sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Working on a new edition of Wright's Arabic Grammar, properly digitized with lots of hyperlinks, indices, etc. Need volunteers to transcribe Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac into Unicode. 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 14/08/2026Reading Sībawayhi update: a few months ago I decided to give ol' Sībawayhi a rest, and turned to a related project: a new translation of Al-Khwārizmī's book on algebra (Kitāb al-Jabr wa-l-muqābalah). What does algebra have to do with grammar? www.sibawayhi.org/update/sibawayhi.orgUpdate: Reading al-KhwārizmīIt's been a while since I last posted; here's what I've been up to. A few months ago I found myself approaching Sībawayhi burnout, so I decided to turn my attention to another project I started ponde... 020
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 29/07/2026Yippee! Just finished the first draft of my translation of al-Khwarizmi's Book of Algebra (كتاب الجبر والمقابلة). In another few months it should be ready for publication. Focus is on the way the Arabic language shaped mathematical thinking. 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Sībawayhi Ch 259 is one of the shortest (~10 lines), simplest and most useful chapters in the Kitāb. It lists 7 ways to negate a verb. You may find it a bit surprising; it says فَعَلَ and قَدْ فَعَلَ and لَقَدْ فَعَلَ are negated in different ways. www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/259/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 130
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 15/05/2026Just uploaded a batch of new draft translations, a few with lots of notes and commentary. Feedback encouraged, these are just first drafts. Also of interest, ch. 239 includes some new hypertext functionality. Chapters with translations are green in the Table of contents. www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 02/04/2026Kitāb Sībawayhi ch. 41: The Quasi-Participial Descriptor (الصفة المشبهة) translation draft 1 now available: www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/041/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 15/03/2026Kitāb Sībawayhi: new drafts with translation: 1, 3, 6 www.sibawayhi.org/new-drafts-w...sibawayhi.orgNew drafts w/translation: 1, 3, 6Initial translations of: ١ هٰذَا بَاْبُ عِلْمِ مَا الْكَلِمُ مِنَ الْعَرَبِيَّةِ 1 this is the topic of knowledge of what are the wordings of Arabic ٣ هٰذَا بَاْبُ الْمُسْنَ 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Kitāb Sībawayhi: new drafts of ch. 400-407. These articles address the "energetic" nūn (نون التوكيد) www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/#toc%D...sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 14/03/2026Kitāb Sībawayhi: new drafts of ch. 483-507. These articles address waqf and wasl. www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/#toc%D...sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 20/02/2026First drafts (Arabic only) of Sibawayhi's chapters on ما ينصرف وما لا ينصرف (triptotes and diptotes), ch. 285 - 315 now available at www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/#toc%D...sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Just got blocked by a guy who didn’t like it that I objected to his claim that (in so many words) ICE was just using Israeli techniques. Funded by the American military industrial complex etc. Depressing considering he’s a very good scholar in his field. 200
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 26/01/2026Is banū tamīm the name of a tribe? Sībawayhi is unequivocal: no. Tamīm used in this way is the name of the patriarch: sons of tamīm. But tamīm as a diptote is the name of a tribe (قبيلة). 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 24/01/2026Memo to our so-called representatives in Congress: you do have the power to put an end to the lawlessness by ousting the Criminal-in-Chief. 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 24/01/2026If the dems had any cohones they would shut down the entire govt NOW. 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 24/01/2026How long before Satan declares martial law and sends in the Army? 000
Reposted by @sibawayhi.bsky.socialMartin Haspelmath @haspelmath.bsky.social · 22/01/2026Edward Gibson's new book has arrived on my desk – 350 pages on cognitively-oriented dependency syntax from MIT Press! mitpress.mit.edu/978026255357... For me, this is an exciting development, as I came to love dependency syntax in the 1980s, through European authors such as Tesnière and Mel'čuk. 3154
