics.com, is by Abbas Tyrewala.

 The switch from Arabic to Urdu/Hindi was not only a change of language but of language family, from Afro-Asiatic to Indo-European, yet the first repeated word of the chorus manages to be from the same root in both. In the Arabic original, the chorus repeats “Ḥabîbî ḥabîbî ḥabîbî…” (حبيبي حبيبي حبيبي…‏), and in the Urdu/Hindi version, the chorus repeats “Mohabbat mohabbat mohabbat…” (محبت محبت محبت…‏), both of which come from the two-letter Semitic ḥ-b (حب، חב) root which refers to love. The Hebrew word for love, אהבה (ah^aḇâ), may come from the same root as well even though a hēʼ (ה، ه) is where the ḥêṯ (ח، ح) should be. According to Edward Horowitz, “Sounds made in the same part of the mouth or made in the same way, tend to change with one another” (How the Hebrew Language Grew, [New York: Jewish Education Committee Press, second printing 1961], 237, also available with Google Book Search). The ḥêṯ and hēʼ are both gutturals and prone to interchange. The example he gives is the Hebrew pair מחה (māḥâ, “wipe, rub”) and נמהה (nimhāh, “was worn out”) which are from the same root despite the ḥ/h exchange (246).

Versions of this article are reproduced at webcitation.org/5eUbMEWbi and 5eUcD08Sg.

Ḥāmēẓ vs. ḥummuṣ.

 Yes! Despite their appearing to be spelled identically and both referring to food, Hebrew חמץ (ḥāmēẓ, in Yiddish xomeʦ) unleavened bread, and Arabic حمص (ḥummuṣ) chickpeas are from two different roots. While it is true that the Hebrew letter צ (ṣāddî) corresponds to the Arabic letter ص (ṣâd), it also sometimes corresponds to the Arabic letter ض (ḍâd) which is the case here. חמץ comes from the ḥ-m-ḍ (חמץ׳، حمض) root meaning sour, and is thus cognate with the Arabic حامض (ḥâmiḍ) sour, حمض (ḥamḍ) “a bitter plant, sorrel” and حميض (ḥamîḍ) “tract of land abounding in bitter herbs.” (The quotes are from F. Steingass, A Learner’s Arabic-English Dictionary [Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1989]. Thanks also to John Wortabet and Harvey Porter, Hippocrene Standard Dictionary: Arabic-English English-Arabic [New York: Hippocrene Books, 2000].)

 Dave Curwin (DLC) suspected as much in his Web log article “chametz,” Balashon - Hebrew Language Detective, 12 April 2006. A comment on that article nearly a year later by Justin a.k.a. The Mad Latinist, 7 April 2007, confirms it. However, in his article “Chickpeas,” The Jewish Daily Forward, 21 October 2005, Philologos appears to be forcing a connection between ḥāmēẓ and ḥummuṣ where it doesn’t actually exist: “The reason for this, as you will know if you ever have left chickpeas or hummus paste in the refrigerator too long, is that both have a tendency to sour quickly.”

Blessed Lightning, or Barack and Baruch vs. Barak and Burak.

Barack, Baruch, Barak and Burak.

 They’re at it again. Pronunciation shift and inconsistent transliteration are confusing people. With Senator Barack Obama high in the public eye at the moment, people are speculating what his first name Barack might mean. With the knowledge that it is of Semitic origin (in this case, Arabic via Swahili), many have compared it to the name of Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and incorrectly concluded that it means lightning. However, the two names, despite their similarity, are from entirely different Semitic roots.

 Ehud Barak’s last name might be better transliterated Bārāq or Bārāḳ to reflect its coming from the Semitic b-r-q (ברק، برق) root, but is transliterated as it is to reflect its pronunciation in modern Europeanized Hebrew which has shifted from [q] to [k]. The precise same shift occurred in the Turkish language as it is spoken in Turkey (as opposed to Turkic Central Asian languages). Thus the Turkish first name Burak, as in that of musician Burak Kut, is also from the b-r-q root, more specifically from the Arabic burâq (براق).

 Barack actually comes from the Semitic b-r-k (برك، ברך) root and means blessed. The cognate Hebrew word would be bārûḵ (ברוך) as in the name of Bernard Baruch. In Hebrew and Aramaic, the pronunciation of certain letters changes to a different allophone when in certain positions (in this case, word final), so that the sound of the letter kāf (כ، ك) becomes spirantized and shifts from [k] to [χ] or [x]. In imitation of German or Polish, this is frequently transliterated ch. This sound change does not occur in Arabic.

Update, 3 October: The following articles have more information. At least two of them were published before mine was, yet I failed to consult them.

• Benjamin Zimmer, “The Barrage Against ‘Barack’,” Language Log, 12 February 2007.
• Benjamin Zimmer, “‘Barack’ Mailbag,” Language Log, 14 February 2007.
• Bill Casselman, “Barack: Origin & Meaning of Obama’s Given Name,” or “Barack Obama: The True Meaning of His First Name,” Bill Casselman’s Canadian Word of the Day & Words of the World, ©2008.

Update, 9 October: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language believes the b-r-k root to be “Probably a metathesized variant of krb” which would mean Barack is cognate with Hebrew כרוב kərûḇ, Arabic كروب karûb and English cherub and cherubic.

Versions of this article are preserved at webcitation.org/5bJ8vqYBb, 5bJAFkj2i and 5bRhxh8gS.