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The story of Al-Asma'i. Long ago there was a tyrant of king in the Middle East with an exquisite memory, nearly an eidetic, he could remember anything recited to him after hearing it only once. He prized memory over many things and thus his servants were expected to be the same his attendants could memorize anything after hearing anything only twice and his maids after only three times. The king loved all literature and the prosody of poetry was his greatest joy, so thus he decided to hold a contest. He challenged the poets in the land to write an original poem that he had not heard, and if any of the poets succeeded, then he would grant the winner gold equal to the weight of the material the poem was written on. 

Many poets accepted the challenge and came to the royal court with the poetry in hand ready to win the prize, but after each poet recited their poem the king then his servants and maids would recite the poem, thus proving that the poetry was not new. As word quickly spread that the challenge was now more difficult a young and talented poet heard of the peculiar challenge. Al-Asma'i thought of a poem that would surely be too difficult to be memorized quickly. He spent days in the hills off of a marble quarry writing his poem. His work was difficult and not easy, but after he had successfully finished the work he himself had memorized the poem.

Al-Asma'i journeyed to the court. He had never seen the immensity of the palace and was astonished at the beautiful artwork and architecture that adorned every space that the eye could journey upon. Vaulted ceilings and high doors with gemetric symbols and cascades of light keeping no corner obscure. Soon he made his way to the royal chamber. The king duly surprised, but ready prepared his court the hear the poet recite his master work.

The poet confident although afraid of the power of the royal court stood quietly, until a servant signaled him to begin. The poet began, "I will recite the song of the nightingale" and he began in Arabic, "Sow too safee bulbulee, heyaa abqul al-thamalee ..." he continued on and the court listened patiently. Dust settled lightly in the silence that surrounded the poet as he recited his poem with rythmic excellence. When he had finished the king began to recite the poem, slowly, but soon his words faltered and he erred. He commanded his servants to recite the poem, they too began the recitation, but soon their worlds also faltered. The maids began for the third time, but their words too became lost in the immensity of the poem.

The king relented. He spoke, "You have been a worthy challenger. So I will thusly reward you gold equal to the weight of the paper the poem was written upon."

Al-Asma'i replied in eagerness, "Ah, yes, but I have not written my work upon paper."

Confused the king replied, "Then where have you written it?"

Al-Asma'i now almost modest in his reply said only, "On the marble in the marble quarry near my village."

The king was duly surprised, but without alternative he was left only to pay the noble poet with all the gold in the kingdom.
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The above is an adaptation of a common story told in the Middle East. It was recounted to me by my friend in Saudi Arabia and then my friend in Kuwait. I have adapted the story a bit, and it's just a rough sketch of what this great story could really be. Enjoy. 

The poem that Al-Asma'i wrote below: 

As I was speaking about yesterday my friend from Iran introduced me to the Iranian author Ferdowsi who wrote the very famous Shanameh know in English as the Epic of Kings.

Ferdowsi was a Persian poet renowned for his works, as well as a peculiar non-affinity to Islam, although he was a Muslim.

You can read the translation here at the Epic of Kings. Also, a bit more about Ferdowsi can be found at Wikipedia, as well as some additional information about the Shanmeh.

Conversing with my new found friend from Iran I was surprised to find that he apparently loathes music, but is perfectly content with poetry and epics from his culture. In Muslim prayer the Qur'an is recited in a very what one might say musical manner, but it is apparently an insult to assume that it is "sung." I was so surprised when my friend told me without hearing but a few notes of Mozart that he hated it.

Unfortunately, Iran has strict rules concerning music, especially western music, which is banned in a de facto manner. In fact, there is even an underground music culture in Iran, which is promoting the spread of music, despite the governmental restrictions. You can read at NPR about an underground band that is doing quite well through its underground efforts: Hypernova: Illegal Indie-Rock from Iran. In my subsequent entires for this week I hope to share some Iranian poetry and some information for viewing, and perhaps some reading in the coming days.

Quite a few apologies are due since I simply haven't had the motivation to write, and perhaps a lack of time due to focus in other areas. 

I've wanted to post a foreign language joke every Monday, but I believe that would be a little too time consuming. Today I've got a joke in Spanish that I originally heard in English wrote to my friend in Argentina in Spanish, and then finally my friend from the Dominican Republic kindly fixed my grammatical errors and formatted it for easier reading. Enjoy!
Chiste del lunes:

Tres hombres de la india trantan de hacerse detectives, pero son muy etupidos, pero aun así están en la prueba para hacerse detectives, un detective les dice: Tengo una foto de un ladrón, esa foto tiene las pistas para encontrar el ladrón.