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 22/01/2026The shit is hitting the fan, everybody acknowledges that. The interesting question is why. Is Trump the cause or the symptom? Nothing in history is inevitable. If it wasn’t Trump would the same thing (unraveling of the post WW2 consensus etc) happen anyway one way or another? 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Here's a shocker. Khwarizmi's book originating algebra is الكتاب المختصر في الجبر والمقابلة . Do you read المقابلة (as most do and I always have) as something involving balancing or equivalencing? Well maybe not. Lisaan al-Arab: إذا ضمَمْتَ شيئا إلى شيءٍ قُلتَ قابلتُه به . Suggesting a very different sense 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 18/01/2026Is the fate of American democracy now in the hands of Minnesotans? They helped save the Union over 100 years ago. 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 18/01/2026Dear influencers: I appreciate your attention, following me even though you haven’t the foggiest idea what I’m talking about. It’s very flattering, especially when you have pretty girl icons! Regretfully I cannot follow you back. No offense it’s just a thing I have. 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 17/01/2026Am I the only one who thinks Michael Carter’s ethico-legal interpretation of Sībawayhi is utterly preposterous? 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 16/01/2026Holy smokes! My poster child for “great artist, bad person” has always been Gesualdo. Maybe I should reevaluate. 020
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Chomsky: “… no notion of analogy or similarity will be of any help at all in explaining the core properties of language.” (chomsky.info/languageandp...) Sībawayhi’s masterful explanation of Arabic is almost entirely based on analogy. Who ya gonna buleev?chomsky.infoLanguage, Language Development and Reading, by Noam ChomskyThe Noam Chomsky Website. 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 15/01/2026Sib ch. 205 treats ها of هذا etc. in some detail, including ها أنا ذا . The ها is for التنبيه not التوكيد . www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/205/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 08/01/2026The American people (who elected Trump) clearly do not understand what is happening. RIP American democracy. It was a helluva ride. 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 30/12/2025Kitāb Sībawayhi ch. 285 translation draft 1 available. This is the first in a series of articles on انصراف ("diptotes" in Western terminology). www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/285/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 29/12/2025Kitāb Sībawayhi ch. 10 translation draft 1 available. Topic: object complements for both transitive and intransitive verbs. All verbs "step to" their masdars and nouns of place and time. www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/010sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 21/12/2025Kitāb Sībawayhi: translation of ch. 9 now available. Topic: complements of intransitive and passive verb. Feedback welcome. www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/009/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 21/12/2025Kitāb Sībawayhi: initial editing of Part I is now complete! www.sibawayhi.org/initial-edit...sibawayhi.orgInitial edit of Part I is complete!The initial editing of Part I (articles 1 - 284) is now complete! That means I've gone over each article at least once, word-by-word, adding full tashkīl, segmenting the text, and marking up dicta (i... 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Another fascinating bit from Sībawayhi, ch. 124: saying هذا مَنْ لا أرفُ منطلقًا is equivalent to هذا الذي قد علِمتُ أنّي لا أعْرفُهُ منطلقًا Note the clear distinction between علم and عرف. How to translate? Know, learn, recognize? Or grok? 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 18/12/2025Translate: هذا أوَّلُ فارسٍ مُقْبِلٌ Sībawayhi ch. 125. 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 16/12/2025Here’s a great mystery which afaik nobody has addressed. Why do the Arabic names of letters involve “extra” letters? E.g. why is د named dāl instead of dā’? Where the hell did that lām come from? 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 15/12/2025The great Pinker posted this on X : “For ecumenical word nerds: Arabic "Hikma," wisdom, is homologous to Hebrew "chochma," which is the "Ch" in Chabad ("chochma," wisdom, "bina," understanding, "daat," knowledge).” I do not trust him and I don’t think he knows either language. 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 13/12/2025The whole “imālah” (إمالة) thing. Surely I’m not the first to think it’s basically trivial. You say ضارب no imālah. You say كاتب, imālah. Former: /a/ as in father, latter, /a/ as in cat. Not that complicated. 000
