Amharic as a language of Islam

2007 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. Drewes
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Central Ethiopia ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
Small Collection ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Foreign Scholar ◽  
Dominant Part

Amharic, the native language of a large group of the population of central Ethiopia, also functions as a lingua franca among the neighbouring peoples, and has done so for a long time. The language is usually associated with the culture of the politically dominant part of the population, the Christian culture. But it is certain that from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, and probably even before that time, Amharic was used also for Islamic religious texts: poetry composed to spread the basic religious concepts of Islam and songs to be chanted in religious meetings. The first foreign scholar to become aware of this was Enrico Cerulli, who published some examples of Islamic songs in Amharic in 1926. Much more has since been published by Ethiopians. In the 1960s I obtained a small collection of such texts which are discussed in this article.

Introduction: New Directions in Norwegian Maritime History

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Even Lange ◽  
Lewis R. Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Maritime History ◽  
Maritime Transport ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Short Period ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Dominant Part ◽  
Important Progress

A comprehension of the maritime sector is central to an understanding of Norwegian economic development and cultural identity during the last two centuries. Indeed, it is difficult to find any other nation where maritime activity has consistently played a more important role since the early nineteenth century. But the establishment of maritime history as a scholarly discipline in this country has been very long in the making. Until recently, few professional historians ventured into the sub-discipline, and those who did for the most part only stayed in the field for a short period of time. As a result, the writing of Norwegian maritime history was for a long time left to amateurs and journalists. When Helge W. Nordvik, an outstanding exception to this generalization, surveyed the state of the field at the beginning of the 1990s, his conclusion expressed a profound ambivalence: while important progress had been made in the preceding couple of decades, Norwegian maritime history still focused on fishing and the associated spheres of whaling and sealing. Despite public fascination with the sea and most things maritime, Norwegian scholarly literature, in Nordvik's view tended “to neglect the actual operations of maritime firms and the economics and policies of maritime transport” which constitute the dominant part of the modern maritime sector....

The Dupont family: collectors, dealers and naturalists in nineteenth-century Paris

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Mearns ◽  
Laurent Chevrier ◽  
Christophe Gouraud
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Family History ◽  
Natural History ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Anatomical Models ◽  
The Family ◽  
Small Collection

In the early part of the nineteenth century the Dupont brothers ran separate natural history businesses in Paris. Relatively little is known about their early life but an investigation into the family history at Bayeux corrects Léonard Dupont's year of birth from 1795 to 1796. In 1818 Léonard joined Joseph Ritchie's expedition to North Africa to assist in collecting and preparing the discoveries but he did not get beyond Tripoli. After 15 months he came back to Paris with a small collection from Libya and Provence, and returned to Provence in 1821. While operating as a dealer-naturalist in Paris he published Traité de taxidermie (1823, 1827), developed a special interest in foreign birds and became well known for his anatomical models in coloured wax. Henry Dupont sold a range of natural history material and with his particular passion for beetles formed one of the finest collections in Europe; his best known publication is Monographie des Trachydérides (1836–1840). Because the brothers had overlapping interests and were rarely referred to by their forenames there has been confusion between them and the various eponyms that commemorate them. Although probably true, it would be an over-simplification to state that birds of this era named for Dupont refer to Léonard Dupont, insects to Henry Dupont, and molluscs to their mother.

Long Time Coming: Prospects for Democracy in Iraq

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 115-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce E. Moon
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Time Required ◽  
Established Democracies

Prospects for democracy in Iraq should be assessed in light of the historical precedents of nations with comparable political experiences. Saddam Hussein's Iraq was an unusually extreme autocracy, which lasted an unusually long time. Since the end of the nineteenth century, only thirty nations have experienced an autocracy as extreme as Iraq's for a period exceeding two decades. The subsequent political experience of those nations offers a pessimistic forecast for Iraq and similar nations. Only seven of the thirty are now democratic, and only two of them have become established democracies; the democratic experiments in the other five are still in progress. Among the seven, the average time required to transit the path from extreme autocracy to coherent, albeit precarious, democracy has been fifty years, and only two have managed this transition in fewer than twenty-five years. Even this sober assessment is probably too optimistic, because Iraq lacks the structural conditions that theory and evidence indicate have been necessary for successful democratic transitions in the past. Thus, the odds of Iraq achieving democracy in the next quarter century are close to zero, at best about two in thirty, but probably far less.

