Ramadan

If you work in the localization industry and handle Middle Eastern languages, you quickly become familiar with Ramadan as it is the time of year when it is notoriously difficult to find an available Arabic translator. This year, Ramadan began on July 20 and will continue through August 18.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar and a time of spiritual reflection and increased devotion and worship. It is also the month believed to be when the Holy Qur'an was sent by God to the great Prophet Muhammad. There are a billion Muslims around the world, with approximately 8 million located in North America.

At many mosques during Ramadan, about one thirtieth of the Qur'an is recited each night in prayers known as tarawih. By the end of Ramadan, the complete scripture will have been recited.

During this month, from dusk to dawn, Muslims obstain from eating, drinking, sex, smoking and absolutely anything else that would draw their attention away from service. It is believed that fasting (sawm) teaches a number of virtues, including modesty and patience. Fasting means there is no eating or drinking while the sun is shining.


This type of fasting usually begins at 12 years of age for a Muslim. Fasting is considered to be one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The others being shahada (confession of faith), salat (prayer), zakat (almsgiving), and hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca).

Fasting serves to keep the focus off of the body and its needs and desires and place the focus on one's faith and otherworldly, spiritual needs.

Every part of the body must be restrained. One cannot take part in gossip (restraint of the tongue). The eyes must not look at obscene things. The hand must not touch anything that does not belong to it. The ears must refrain from listening to idle talk or obscene words. The feet must refrain from going to sinful places. In this way, every part of the body observes the fast.

At the end of Ramadan, a celebration known as Eid-ul Fitr (the Festival of Fast Breaking) takes place. During this time, the fasting comes to an end. This year, this will take place on August 19.

Ramadan is a time of self-restraint, a time to cleanse one's body and soul and to devote time to the worship of God.

The Chabacano dialect of the Philippines

I've met many people from the Philippines over the years that have a Spanish accent and I've always wondered why. The answer is simple; one of the languages spoken, along with Tagalog, is Chabacano or Creole Spanish.

The word "Chabacano" is derived from the Spanish word meaning vulgar or rude, so native speakers often refer to it as “Chavacano” or according to the location where it is spoken-Zamboangueño, Caviteño, Ternateño and the like.

This language is the only Spanish based Creole language spoken in the Philippines and has six dialects. Like all languages, these dialects were formed out of necessity. Today, the speakers of Chabacano speakers are a small minority usually found in Ternate, Cavite and Cavite City.

Chabacano is a type of Creole (a language that is formed when two or more languages mix together). It contains a large amount of Spanish vocabulary but does not follow Spanish gender rules and is also influenced by the local Filipino languages. The Chabacano grammar is based largely on Tagalog and Cebuano.

On June 23, 1635, Zamboanga became a permanent foothold of the Spanish government known as San José Fort. Language and cultural differences made it impossible for intertribal communication. To add to this, work instructions were issued in Spanish.

Since the majority of the natives did not speak Spanish, a lingua franca (a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different) developed and became a full-fledged language still in use today, mainly in Zamboanga City.

Differences and similarities between Spanish and Chabacano can be seen below (thanks to Wikipedia):

Donde tu hay anda?

Spanish: ¿Adónde vas?

(‘Where are you going?’)

Ya mirá yo con José.

Spanish: Yo vi a José.

(‘I saw José.’)

Ele ya empezá buscá que buscá con el sal.

Spanish: El/Ella empezó a buscar la sal en todas partes.

(‘He/She began to search everywhere for the salt.’)

Ele ya andá na escuela.

Spanish: El/Ella se fue a la escuela.

(‘He/She went to school.’)

Dragon Boat Festival 端午节

The Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday celebrated in China and the one with the longest history. After Chinese New Year, it is considered to be the second biggest holiday in China. This year, the festival falls on Saturday, June 23.
 

Known as Duānwǔ Jié in Chinese, Jié means festival. The festival was long known as a cultural holiday in China. In 2008, the Dragon Boat Festival was recognized as a public holiday in the People's Republic of China. 

The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated by boat races in the shape of dragons. Each team rows their boats and hopes to reach the finish line first while a drum beats. An actual dragon boat is traditionally made of teakwood and is similar to a 22 seat canoe.
 

According to custom, the poet Qu Yuan drowned on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 277 B.C. He supposedly tied a large rock to himself and committed suicide by jumping into the Miluo River at the age of 61. The boat races are meant to symbolize the rescue of Qu Yuan. Bamboo leaves filled with rice (known as zongzi) are thrown into the water in the hopes that the fish will eat the rice and not Qu Yuan. 

