azforeman

azforeman, 6 months ago to linguistics

Made another recording in a reconstruction of medieval Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. This reading includes the same psalm read twice, once in a normal albeit very slow speaking voice, and again with "Shaami" cantillation.

@jewishstudies
@medievodons
@linguistics

https://youtu.be/dLgzPeAstlQ

azforeman, 7 months ago to linguistics

In which I read Psalm 117 in a reconstruction of Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation. First in a speaking voice, then with cantillation.

@linguistics
@jewishstudies
@histodons

https://youtu.be/kJgG2Z7P2QU

azforeman, 7 months ago to linguistics

In which I read 2 Samuel 1 (which I call "The Grief of David") in a reconstruction of medieval Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation.

This extinct pronunciation, used by the Masoretes in Early Medieval Galilee, is the one the Hebrew vowel signs were actually designed to record.

@linguistics @jewishstudies
@histodons
@medievodons
@bookstodon

https://youtu.be/L646rpazq6k

azforeman, 7 months ago to bookstodon

In which I read Hamlet's famous "To Be or Not To Be" Soliloquy in a reconstruction of Early Modern English pronunciation. Actual speech starts at 0:33

Note that the "ache" of "heartache" is pronounced like the name of the letter H. Despite the folio spelling with <k> here, many speakers at the time seem to have preserved a contrast between the noun "ache" with /tʃ/ and the verb "ache" with /k/.

@linguistics @poetry @histodons @bookstodon @earlymodern

video/mp4

azforeman, 7 months ago to poetry

My translation of the opening of Bialik's pogrom poem "In Slaughter City".

Unlike others, my translation draws both on the Hebrew and Bialik's Yiddish self-translation, depending on what I thought could work in English in any given case (E.g. the first 2 lines are only in the Yiddish).

I don't know if I have the discipline to do the whole thing which is 272 lines in Hebrew.

But it's an interesting experience, letting two coordinate versions inform a translation.

@poetry @jewishstudies

azforeman, 7 months ago to bookstodon

"God and Saint George, Richmond and Victory!"

Another reading from Shakespeare in Early Modern pronunciation. This time a bit from the finale of Richard III, when Richmond addresses his troops. (Actual text begins at 0:27, Richmond's speech at 1:20)

I gave Richmond innovative mid-vowels, & a monophthongal reflex of ME /au/, but a conservative retention of the fricative (with no diphthongization) in words like "night".

@earlymodern @linguistics @bookstodon
@histodons

https://youtu.be/rScI4Ef60Vg

azforeman, 7 months ago to poetry

Video in which I read the last two parts of Khalil Gibran's "Procession" in Arabic and then in my English translation.

@poetry

video/mp4

azforeman, 7 months ago to poetry

A Tale of One City
By Samih Al-Qasim
Tr. from Arabic

Once a blue city
Dreamt of foreigners
Milling around
And shopping every night and day..

There's a dark city
That hates foreigners
Making their rounds
With gunsights scanning each café..

@poetry

azforeman, 7 months ago to poetry

My Dead
Rachel Bluwstein
Tr. from Hebrew

They alone are left me, they are with me still
In whom death's sharp knife has nothing left to kill.

At the turn of highways, when the sun is low
They come round in silence, going where I go.

Our true covenant is one knot naught can sever.
Only what I've lost is what I have forever.

@jewishstudies @poetry

azforeman, 7 months ago to linguistics

A Shakespearean ghost special for Halloween (or, as Shakespeare would've called it, All-hallond Eve) in Early Modern English!

The scene from Hamlet where the protagonist speaks with his father's ghost, voiced in Early Modern pronunciation by yours truly.

As I often do, I voiced the two characters with slightly different types of Early Modern speech. Hamlet's father has a more archaic accent

@poetry @linguistics
@bookstodon
@histodons
@litstudies

https://youtu.be/wHEnD9ssmME

azforeman, 8 months ago to jewishstudies

In which I read Nathan Alterman's poem "Moon" in Hebrew and then in my English translation

"Even an old landscape has a moment of its birth.
The strange, impregnable
And birdless skies.
Under your window, moonlit on the earth,
Your city bathes in cricket-cries...."

https://youtu.be/WB8e1t2ZAC0

@poetry @jewishstudies @languagelovers
@literature
@litstudies

azforeman, 8 months ago to jewishstudies

Having an AI art generator visualize the poems I translate has been in interesting and, now, very useful experiment.

The image feedback I got from earlier drafts of this translation of a poem by Nathan Alterman actually influenced my translation choices for the better. Weird as that may seem.

@poetry @jewishstudies @languagelovers

azforeman, 8 months ago to jewishstudies

In which I read one of my favorite Hebrew sonnets in Hebrew and in English.

