Color me not amused

As Steve Martin in the movie LA Story said in sloughing off the prospect of an interview, "[It] would be fascinating, by the way, because of the interesting word musements I structure." Great comedy. I recommend it.

This LA Times op-ed? Not so much.

So whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative. Of course, English has pilfered numerous bits of Arabic -- "artichoke," "zero," "genie," "henna," "saffron," "harem," "tariff" -- but the appropriation was so long ago that few English speakers know the words' origin. These dictionary entries were probably introduced by the Moors into Spanish first, and then by the Spaniards into English.

If someone insults my "mongrel" English tongue, all I ask is that he do so with elan. (That's a French word, by the way.) I caught a whiff of the same condescension from some (thankfully, not all) of my Arabic language instructors. Did you know that Jazz and Rock and Roll were Arabic inventions? It's true! "Guitar" is an Arabic word. Born of Moorish conquest, long live Al Malek!

(Via: Hot Air)

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