A type of realgar wine (known as xionghuangjiu) is also enjoyed. Realgar contains arsenic sulfide which was believed to be an antidote for poisons, thus driving away evil spirits, insects and other poisonous animals. 

During this celebration, several rituals are performed for protection from evil and sickness for the reminder of the year. Hanging herbs on the front door, drinking certain elixirs and hanging pictures of Zhong Kui (who is supposedly evil’s archenemy and a mythical figure). 

And if one manages to balance a raw on its end and it is exactly 12:00PM, this will also ensure that the following year will be lucky.


 

Persian or Farsi?

I recently received a request for the localization of a project into “Persian”. Typically, I receive requests for “Farsi”. It seems there is quite a debate on which term is the correct term to use for the official language of Iran (and also spoken in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and other neighboring countries).

Originally know as Persia to the Western world, the country of Iran was always known as Iran in Persian (only Western culture referred to it as Persia). However, in 1935, it has been said that the suggestion to change the name from Persia to Iran was proposed by the Persian ambassador to Germany. Being that he was a Nazi sympathizer and believed that Persia would be well served being an ally to Germany, he become convinced that the country should be known by its Persian name “Iran” in Western languages. The name Iran is word that has a common etymological origin of the old word Aryan (derived from the Sanskrit "Arya" meaning "Noble").

To add to the confusion, Farsi (which is the Persian word for the Persian language) was now being used in Western languages instead of  Persian. "Farsi" (an Arabic adaptation of the word "Parsi"), is the indigenous name of the Persian language. Just as the Greek refer to their native language as “Ellinika” and the German “Deutsch”, “Farsi” or “Parsi” is how the language is referred to by native speakers.

However, after the 1979 revolution, many Persians moved to the West and began referring to their language as “Farsi” and it has been used in Western countries ever since (for the most part).

Since we never refer to Japanese as “Nihongo” in English or Spanish as “Espagnol” in English, technically, we should be referring (in English) to the official language of Iran as PERSIAN.

Personally, I've always thought it made much more sense to refer to countries and language names using the proper native pronunciation and not the English equivalent. On second thought, imagine a world where China was referred to as Zhōngguó!

Memorial Day Around The Globe

Most of us are familiar with how Memorial Day is celebrated in the US. It takes place on the last Monday in May and it is a day of remembrance for loved ones and lost soldiers.Other countries put their own spin on Memorial Day.

In the Netherlands, they celebrate Dodenherdenking on May 4.The Royal Family holds a ceremony in Dam Square in Amsterdam and at 8PM, the entire country stops for two minutes to remember lost loved ones.Public transportation, radio and television broadcasts come to a halt. 

In Germany, Volkstrauertag is celebrated. Originally proposed in 1919 to commemorate lost war heroes from World War I, it was disputed about whether it was appropriate or not until 1934, when the Nazis declared it an official holiday. However, the Nazis turned into something called Heldengedenktag (the “day of the commemoration of heroes”). In 1948, the holiday was revitalized and was celebrated how it was originally intended. It is usually celebrated two Sundays before Advent.

 

In Australia and New Zealand on April 25, Anzac Day is celebrated. Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (the soldiers who fought in World War I).This holiday was officially declared in 1920. Many people add rum to their coffee that day to celebrate the “gunfire breakfast” that was used to warm the bellies of the soldiers.

 

In Canada, Vimy Ridge day is celebrated. Although it is an unofficial holiday and has been celebrated since 2003, it was established to commemorate the Canadian soldiers who battled the Germans in World War I (the Battle of Vimy Ridge). It is celebrated on April 9 each year. More than 4000 soldiers lost their lives in this battle. Canadians honor these dead soldiers by lowering flags to half-mast and placing wreaths on monuments and graves.

 

Whether a country celebrates lost love ones or war heroes or fallen soldiers on their version of Memorial Day, one thing is common among all countries. Memorial Day is a day to ensure that no one’s life has been lost in vain. 

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

 

 

The adaptation of Chinese characters into the Japanese language

One of the challenges I’ve found in having studied Japanese for many years before endeavoring to learn Chinese, is that I often see a Chinese character that is the same character in Japanese (and usually has the same or similar meaning but different pronounciation) and pronounce it as it is pronounced in Japanese. My mind just immediately pulls from my inner Japanese dictionary as my inner Chinese dictionary has not yet been completely written or filled. I had actually thought that studying Japanese first would give me a leg up on my Chinese studies.