And yeah, I read it the way I normally read Hebrew texts like this. For some reason, formal texts like this (with pronoun clitics marking not only possession but even verbal objects) especially trigger the careful pronunciation of Hebrew I was first taught with /ħ ʕ r/. It was all I could do not to actually pronounce all the geminates as such.

@languagelovers
@jewishstudies

https://youtu.be/5N6wMuiyvLs

azforeman, 8 months ago to poetry

In which I read Natan Alterman's "Summer Night" in my English translation, and then in the original Hebrew

"Silence whistles in wide open spaces.
Glitter of a knife in cats' eyes glows.
Night. So much night! And stillness in the sky.
Stars in swaddling clothes...."

@poetry

video/mp4

azforeman, 8 months ago to linguistics

Some more Shakespeare in early 17th century pronunciation

This time it's the end of The Tempest. Dialogue starts at 24 sec in

I gave Prospero a conservative accent based on the dialect recorded by Shakespeare's contemporary Alexander Gil. Alonso has a more innovative dialect

The opening sequence's theme is the sources Shakespeare relied on, including Strachey's 1610 report of a Bermuda shipwreck

@earlymodern @histodons @poetry
@litstudies
@bookstodon
@linguistics

https://youtu.be/DNsSDaIWi94

azforeman, 8 months ago to bookstodon

Things are getting funny on the other site. Like, what the hell did I just read?

"any engagement with texts that isn't an erotic relation"

I'm like, sir, has the papercut on your dick still not healed from when you tried to fuck the books? Is that what's going on here?

@bookstodon

azforeman, 8 months ago to poetry

Veil of Religions
By Amal Al-Jubouri
Tr. from Arabic

If You are One
And Your teachings are one,
Why did You write our infancy in the Torah,
And ornament our youth with the Gospels
Only to erase all that in Your Final Book?
Why did You draw us, the ones who acknowledge Your Oneness,
Into disagreement?
Why did You multiply in us
When You are the One and Only?

@poetry @lisstudies

azforeman, 8 months ago to medievodons

My translation of the famous storm scene from the end of Imru'l-Qays' mu'allaqah

"At dawn, debris on Al-Mujaymir's peaks
lay strewn like spun wool on a spindle-tip.
The storm had left its load upon the desert
like goods a merchant loosens from his hip..."

@poetry @medievodons @medievodon @histodons

azforeman, 8 months ago to bookstodon

My weekly readings of Shakespeare's sonnets in 17th century accents continue with Sonnet 147 ("My love is as a fever") available publicly.

Note how "are" and "care" are full rhymes in this type of speech, the spelling <randon> for "random" reflects actual pronunciatiation, and the /ŋg/ cluster survives in words like "longing" (in the previous generation even the simplex form "long" had had /ŋg/).

https://youtu.be/IKEuPUrGwGM

@linguistics @bookstodon @poetry @histodons @histodon
@earlymodern

azforeman, 8 months ago to linguistics

This is going to go EXTREMELY badly and it is entirely predictable

@linguistics

image/jpeg

azforeman, 9 months ago to poetry

Me reading "Storm in the Dark" by the Tunisian poet Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi in Arabic & English. I got sick of translations of Arabic poetry ignoring rhyme & meter. If you want a thing done right, you gotta do it your own self

هذا فيديو أقرأ فيه قصيدة "زوبعة في ظلام" للشاعر التونسي ابو القاسم الشابي بالعربية وبترجمتي الانجليزية. انا سئمت من الترجمات الانجليزية للشعر العربي الحديث التي تُهمِل القافية والوزن. وتبيّن انو اذا بدك اشي ينعمل مظبوط لازم تعمله لحالك.

@poetry

https://youtu.be/KrATBITVKxU

azforeman, 9 months ago to litstudies

Dyma fi'n darllen un o fy hoff gerddi gan un o fy hoff feirdd Cymraeg, yn Gymraeg ac yn Saesneg. Achos pam lai.

Here's me reading one of my favorite poems by one of my favorite Welsh poets in Welsh and in my English translation. Because why not.

https://youtu.be/nrinscvT0cg

@poetry @litstudies

azforeman, 9 months ago to linguistics

Is there an actual linguistics article I can read somewhere about the phonology of Tangier Island English, rather than a popularizing news report?

@linguistics

azforeman, 9 months ago to languagelovers

The beginning of a Star Wars poem in Latin Verse

vs.

The beginnign of a Star Wars poem in Old English verse

Who wins?