 

Ahora cada uno tiene que buscar la pista. El primer hombre mira la foto por 5 segundos (La foto solo esta de perfil), entonces el primer hombre dice: "Muy fácil este hombre solo tiene una oreja".

El detective muy enojado dice: Recuerden que la foto esta de perfil.

 

El segundo hombre ve la foto y dice: "Muy fácil, este hombre tiene una sola oreja"

 

El detective se enoja  otra vez.

 

Finalmente el ultimo hombre ve la foto y dice: "Es muy fácil, este hombre usa lentes de contacto"

 

El detective estaba muy sorprendido, entonces el detective fue a revisar el archivo de ese ladrón, y el ladrón usaba lentes de contacto.

 

El detective sorprendido dice: "Cómo hiciste para  saber?

 

Y el tercer hombre dijo, "Porque él tiene una oreja y un ojo. Por esa razón él no  puede llevar ante ojos."

I've encountered another friend from Iran in the past days. So I decided to post a link to the blog my friend is using in order to learn English.

You can find him at his blog the English Village. A small blog still, but full of potential.

We had a nice conversation about some history of Iran and the history of my city in the USA a lot of interesting thoughts. People from Iran are incredibly open and friendly despite the terrible propaganda that you might hear about Iran.


Image courtesy rosemanios the details of the image:

Front:
Vessel terminating in the forepart of a fantastic leonine creature, Achaemenid;
5th century B.C. Iran Gold; H. 17 cm
Fletcher Fund, 1954 (54.3.3)

Horn-shaped vessels ending in an animal's head have a long history in the Near East as well as in Greece and Italy. Early Iranian examples are straight, with the cup and animal head in the same plane. Later, in the Achaemenid period, the head, or animal protome, was often placed at a right angle to the cup, as in this piece. In the manufacture of this gold vessel, several parts were invisibly joined by brazing, which demonstrates superb technical skill. One hundred and thirty-six feet of twisted wire decorate the upper band of the vessel in forty-four even rows, and the roof of the lion's mouth is raised in tiny ribs. Typical of Achaemenid style, the ferocity of the snarling lion has been tempered and restrained by decorative convention. The lion has a crest running down his back; his mane has the disciplined appearance of a woven material; and his flanks are covered by an ostrich plume. The inclusion of the plume, a departure from convention, suggests that this lion is winged and has some supernatural significance.

Back:
Fluted bowl, Achaemenid, Darius I or II; 522-486 B.C. or 432-405 B.C.
Iran Gold; H. 11.1 cm
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1954 (54.3.1)

In the sixth century B.C., under the leadership of Cyrus the Great (r. 538-530 B.C.), the Achaemenid Persian dynasty overthrew Median kings and established an empire that would eventually extend from eastern Europe and Egypt to India. Achaemenid rulers included such famed kings as Cyrus, Darius I (r. 521-486 B.C.), and Xerxes I (r. 485-465 B.C.). They built palaces and ceremonial centers at Pasargadae, Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon. The Achaemenid Dynasty lasted for two centuries and was ended by the sweeping conquests of Alexander the Great, who destroyed Persepolis in 331 B.C. The Achaemenid period is well documented by the descriptions of Greek and Old Testament writers as well as by abundant archaeological remains.

Fluted bowls and plates of the Achaemenid period continue a tradition begun in the Assyrian Empire. While they were given as royal gifts, it seems that they were also valued and exchanged simply for the weight of the precious metals from which they were made.

The long awaited new entry for this week...

Last week in conversation between an America, Dominican, Argentinian, and a Brazilian the topic of Alfajores arose. What are Alfajores you may ask? Well, a cookie with dolce de leite sticking two tasty cookies together. The treats looks really interesting. Comparable to some Hostess products, but certainly much more appetizing. The Alfajore originates from Argentina and is enjoyed throughout South America.


With some great luck I happened upon a student exhibiting the cookie and was able to have a taste of it! It was great! However, not the most delicious brand. I am told Havanna Alfajores are the most delectable brand of Alfajores. On the same day, I was also fortunate enough to try the Brazilian Açai berry in a breakfast like combination with strawberries, bananas, nuts, and some honey to top it all off. It was a really great treat to have! Açai is usually very expensive in the U.S. and I have not previously tried it, its flavor is mellow if not entirely neutral, and lacking the acidity that most berries carry.

