Reposted by David EddyshawDan Davies @dsquareddigest.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Having grown up in Wales, I can testify that if you are actually worried about your culture and history being under threat, the thing to do is write poetry and songs, perform plays, tell stories and organise festivals, not just sit around whining. 361209264
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 09/10/2026Some reasons why you should read about Beja: - Uses more internal morphology than any other Cushitic language; - Earliest recorded Cushitic language (in an ostracon of ~6th c. AD) - Classification still controversial - is it really Cushitic, or a separate branch of Afroasiatic? 1178
Reposted by David EddyshawElisabeth J. Kerr @elisabethjkerr.bsky.social · 08/10/2026On Tunen being an SOV language - heard a Tunen speaker bitch about someone who grew up in Yaoundé: "and when he speaks Tunen, he uses Subject-Verb-Object word order!! 🙄🙄" 191
Reposted by David EddyshawJohn Scalzi @scalzi.com · 05/10/2026This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead 10894822978
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Tfw you're looking for info on a small language of central Chad so remote all that's been published is short wordlists, and you find the speakers are putting up AI-generated tribal genealogy charts where the Arabic spellings contradict the Latin ones www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=... 2112
Reposted by David EddyshawShammai @shammaiintl.bsky.social · 07/10/2026Try our new service, Shamm-AI. The only LLM that generates two answers per prompt and asks you to say which one is more helpful, but then vehemently disagrees with your choice and starts arguing with you about it 231859
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 05/10/2026A nice little Popperian moment today:) My analysis of Mubi verbs, based entirely on data from Jungraithmayr, predicted that verbs of the form BooCa and BeCDeF-e should be possible. J doesn't record any that I could find, but Prickett does, and they're conjugated exactly as expected. 0143
Reposted by David EddyshawWill Bennett @wmgbennett.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Little known Snapple fact: Cajuns are not originally from Louisiana, and the clue is in the name. Cajun is a shortening of ‘Akkadian’, which reflects the group’s history of being forcibly resettled from Mesopotamia by the French after the fall of Sumeria. #cuneiformdelafayette 2103
Reposted by David EddyshawJonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 30/09/2026This is a dreadful argument from Burnham. Empirically false - almost 6m people were granted settled status; about 4m are currently resident. More importantly panders to racism/xenophobia, and directly contradicts argument made in his speech about migrant contributions. 39349153
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 29/09/2026There's a little case study in top-down lexical change for you... 072
Reposted by David EddyshawTom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 24/09/2026My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/ 322927745
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026A nice sketch of Hadza, a isolated language with clicks spoken in northern Tanzania journals.flvc.org/sal/article/...journals.flvc.org A sketch of Hadza grammar | Studies in African Linguistics 1178
Reposted by David EddyshawJohann-Mattis List @lingulist.de · 21/09/2026First version of the newly created Database of Cross-Linguistic Partial Colexifications (CLIPS) has now been published online. Common work with Katja Bocklage, Thanasis Georgakopoulos, Robert Forkel, and myself clips.digling.org 167
Reposted by David EddyshawThe Onion @theonion.com · 18/09/2026Trans Teen Hatches Nefarious Plot To Undergo Years Of Medical Treatments And Counseling To Win At Swimming theonion.com/trans-teen-hatches-nef… 66129172820
Reposted by David EddyshawHadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 15/09/2026what if the rogue ai agent instigates a communist revolution 10273
Reposted by David EddyshawBenjamin Suchard @bnuyaminim.bsky.social · 15/09/2026It's true, you can just say things 1101
Reposted by David EddyshawBenjamin Suchard @bnuyaminim.bsky.social · 09/09/2026when the boss asks if you can copy out the whole scroll again but in Hieratic 14017
Reposted by David EddyshawLiberty @libertyhq.bsky.social · 01/09/2026The Govt’s current definition of terrorism is so wide-ranging it captures behaviour most people would never consider terrorism. When it’s not clear what counts as terrorism, public trust collapses and without trust, counter-terror laws simply won’t work. 04313
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 30/08/2026In Algeria, it's common wisdom that family names were (mis)assigned by the French colonial government specifically to break up larger families; almost every family has their own anecdote about this. Just finished reading Brower's _The Colonization of Names_, and it turns out this is correct. 28428
Reposted by David EddyshawMatriarchy Now @matriarchy.now · 30/08/2026Did you know raising feminist boys is proven to reduce the overpopulation of mediocre men? 526437
Reposted by David EddyshawHadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 29/08/2026lowkey that's everyone's first impression of americans 6413
Reposted by David EddyshawJuliet E McKenna @julietemckenna.bsky.social · 29/08/2026Journalists need to stop describing these incidents in terms implying software has agency and intent. It does not. The people who created a faulty and dangerous product are the ones responsible for whatever happens, and must be held to account, with punitive financial penalties for damage done. 401617601
Reposted by David EddyshawLarryLegend @bwtrainer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026if someone tells you you don't need a union, you 100% need a union 13833263
Reposted by David EddyshawSam Spinner @samspinner.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Homer was a chant bot whose epic language model was built from the uncredited work of thousands of bards. 13514
Reposted by David EddyshawIntenudas @izmarasan.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Yesterday was the Ranar Hausa , the day of hausa language and culture . The hausa language is the most spoken language in west Africa . 093
Reposted by David EddyshawAndrew Fisher @fisherandrew79.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Damaging a golf course is not terrorism. We've lost the plot in this country www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...theguardian.comSeven charged with damaging Trump’s Scottish golf course accused of ‘terrorist connection’Course at Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort was painted with words ‘Gaza is not 4 sale’ and clubhouse was sprayed with graffiti 510339