An Introduction to the History of International Law

1924 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baron S. A. Korff
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
International Law ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
History Of International Law

For a long time writers on international law took it for granted that the subject of their studies was a relatively recent product of modern civilization, and that the ancient world did not know any system of international law. If we go back to the literature of the nineteenth century, we can find a certain feeling of pride among internationalists that international law was one of the best fruits of our civilization and that it was a system which distinguished us from the ancient barbarians. Some of these writers paid special attention to this question of origins and endeavored to explain why the ancient world never could have had any international law.

scholarly journals Fashion’s Final Frontier": The Correlation of Gender Roles and Fashion in Star Trek

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-649
Author(s):  
Katharina Andres
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Pop Art ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Star Trek ◽  
Original Series ◽  
Gene Roddenberry ◽  
American Society ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Female Officers ◽  
Dominant Part

Since its creation in 1966, Star Trek has been a dominant part of popular culture and as thus served as the source for many cultural references. Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry wanted to realize his vision of a utopia but at the same time, he used the futuristic setting of the show to comment on the present time, on ac-tual social and political circumstances. This means that each series can be regarded as a mirror image of the time in which it was created. The clothing of the characters in the different series is one part of that image. The uniforms of The Original Series show influences of the 1960s pop art movement as well as the mini-skirt trend that experienced its peak in that decade. In the course of almost 40 years, however, many things changed. In the 1990s, in Deep Space Nine and Voyager, a unisex uniform replaced the mini-dresses, with few exceptions; the colorful shirts gave way to ones that were mostly black. This trend continues into the new century. This essay interprets the evolution of the female officers’ uniforms from femi-nized dresses to androgynous clothing over the development of the series as a reflection of the change of gender roles in contemporary American society. The general functions of the female characters’ uniforms are the central object of its analysis while the few, but noteworthy exceptions to this pattern are given specific attention. Finally, one of the most intriguing lines of enquiry is, how the prequel series Enterprise, supposed to be set before The Original Series, but produced and aired from 2001 to 2005, fits in the picture.

scholarly journals Impact of technology on Translation and Translation Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 344-361
Author(s):  
Yves Gambier
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Attitudes And Perceptions ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
Multimodal Communications

The landscape in translation and interpreting is changing deeply and rapidly. For a long time, but not necessarily everywhere, translation was denied as a need (except for the political and religious powers), as effort (translation being defined as a kind of mechanical work, as substitution of words), and as a profession (translators embodying a subaltern position). Technology is bringing in certain changes in attitudes and perceptions with regards international, multilingual and multimodal communications. This article tries to define the changes and their consequences in the labelling and characterisation of the different practices. It is organised in five sections: first, we recall that translation and interpreting are only one option in international relations; then, we explain the different denials of translation in the past (or the refusal to recognize the different values of translation). In the third section, we consider how and to what extent technology is transforming today practices and markets. The ongoing changes do not boil solely to developments in Machine Translation (which started in the 1960s): community, crowdsourced/collaborative translation and volunteer translation encompass different practices. In many cases, users provide their own translations, with or without formal qualifications in translation. The evolution is not only technical but also economic and social. In addition, the fragmentation and the diversity of practices do have an impact on a multi-faceted market. In the fourth section, we emphasize that there are nowadays different concepts of translation and competitive paradigms in Translation Studies. Finally, we tackle the organisational challenge of the field, since the institutionalisation of translation and Translation Studies cannot remain the same as when there was a formal consensus on the concept of translation.

scholarly journals «GERMAN GRAMMAR» BY JACOB GRIMM AND SCHOOL GERMAN GRAMMAR BOOKS IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMANY

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 121-127
Author(s):  
Oleg V. Lukin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Native Language ◽  
German Language ◽  
Linguistic Research ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
History Of Linguistics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Xix Century

