[HN Gopher] Nubeian Translation for Childhood Songs by Hamza El Din
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       Nubeian Translation for Childhood Songs by Hamza El Din
        
       Author : tzury
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2025-11-02 11:07 UTC (6 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (nubianfoundation.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (nubianfoundation.org)
        
       | pilooch wrote:
       | The 'Eclipse' album is a classic.
        
       | pkkim wrote:
       | Question for Arabic speakers: The Arabic transliterations don't
       | have vowel markings (harakat). So how are you able to reproduce
       | the pronunciation? Are you able to just guess and get it right
       | most of the time? Same with place names that you've never seen
       | (the name of some random village you see on a map), how do people
       | have any confidence that they're saying it even remotely
       | correctly?
        
         | Ozzie_osman wrote:
         | Harakat (diacritics) are actually pretty rare in _any_ Arabic
         | writing, unless it's the Quran (because meaning needs to be
         | very exact/nuanced) or educational (for kids or other learners
         | of the language). In fact, I think historically, not just the
         | diacritics but even the dots (eg b or t) would be skipped, and
         | people would guess the letter and pronunciation based on the
         | context.
         | 
         | But you're right, with transliteration, it's much harder to
         | guess because the sounds/combinations of letters are not
         | typical, and the words are unfamiliar. So you just guess a bit
         | and then you get corrected when you hear the sound (eg, on the
         | song).
        
         | HeinzStuckeIt wrote:
         | > Same with place names that you've never seen (the name of
         | some random village you see on a map)
         | 
         | I'm just guessing here, albeit as someone with linguistic
         | training: toponyms in a given region are typically formed by a
         | limited inventory of words ("topoformants") possibly extended
         | by, for example, the name of a landowner, a tribe, etc. (a
         | "specific"). Speakers growing up in a region will
         | subconsciously learn the typical topoformants and therefore be
         | able to read at least them without the vowel markings.
         | 
         | Also, don't forget that Arabic does write the long vowels
         | through the use of _matres lectionis_. It's the very early
         | Semitic inscriptions, from before this device was invented,
         | that I am amazed that anyone could read.
        
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       (page generated 2025-11-08 23:01 UTC)