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Is Steven Pinker the worst “public intellectual” of our time? A monolingual psychologist who promotes (without fully understanding) discredited theories of language. And now he’s trashing Oliver Sacks based on reporting from The New Yorker, while saying in the same breath that it can’t be trusted. 130
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Pop quiz: in ch.119 Sībawayhi give two distinct readings of هذا عبدُ الله منطلقٌ. Can you? 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 11/12/2025One of the most fascinating aspects of Sībawayhi is his treatment of “nominal mood” for lack of a better term. Ch. 116 : أتاني زيدٌ الفاسقَ الخبيثَ note the نصب (accusative). You don’t say that (with accusative) to describe Zayd but to insult/condemn him. The inflection seems to be “modal”. 110
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 10/12/2025Re: Carter’s “Ethico-legal hypothesis”, which says that Sībawayhi just applied legal thinking to language, or something like that. Absurd in many ways but most obviously: … 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 10/12/2025Rereading some papers on Sībawayhi by Carter, Baalbaki, etc. My god it’s depressing. Most of it is total rubbish, often reads like a perverse parody of the real thing. I guess when nobody else can read the original you’re free to push your version, no matter how anachronistic and unhistorical. 110
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 07/12/2025Here’s a good one: هٰذَا بَاْبُ مَا يَعْمَلُ عَمَلَ الْفِعْلِ وَلَمْ يَجْرِ مَجْرَى الْفِعْلِ وَلَمْ يَتَمَكَّنْ تَمَكُّنَهُ and then وَذٰلِكَ قَوْلُكَ مَا أَحْسَنَ عَبْدَ اللهِ. Sībawayhi chapter 22. Whatsat mean? Works like a verb but doesn’t run like a verb? 110
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 04/12/2025First rule of scholarship: pay attention! Western scholars are puzzled by the “conditional” in Sībawayhi, because لو is not treated by him as a conditional. The reason is OBVIOUS: الجزاء does NOT mean conditional! It means something like “requital”. Ie it involves a notion of consequence. 110
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 02/12/2025Another memo to Arabists: الجزاء does NOT mean “conditional! Western writers routinely botch this because they confuse language and logic. They treat conditionals as involving a protasis and apodosis, both of which are (supposedly) truth-apt. So they’re puzzled by لو which is not a “conditional”. 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 01/12/2025Memo to Arabists: negation and denial are not the same. It’s not clear whether Sibawayhi understood the difference when using eg نفي but it is clear that treating this as negation is often wrong. 100
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 30/11/2025Everybody agrees Arabic doesn’t have “true” adverbs. But does it have true adjectives? Unequivocally: no! 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 28/11/2025What exactly does اللهُ أكبر "Allahu akbar" mean? Sībawayhi tells us in chapter 110: وَلٰكِنَّهُ حَذَفَ ذٰلِكَ اسْتِخْفَاْفًا كَمَا تَقُوْلُ أَنْتَ أَفْضَلُ وَلَا تَقُوْلُ مِنْ أَحَدٍ وَكَمَا تَقُوْل اللهُ أَكْبَرُ وَمَعْنَاْهُ الله أَكْبَرُ مِنْ كُلِّ شَيْءٍ وَكَمَا تَقُوْلُ لَا مَاْلَ وَلَا تَقُوْلُ لَكَ وَمَا يُشْبِهُهُ وَمِثْلُ هٰذَا كَثِيْرٌ It's a truncated version of "Allahu akbar min kulli shay'" 020
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 25/11/2025Think you know Arabic? Explain the difference between مررتُ بزيدٍ الطويلِ and مرربُ بزيدٍ كلِّ الرجلِ. Both الطويل and كلِّ الرجل count as صفة “adjective” but according to Sībawayhi they function in very different ways. 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 22/11/2025Is there anything worse in life than a piano player with no sense of rhythm playing Billy Joel and Elton John songs? Talk about losing the will to live! 010
sibawayhi.bsky.social @sibawayhi.bsky.social · 22/11/2025Chapters 9-99 of the Kitāb have now all been edited at least once. Full tashkīl, fine-grained segmentation, color-coded typesetting (easy to pick out his demo dicta أقوال). www.sibawayhi.org/kitab/sibawayhi.orgReading Sībawayhi 200
Reposted by @sibawayhi.bsky.socialRyan Kasak @drkasak.bsky.social · 20/11/2025It's so amazing to me that "A Grammar of Mandan" already has almost 900 downloads after being put online less than a year ago! It's amazing to see how Open Access publishing really boosts visibility, so I'm pleased to see more publishers go that direction. 1184