The article is devoted to the place of J. Grimm's «German grammar» among school German grammar books of the XIX century Germany. The work that appeared at the beginning of the century opened a new page in the history of linguistics – the development of comparative historical language study and the formation of linguistics as a science. The paper provides information on some of the most important German grammar textbooks in Germany of the XIX century, used in secondary schools. They were grammar books by J. Ch. Gottsched, J. Ch. Adelung, J. Ch. A. Heyse, J. G. Radlof, S. G. A. Herling, F. J. Schmitthenner, M. W. Götzinger, etc. The author of the article compares J. Grimm's «German grammar» with the above-mentioned grammar works of that time and puts forward a hypothesis that in the XIX century Germany there appeared an opposition between scientific approach to grammar and that of school grammar books, which, according to the author, reflects dramatically different goals set by both sides. Unlike school textbooks which task is to consistently initiate students into the system of their native language, often on the basis of the matrix created by Alexandrian grammarians, scientific grammar is based on the results of linguistic research and seeks to answer questions about language phenomena. J. Grimm rejected any normative grammar based on logics, that resulting in the aversion on the part of the pedagogical community. Nevertheless, the publication of «German grammar» resulted in appearance of German language textbooks the writers of which tried to build their work on the basis of Grimm’s work, thereby contributing to the popularization of the ideas of the great linguist both among the pedagogical community and the students (A. F. H. Vilmar and K. A. J. Hoffmann).

scholarly journals Labels and Realities: The Relevance of Terms like ESL and EFL in a Linguistically Complex World

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Expanding Circle ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Efl Students

For a long time, ELT (‘English language teaching’) scholars and practitioners have used terms like ‘ESL’ (‘English as a second language’) and ‘EFL’ (‘English as a foreign language’) unquestioningly to describe the English used by people outside the so-called ENL (‘English as a native language’) circle. For example, ELT practitioners may conveniently refer to students from places like China, Vietnam and Thailand as EFL students. Interestingly, we find counterparts of such terms in ‘World Englishes’ studies; Braj Kachru’s ‘Inner Circle English’, ‘Outer Circle English’ and ‘Expanding Circle English’ essentially refer to ENL ESL and EFL respectively. Despite the popularity of such terms in scholarly circles, the problems associated with their use have not often been explored in depth. Nevertheless, some authors have described such problems. For example, commenting on the distinction between ESL and EFL, Nayar (1997, p. 10) states, “a great deal of referential fuzziness within the two and denotative overlap between the two are making the terminological distinctions unclear, impractical, and ineffective or, worse still, in some cases inauspicious and irrelevant.” This special issue aims to further examine the use and relevance of these terms.

scholarly journals Algemene aannemers in de Belgische bouwsector (1870-1970)

1970 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Jelena Dobbels
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Job Responsibilities ◽  
Gradual Shift ◽  
General Contractors ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The 1960S

The turn of the twentieth century was a tuming point for the Belgian construction sector.The emergence of general contractors enacted a re-examination of job responsibilitiesamong general contractors, architects and engineers. This paper analyses how Belgiangeneral contractors claimed their new position as organisers and executors ofconstruction, and how they interacted with other construction actors. The analysis showsit took a long time to capture the gradual shift of tasks legally, started in the 1890s yetonly finalized by the 1960s. This slow legislative adaptation gave rise to many conflictson job responsibilities, yet also collaborative actions were undertaken. This allows us toconclude that general contractors, architects and engineers mainly engaged in conversationwith each other in order to identify and outline their changing functions andresponsibilities.

Background and Foreground: Getting Things in Context

1987 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Knight
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Information Retrieval ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Historical Documents ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Reader ◽  
The World ◽  
Exact Reproduction ◽  
The 1960S

Historians generally grumble at the liberties taken with letters and papers by editors and biographers in the past, while reviewers may complain at the professorial pomposities which interfere with the reader's interaction with the text. Certainly, reading is not a mere matter of information retrieval or of source-mining, but a meeting of minds, and any over-zealous editing which makes this more difficult will have failed. Editors, whether of journals or of documents, are midwives of ideas—self-effacingly bringing an author's meaning and style into the world. What reviewers praise is the unobtrusive, and what they damn is ‘a manner at once slapdash and intrusive’, making allowances perhaps for an ‘introduction which is as admirable as his footnotes are useless’. When in the 1960s new technology brought us a flood of facsimile reprints of scientific works, some avoided these problems by appearing naked and unashamed: but for a text on phrenology, or for Goethe's Theory of Colours, a fig leaf or two of commentary is really necessary to help the innocent reader to interact with the book. Facsimiles of nineteenth-century editions of Wilkins' papers, of some Newton correspondence, or of Henry More's poetry are even more problematic; the reader should know that these editors' assumptions cannot be taken for granted, and that their introductions are themselves historical documents. The exact reproduction of misprints and misbindings (giving pages out of order and misnumbered) is of dubious assistance to the modern reader.

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