For #TBT, we’re revisiting “Using Python to Analyze Greek New Testament Manuscripts” by Zach Butler. Zach demonstrates how to use simple Python code and Jupyter Notebooks to analyze New Testament Greek manuscripts stored in XML-TEI format. 🔗 digitalorientalist.com/2024/01/12/u...

"Can you get my computer out of my bag?" "The green one or the purple one?" (blank stares) "The maroon one." "... What color do you think the other bag is?" "It's blue." 😭

Antarctica update 🇦🇶 I'm back to 'normal work' at the FMI office. At the end of last year, I lived my dream, having the privilege of spending a month in the Antarctic. In this thread I’m sharing my experiences. #PolarinAmbassador 🧵(1/18)

My least favorite Italian word is ‘gli’

Pretty sure I just heard an Italian take a breath *during* a geminate consonant

Some things about life here 🇦🇪 are ridiculously nice. Today's nice thing: There is free public drinking water (ماي سبيل) stationed at both university gates, so when jogging, I can snag a drink on the go instead of carrying my camelbak.

Gulf Arabic word of the day چسا | يچسي čɨsa | yɨčsī ~ yačsī 'to put (a garment, on someone)' (ditransitive) ex čɨsa ʕyāḷ-a hdūm yɨdīda fɨ l-ʕīd. put.on kids-3MS clothes new.FS during DEF-feast "He clothed his children in new clothes during the feast." (Qafisheh, adapted) cf. Cl. Ar. كسا | يكسو

This review #2 response ratio reminded me of Pardee's 404-page response to Tropper's 1000-page Ugaritic grammar.

Books: Half Silver, Half Gold: Zielenbach (2026)

La comida de Juan el Bautista fue ... langostas?¿? 🦞🦞 Fue muy rico, este bautista ...

👀 sikit is a great example of a stative verb that follows the CaCaCa pattern in Classical Arabic but CiCiC in modern dialects.

Shame. I heard he was one bad hombre {complimentary}

Today, the wee babe sleepeth to the tunes of Brad Mehldau. His first jazz trio album very much feels like Guaraldi redivivus (in the best way possible), but his solo works (After Bach) are filled with subtle ear candy. Quite a find!

My home rivers have been ... Ohio River (KY) Chattahoochee River (AL) / several unnamed creeks Tennessee River (AL) Brazos River (TX) River Avon (UK) I guess I lived longest around the mouth of the Brazos (< los Brazos de Dios), which generally looks like this 📸

unmute squint.... remute

Do some Americans say slippy?? I thought it was UK slippy, US slippery.

I saw this ad in vernacular Arabic yesterday. In Ras Al Khaimah, إيش would be شو or هوما, so Idk what dialect they are going for here. Is it Levantine, I guess?

I'm pleased to announce that our Greek-English edition of Clement's Instructor (Paedogogus) is officially available for purchase. luxpatrum.com/clement-of-a...

About that pesky infix: Here is a table that has way more information than I could remember offhand @lawzinaj.bsky.social

ˣ Mark is a PhD candidate in linguistics (Arabian dialects). He tries to talk about language, but mostly ends up posting about his kids. ˣ Mark has lived in the Arab Gulf region, pretty much since 2014. ˣ Other long-term interests: Books, distance running, geography, and books.

It's been a while but: My account got locked for posting public information about its owner's court cases. Ironic given the whole "bUt ThE fIrSt aMenDmEnT" thing that led up to the takeover—but nobody remembers that anymore.

Yemen too. Yemen is in every single subgrouping.

1 Μουσάων Ἑλικωνιάδων ἀρχώμεθ᾽ ἀείδειν, | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | Let us begin to sing of the Muses who dwell on Helicon,

I accidentally put /-in/ out of habit, but y'all know what I mean. 😝 This (sub)dialect has only FIVE vowel phonemes: a, i~u, ā, ī, ū. It also has a number of really odd function words (see Ingham's Arabian Diversions).

Najdi Arabic proverb of the day إنْ كَانْ لَكْ حَافْرٍ فِاحْفِرْ وانْ كَانْ لَكْ جَنَاحٍ فطِرْ ɨnkān lɨk ḥāfr-in f-ɨhfɨr w-ɨnkān lɨk ǧnāḥ-in f-ṭɨr 'If you have a hoof, then dig; if you have a wing, then fly.'

Ruus Al Jibal Arabic word of the day baskūt ‘cookies’ (from English biscuit; cf Gulf Arabic baskūt)

New profile pic is an old pic from outside Mleiha, before it was fenced off for glamping. Coordinates (roughly): 25.12341837250035, 55.82814351824279

Guns don't kill people. Shootings kill people

Bagdad! In Santa Rosa County! How did I not know about this one?!

Found out, upon arriving at daycare today, that the daycare was closed and that the schedule was shortened (again), something that was only announced this week. This has been about the fourth emirate-wide schedule change since we had our first son four years ago.

Kid English word of the day flyer ‘rolled up sheets of paper used to swat flies’

"Eat what you want and dress the way everyone else does." I've heard this a lot and it's found in classical texts. It means do what you want privately and conform to society's mores.

(in the car, passing a sign for the Sharjah Literature Festival) "Is that a Jewish holiday or a Christian holiday?"

Kid English word of the day ut-oh ≈ uh-oh

Maguindanao word of the day timpu ‘time’ etymology: Mag. timpu < Malay tempo < Dutch tempo < Italian tempo < Latin tempus (per Wiktionary) n.b. Maguindanao frequently adapts "mid" vowels e and o to high vowels i and u, respectively.

I think I may have read a book in 2025. I'm not sure. Maybe 2026 will be better.

Tired: Die Hard is an action movie Wired: Die Hard is a Christmas movie Inspired: Die Hard is a Christmas romantic comedy

Language nitpick of the day: It seems common now to say things like "America invented peanut butter" instead of "an American invented peanut butter". I don't get it. It seems people are posturing online as if everything is the Olympics.

a liturgy for taco trucks

You can tell the jet lag is bad when my wife is recounting the tale of the time the emu got out

When you convert racist nonsense into progressive-veneer gobbledygook: "more Semitic-presenting peoples"

I did not realize that the biblical Anakim ענקים are descended from ענק "Neck".

I have just tasked the four-year-old with filling 16 glass spice jars for the new spice rack. Needless to say, things are going swimmingly.

I know that you ling/lang nerds are out here listing languages you want to learn. Are there languages that you have consciously decided *not* to learn?

It looks like using R for wave diagrams would be overkill. Gonna try Adobe Illustrator ....

Here's a new one: They spelled Walker backwards because there was already a Walker, Texas.

I've been surfing ASL YouTube a lot. Here is a minimal thread of some of my favorite channels I've found ... 👋

Pronouns in ASL (the intro is in ASL, with subs for the sign-impaired and hard-of-signing) youtu.be/rYWuebirqhA?...

I'm nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there's a pair of us — don't tell! They'd banish us, you know. Emily Dickinson

Was espresso after midnight a bad idea? The whole family has suddenly gone to sleep.