The confusion usually happens when I am reading out loud in Chinese, in front of my teacher, who is listening and hanging on my every word for proper tone (unlike Japanese, Chinese has 4 unique tones, to add to the confusion), pronounciation and flow.

I can literally hear my brain click and the hamster wheel in my head turning while confusion sets in.  The character that frequently trips me up is the character for book 本.  In Japanese, it is “hon” (pronounced like hone).  In Mandarin Chinese,  本  is the measure word for the character for book (书) and is “ben” (pronounced like bun). For example, if you want to write "three books" in Mandarin Chinese, it is written as 三本书 (3+measure word+book). 

Whenever I see the Chinese character 本, my brain processes the character in Japanese and I think and say hon.  I immediately correct myself but it is often too late. My Chinese teacher, mildly disgusted, says NO. Sharply and in English.  Although I had studied East Asian Studies for a year at the graduate level at Harvard and learned quite a bit about Buddhism, ancient Japanese literature and art and the Japanese language itself, I do not remember ever learning exactly how the Chinese characters made their way into the Japanese language. This lack of knowledge almost always leads to a blog entry!

According to my research, Chinese books were first brought to Japan between the 3rd and 5th centuries A.D.  During the Tang dynasty, China was considered to be the single most important cultural power in Eastern Asia. Chinese writing then began migrating into Japan. The adaptation of Chinese characters during the 6^th to 9^th centuries A.D. is considered to be the most important event in the development of the Japanese language.

The Japanese borrowed the Chinese language as one of education and culture. Soon, Classical Chinese was adopted as the official written language of Japan. Shortly after this time, modified Chinese characters were being used to write the Japanese language. All early Japanese writings are essentially written in classical Chinese. To be able to write in medieval Japan basically meant to be able to read and write Chinese. This language was called kango by the Japanese.

By the 12^th century, the two Japanese syllabic writing systems, hiragana and katakana, were created out of kanji (the Japanese word for Chinese characters). These two writing systems are easier to learn (from my experience) than kanji and give Japanese it's unique appearance (as it is written from a mixture of kanji, hiragana and katakana).


It is also important to point out that the Chinese language did influence other Asian languages, such as Korea and Vietnam.


I will continue my Mandarin Chinese studies for as long as possible (my aim is to be fluent within 5 years). The saving grace for me is that there are also some words (like the number 3 and the word for love) that not only share the same character in Japanese and Chinese but are also pronounced the same! Amen to that.

Silesian: Polish Dialect or Separate Slavic Language?

The Silesian language is consided by linguists and historians to be either a dialect of Polish or a separate Slavic language.  According to my research, most feel it is not a language…yet. However, in 2007, the Library of Congress officially added Silesian to its list of languages.  The International Linguistic Organization has registered the Silesian language and assigned it the ISO code "szl".

Silesian is very closely related to Polish. Spoken in Upper Silesia, a region located in the southwestern part of Poland and the northeastern part of the Czech Republic, approximately 60,000 Polish people and approximately 100,000 Czech people claim Silesian as their native language.

In 2006, the Silesian alphabet was modified and Silesian is still used in literature, radio, TV and printed press. The language currently has no official status.

In the same region, there is a variant of German spoken called Silesian German. After World War II, the use of Silesian German was forbidden and most of the Silesian German culture died out once Silesia became part of Poland in 1945.

The differences in written Silesian and Polish can be seen below.

Silesian	Polish
Uojcze nasz, kery jeżeś we ńebje, bydź pośwjyncůne mjano Twoje. Przińdź krůlestwo Twoje, bydź wola Twoja, jako we ńebje, tak tyż na źymji. Chlyb nasz kożdodźynny dej nům dźiśej. A uodpuść nům nasze winy, jako a my uodpuszczůmy naszym wińńikům. A ńy wůdź nos na pokuszyńy, nale zbow nos uode złygo. Amyn.	Ojcze nasz, któryś jest w niebie, święć się imię Twoje, przyjdź królestwo Twoje, bądź wola Twoja jako w niebie tak i na ziemi. Chleba naszego powszedniego daj nam dzisiaj. I odpuść nam nasze winy, jako i my odpuszczamy naszym winowajcom. I nie wódź nas na pokuszenie, ale zbaw nas ode złego. Amen.