(N.B. Cruciāliger "X-Wing", Aethrobatēs "Skywalker", Sȳthānus "relating to the Sith", Ēnsis Fulmineus "Lightsaber")

@languagelovers
@linguistics
@histodons
@medievodons
@classics

image/png

azforeman, 9 months ago to linguistics

A reading of a sonnet by Camões. The pronunciation of Portuguese used in this video is a reconstruction based on 16th century grammarians like Fernão de Oliveira and João de Barros.

Uma leitura de um soneto de Camões. A pronúncia usada neste vídeo é uma reconstrução baseada nas descrições dadas por gramáticos quinhentistas como Fernão de Oliveira e João de Barros.

@linguistics @poetry

video/mp4

azforeman, 9 months ago to jewishstudies

Recitation of the "Ballad of Heshbon" from Numbers 21 in reconstructed Tiberian pronunciation, w/ subtitled English. The translation is not literal, tho it sticks mostly to interpretations derivable from the transmitted text.

@linguistics
@jewishstudies

https://youtu.be/ogaOSS2lGoA

azforeman, 9 months ago to linguistics

@linguistics

azforeman, 9 months ago to litstudies

Here's a poem by Thomas Wyatt read from the Edgerton manuscript in a reconstruction of conservative early 16th century pronunciation, and then in my normal accent.

See how much you understand of the 1st, vs. the 2nd. The continuity of written English masks a lot of how the language has changed in the past 400 years.

@linguistics
@earlymodern
@bookstodon
@histodons
@litstudies

https://youtu.be/XZDmti_RMZA?si=dWgEpGBG0SJvpRqW

azforeman, 9 months ago to litstudies

My recording of "The Dream" by John Donne in a reconstruction of cultivated early 17th century pronunciation is now available publicly.

(The image of the TCC manuscript is courtesy of Trinity College Cambridge)

If you like this video and want to help me make more things like it, consider making a pledge at my patreon:

http://patreon.com/azforeman

@linguistics @bookstodon @poetry @histodons @litstudies

video/mp4

azforeman, 9 months ago to litstudies

"Hath Not a Jew Eyes?"

More Shakespeare in Early Modern pronunciation.

My reading of Shylock's famous speech from Act 3, Scene 1 of The Merchant of Venice. I gave Shylock a more innovative phonology than I do many other characters in these plays. He has not only a raised & merged WAIT/MATE vowel as well as raised MEAT & GOAT vowels, but an unrounded STRUT vowel, & yod-coalescence, giving him a more "modern" sound.

@bookstodon @histodons @linguistics
@litstudies

https://youtu.be/xi4geyuMMiI

azforeman, 9 months ago to litstudies

In which I read Marvell's "Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return From Ireland" in a reconstruction of mid-17th century pronunciation

The background text is taken from the earliest manuscript of the poem, copied by hand into a printed edition of Marvell's works where the printed text had been removed

I read "do" w/ the GOAT vowel rather than the GOOSE vowel when rhymed w/ "know" here.

https://youtu.be/a8wpWopHcck

@linguistics @bookstodon
@poetry
@litstudies
@histodons

azforeman, 9 months ago to poetry

Sail
By Mikhail Lermontov
Tr. from Russian

A sail drifts white and on its own
Amid the light blue ocean haze.
What does it seek in distant country?
What made it leave its native bays?

The billows play. The winds are whistling
Down at the bending, creaking mast
Oh! This one seeks no happy ending
And does not flee a happy past.

Below, a brighter stream than azure.
Above, the golden sunray flows,
Yet this one, restive, quests for tempests
As if in tempests were repose.

@poetry

azforeman, 9 months ago to litstudies

My readings of Shakespeare's sonnets in Early Modern Pronunciation continue with Sonnet 5, available in full to subscribers. Non-subscribers can hear a brief preview here.

Note the rhyme of "was" with "glass". I read this one with a WAIT-MATE merger.

@histodons
@linguistics
@bookstodon
@litstudies
https://www.patreon.com/posts/shakespeares-5-88580016

azforeman, 10 months ago to linguistics

How long has "energy" been used in the sense "vibe"?

@linguistics

azforeman, 10 months ago to litstudies

What is Shakespeare's greatest play and why is it the Tempest?

(Video contains a reading of Prospero's "We are such stuff as dreams are made on" in a reconstruction of a fairly conservative form of early 17th century pronunciation. Note the low mid vowels of "dream" and "globe" and the long vowel in "little".)

@bookstodon @bookstodons @histodons @linguistics @litstudies

video/mp4

azforeman, 10 months ago to litstudies

In which I read one of Wang Wei's most famous poems, first using W. S. Coblin's reconstruction of the Chang'an dialect during the High Tang, then in my own English translation.

https://youtu.be/xez8TdXsUps

@linguistics @medievodons @medievodon @litstudies @histodons

azforeman, 10 months ago to linguistics

My readings of Shakespeare's sonnets in Early Modern Pronunciation continue with Sonnet 16, available in full to subscribers. Non-subscribers can hear a brief preview here.