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Apparently, Germaine Tillion wrote a note in Chaoui describing the person who had betrayed her Resistance cell to the Nazis and disguised it as part of her field notes. www.inumiden.com/germaine-til... 15016
Reposted by David Eddyshawroterote @roterote.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Here is the full suspension letter from UGent that was sent to Nathan Cofnas, it shows ample reason for his suspension and potential termination. Including breach of contract, using the University of Ghent’s name and legitimacy to promote his racial supremacist views and causing reputational damage. 7040651253
Reposted by David EddyshawRae Radford @raeradford.bsky.social · 22/08/2026See, you don't need to rush... #BookSky 752912519
Reposted by David EddyshawTimnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 21/08/2026Well, well, well, I KNEW that the hounding of Arday was gonna get connected back to the TESCREAL bozos somehow. See this "paper" by the guy who hired Cofnas at Ghent University. Reminder "dysgenic" is the opposite of "eugenic," they mean Black people and other undesirables reproducing too much. 13381152
Reposted by David EddyshawSumita Pahwa @sumitapahwa.bsky.social · 20/08/2026When I first moved to SoCal and took my child to the city library (as one does, first thing), this book title had me confused for several minutes. 19517119
Reposted by David Eddyshaweuobserver — EU news that matters @euobserver.com · 18/08/2026"People with an Islamic background ... do not want an open, free European society," Frederiksen told MPs, in reaction to a humanitarian crisis in Morocco.euobserver.comDenmark’s ‘socialist’ leader is a race-baiting fake, not an EU model"People with an Islamic background ... do not want an open, free European society," Frederiksen told MPs, in reaction to a humanitarian crisis in Morocco. 32316
Reposted by David EddyshawRobin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 18/08/2026So often what are called “culture wars” are one set of people saying “please can we live without perpetual persecution” and another saying “no, f*** you” but the press considering the latter group have “legitimate concerns” and must be perpetually platformed 402855859
Reposted by David EddyshawMaarten Kossmann @maartenkossmann.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Prefab Punic! I love it! (from Jongeling, handbook of Neo-Punic inscriptions, Hr. Maktar N 1, p. 91) 1409
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 16/08/2026Tired of Sartre's cliché about how "Hell is other people"? Try this Kabyle proverb instead, which might be loosely rendered as: "To Hell with Paradise if I have to be all alone in it!" 33710
Reposted by David EddyshawHadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 16/08/2026your boyfriend? the one who thinks value is determined by marginal utility? 2383
Reposted by David EddyshawCrow @abbyjane.cloverdalelane.com · 14/08/2026I think about this a lot. 7895102495
Reposted by David EddyshawAbubakar @yodoumi.bsky.social · 15/08/2026It seems like UFPR started a major assault on Nigerien army posts in northern Niger this morning. UFPR’s leader’s Mahmoud Sallah have been released and armed by Libya’s LAAF last June. According to RFI, Macron urged Haftar to release Mahmoud Sallah during their meeting in February 2025 244
Reposted by David EddyshawIsaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Bronze statue of the goddess Isis Kawa, Sudan Napatan period (750-300BC) -Ashmolean Museum #randomxt 230866
Reposted by David EddyshawBiggie @biggienotsmalls.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Should be reposted every month like clockwork... 23645215
Reposted by David EddyshawGod @thegodshow.com · 07/08/2026The president is a money laundering pedophile and adjudicated rapist who supports wife-abusing men for Congress but 34% of Americans don’t care because they’re bigots. 1253374817
Reposted by David EddyshawIsaac Samuel @rhaplord.bsky.social · 05/08/2026One reason why even a relatively small region like "West-Central Africa" cannot be considered a single Culture Area or Cultural Sphere is the sheer size of Africa Imagine a study of "Western culture" that includes everything from Portugal to Belarus to Turkey Yet that's just two African states 45720
Reposted by David EddyshawClive Lewis MP @labourlewis.bsky.social · 03/08/20261/3 Strip away the theatre and Reform UK is a billionaire-backed project to dismantle the public realm, shred regulatory protections and hand what remains of state power to capital. It’s plain to see – just follow the money. 9288103
Reposted by David EddyshawChristian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 31/07/2026The tweet saying "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of those 57 who have died trying to reach Ceuta" was part of this thread but got lost? 918348
Reposted by David EddyshawDónal Hassett @donalh.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Looking at something else in the archives but came across this map documenting the revolt against conscription and French rule in the Aurès région of Algeria in late 1916. It was brutally repressed by the French, mainly using West African troops. 1234
Reposted by David EddyshawJonathan Portes @jdportes.bsky.social · 29/07/2026But Burnham deserves credit for -unlike Starmer - immediately realising that Mahmood's proposals to effectively expel hundreds of thousands of care workers would not win a single vote back from Reform at the same time as alienating anyone with a shred of decency. 637141
Reposted by David EddyshawLameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 29/07/2026When I started fieldwork, several first-language speakers of Korandje told me they were glad their kids couldn't speak it. Teachers had told them raising their kids in (dialectal) Arabic was the key to letting them succeed in school, and they believed the results bore this out. 1358
Reposted by David EddyshawHadas Weiss @hadas.bsky.social · 28/07/2026re-upping this for no special reason 3343
Reposted by David EddyshawLiberty @libertyhq.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Hugely concerning. This highlights flaws in UK counter-terror laws which sweep up activity most people would never consider to be terrorism - and confirms fears that those laws would increasingly be used to target direct action www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...theguardian.comPalestine Action activists face being sentenced as terrorists over bank damageExclusive: Judge intends to consider ‘terrorist connection’ after convicting five for damage to Barclays in Burnley 03017