After getting into endless brawls, online and offline, with acquaintances and strangers alike over antagonistic political stances, on the backdrop of a perennially tumultuous Lebanese political landscape, I deemed it much safer to start tackling sociopolitical events from a different, more innocuous bias. Such as etymology. An "etymologizing" take on the "Topic du jour", if... Continue Reading →

After years of being away due to motherhood-induced upheavals and globetrotting, I am finally back, more intent on sharing my translation-relevant insights, experiences and eventual tips. Indeed, the other day as I was using an older version of MS Word, I realized that it only included in its bullet points numbering lists the conventional alphabetical order... Continue Reading →

Whatever staunch puritans of the Arabic language might say, the undeniable fact is that our spoken Lebanese language is rife with non-Arabic words and expressions. After all, this is what being at a crossroad of three continents entails. The ever-evolving fashion and garments lexicon best mirrors this fact, I believe. Fashion is always mutating with... Continue Reading →

A linguist by profession, a Lebanese by birth and an expat by choice/destiny.  These are the factors that explain, I suppose, why I am an assiduous seeker of Lebanon's subtle cultural fingerprints around the world… inside words. Yes, words! Words say it all you know! Etymology is the key to hidden valuable secrets enclosed within words. Historical... Continue Reading →

  Diglossia... A curious Greek-based term I came across a few years back , and which served as an eye-opener to the linguistic "situation" I have been unawarely facing since birth, practically. A good definition is the following: "In linguistics, diglossia is a situation where, in a given society, there are two (often closely-related) languages, one... Continue Reading →