With any luck I will get one more blog in this week. My apologies as my work schedule has changed, and allows for a little less blog time.

I've been searching for proper research about the changes Portuguese underwent from Spanish to become what it is today, but I find that most research dealing with the topic is based on certain verb forms or worded in such a way, as research papers are, that I have no idea what any of it means.

From what I have gathered in only a few weeks of Portuguese this is what I have found to generally be true:

Change in Diphthongs
There is a strong shift in accented diphthongs from Spanish to preserve pronunciation for example: El Camión  to O Caminhão.

Other prominent changes that make the diphthong change apparent are very visible in conjugation of the gerund. Verbs ending an ar conjugated in the gerund do not contain a diphthong, and are therefore in most cases conjugated exactly the same in Spanish. While er and ir verbs contain a diphthong in the gerund conjugations, which is in turn eliminated in  Portuguese.

N and M Differentiation
An "N" is Spanish will often be switched to an "M" in Portuguese. This is apparent in verbs as well as adjectives i've encountered.  An adjective may lose its "N" to an "M", but still have a highly similar pronunciation. In verbs the change is striking "son" changes to "são" and "están" to "estão." What I'll call a nasal diphthong is created to handle the case of the "N".

Removal of Ñ and substitution with silent H
The "Ñ" does not exist in Portuguese and thus leads to an interesting substitution for the sound, which is similar but not the same. A silent "H" replaces each instance in words such as, "Español" to "Espanhol" the absence of the "Ñ" almost create the sound in the silence, okay maybe not, but still the change is apparent and very evident in all words which previous contained the letter.

LL change to CH
In many Portuguese words I have noticed the switch from "ll" to "ch." For instance, "me llamo" to "me chamo" and llorar to chorar. The pronunciation remains strikingly similar, although the sounds are ever so slightly different.

Hard consontants are softened OR Change of C
Hard consonants in pronunciation such as the letter "c" are softened into things than flow off the tongue more easily. Thus, "Cocina" becomes "Cozinha." Generally, the  "c"  sound is changed to an /s/ perhaps resulting in the character "ç" to substitute for the loss.

Non-Morphological Lexical and Aural Changes
The Portuguese Lexicon has adopted many words from dialects descended from Latin, and has seen many changes to adjectives that have been adopted in other languages. the pronunciation is different and sounds similar in some ways to Italian and perhaps slightly to French. The nasal sounds are the most striking changes, but I can´t trace where they descend from.

These are my thoughts on Portuguese morphology albeit amateur, but my go at understanding the changes that have happened.

(Image Courtesy of mi amiga Sol. She graciously shared with me some images of Salta in Argentina. )

Having met many new and interesting people it is also difficult to understand that they are also learning, and that perhaps for better or for worse I have the tendency to slip into Pidgin when speaking with someone who has not yet mastered the English language.

I have encountered a cornucopia of people from Brazil who desire very readily to learn English, but for whatever reason have not been able to master the language, but have command of operative phrases and use an albeit Pidgin like way of speaking.

What's worse is that I will slip into Pidgin when typing back and remove unnecessary words that are not essential to comprehension. I am quickly becomes, "I is" not because my friend in incapable of understand the syntax and grammar, but because it is easier for me to understand how they are understand it in their own language.  Portuguese is in itself a  sort of Pidginesque language that really came about right off the coattails of Spanish, and it has the vocabulary and grammar to prove it.

Other very prominent problems conversing with people who have not yet gained a command of the language is that there are often problems to resolve with their computer or general use of some tools that the internet allows. I was unfortunate enough to have been thought to have given a  Virus to one of my friend after trying to install a web cam and microphone so we could  practice speaking and see each other. Of course, I was absolved of all wrong doing, but I was still quite confused as to how everything panned out, even though I wasn't to blame.

(Image Courtesy: Daniel F. Pigatto from Open Source Pidgin Chat Client. )

Portuguese for me has been progressing very steadily and has come quite easily from my studies of Spanish. I have not abandoned French entirely, but have stuck more to learning vocabulary and sticking to pronunciation for the time being.

My Spanish has also been progressing quite quickly.

I've tried to limit the uptake of new friends, because it doesn't seem that I have enough time in the day to talk to all of my very good friends abroad. They have all been very accommodating and have even offered me stay in their homes if I ever choose to visit them. I hear so many great stories form these people I have been meeting, and I can hardly imagine that such an experience has been offered to me free of charge, which is an immense and very wonderful gift for me to be able to experience.