(I read this one with a WAIT-MATE merger)

@linguistics @histodons

https://t.co/ZOqVlNCgRS

azforeman, 10 months ago to linguistics

It's weird to realize how deeply embedded "ain't" is in my own informal English idiolect. I think I use it more when I'm trying to stress the point I'm making, rather than simply negating. It's associated with emotive speech, I think.

@linguistics

azforeman, 10 months ago to litstudies

What if you squeezed a millennium of French sound changes into 3 minutes and 36 seconds?

https://youtu.be/vxcJOvpbYsA

@linguistics @histodons @bookstodon @medievodons @poetry @litstudies

azforeman, 10 months ago to litstudies

My readings of Shakespeare's sonnets in Early Modern English pronunciation continue with Sonnet 104, available publicly at my patreon. If you'd like to hear me read all of Shakespeare's sonnets in various 17th century accents, you can make a pledge there.

The image is taken from the original 1609 print of the sonnets.

@linguistics @bookstodon
@histodons
@poetry
@litstudies

https://www.patreon.com/posts/87628304

azforeman, 10 months ago to poetry

My reading in Early Modern Pronunciation of Othello's death-speech from Shakespeare's "Tragedie of Othello: the Moore of Venice"

"....in Aleppo once
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state,
I took by th' throat the circumcisèd dog,
And smote him -- thus."

I voiced Othello w/ innovative features like a WAIT monophthong, a raised MATE vowel, & raised mid-vowels.

https://youtu.be/IuW5CdCk1IM

@bookstodon @litstudies @linguistics @histodons
@poetry

azforeman, 10 months ago to poetry

"Oh for a muse of fire that would distinguish between the vowels of MEAT & MEET"

One more passage by Shakespeare in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation. This time it's the prologue ("Oh For a Muse of Fire!") and 1st scene from Henry V. The chorus speaks with a more innovative accent than the 2 guys talking in the 1st scene

The image is taken from the 1st Folio

The actual reading starts at 0:32

https://youtu.be/wTm19I2Xatc

@linguistics @poetry @bookstodon @histodons
@litstudies

azforeman, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to languagelovers

In which I read yet another German poem that I've known since childhood in German and in my English translation. And yes, George did have his works printed with uncapitalized nouns using that weird typeface meant to resemble his stylized handwriting.

The images are AI-generated

"You are my wish and all I think
I breathe of You in all my air
I savor You in every drink
I kiss Your fragrance everywhere"

@poetry @languagelovers @germanistik
@bookstodon

https://youtu.be/20YpAjhfIVI

azforeman, 10 months ago to poetry

"You with the upper hand
Who torment underlings,
How long do you suppose
You'll get your run of things?
What is the point of you,
Your worldly sovereignty?
Better to put you out
Of people's misery."

— Saadi, tr. Yours Truly

@poetry
@litstudies

azforeman, 10 months ago to histodons

A reading of Shakespeare's sonnets 67-68, which form a closely connected unit, in Early Modern pronunciation.

This time I thought I'd try notes with modern glosses as needed directly in the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O25frNd0PG8

@linguistics @histodons @bookstodon

azforeman, 10 months ago to histodons

My reading of the entirety of Genesis 1 from the Tyndale Bible in a reconstruction of cultivated southern English pronunciation from the early 16th century.

The reflex of Middle English /a/ before dark /l/ is still a diphthong, and the pronunciation for the most part of word-final NG as [ŋg]. And of course the realization of <gh> in words like "light" and "night.

Some things this video were clearly more a feature of formal reading than ordinary speech.

@linguistics @histodons
@bookstodon

video/mp4

azforeman, 10 months ago to languagelovers

More #Shakespeare in reconstructed 17th century English pronunciation: Antony speaks over Caesar's body

"O Pardon Me, Thou Bleeding Piece of Earth"

@languagelovers @linguistics
@poetry
@histodons
@bookstodon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtOtiSbrVgU

azforeman, 10 months ago to poetry

Here's me reading a passage in Ugaritic from the Baal cycle in reconstructed pronunciation. I got sick of people reading Ugaritic by pronouncing it as remastered Arabic. So here's the language with full reconstruction, and all their affricated, ejective & aspirated glory. A phonology reminiscent, in some ways, more of the modern Caucasus.

Also with my translation

https://youtu.be/ulNmy5Xu_4Y

@linguistics @histodons
@poetry