Need help writing an accurate Egyptian Arabic thank you note
September 24, 2021 9:04 AM Subscribe
Would someone be able to paraphrase the following so it reads well in a modern Egyptian vernacular?
I'm hoping for something along the lines of, “My deepest admiration and gratitude go out to the Egyptian craftspeople who developed and executed this beautiful piece so long ago”
For context: I've just completed a blog post documenting the build of a reproduction Theban stool. It starts on the object's page at the British museum and stays very Anglo-centric right through to a concluding note of thanks to helpful individuals at British and American museums.
In accurately copying the stool, I feel like I'm paying homage but I'd like to include a more explicit “shout out” to the spirits of those makers and to their living descendants.
For context: I've just completed a blog post documenting the build of a reproduction Theban stool. It starts on the object's page at the British museum and stays very Anglo-centric right through to a concluding note of thanks to helpful individuals at British and American museums.
In accurately copying the stool, I feel like I'm paying homage but I'd like to include a more explicit “shout out” to the spirits of those makers and to their living descendants.
Response by poster: ..also, please change that to “My deepest admiration and gratitude go out to the Egyptian craftspeople who developed and executed this beautiful design so long ago”
posted by brachiopod at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2021
posted by brachiopod at 10:16 AM on September 24, 2021
I don't understand how using Egyptian Arabic, the modern version of a language that emerged 1500 years later in the Arabian Peninsula, would be an appropriate tribute to the 18th Dynasty craftspeople. To me, it makes sort of as much sense as writing a tribute to Aztec craftspeople in Spanish, or to Australian Aboriginal craftspeople in English.
On one hand, Arabic isn't the direct conqueror's language like in my examples, since there were Old Persian, Greek and Latin speaking rulers of the area before the Arabic ones; on the other hand, there don't really exist people who speak the ancient Egyptian languages the way there exist people who speak Nahuatl or Bundjalung or what have you. Coptic is sort of the closest still-existing derivative of ancient Egyptian, but it's also millenia of evolution different.
Honestly, I personally think that this might be best done in English, so the people who read the post today can appreciate your gracious sentiments.
posted by Superilla at 10:45 AM on September 24, 2021
On one hand, Arabic isn't the direct conqueror's language like in my examples, since there were Old Persian, Greek and Latin speaking rulers of the area before the Arabic ones; on the other hand, there don't really exist people who speak the ancient Egyptian languages the way there exist people who speak Nahuatl or Bundjalung or what have you. Coptic is sort of the closest still-existing derivative of ancient Egyptian, but it's also millenia of evolution different.
Honestly, I personally think that this might be best done in English, so the people who read the post today can appreciate your gracious sentiments.
posted by Superilla at 10:45 AM on September 24, 2021
Response by poster: Superilla, sorry if it wasn’t clear - It's an acknowledgment directed at the craftspeople's descendants, in whatever the most popular language of the region is today…so Spanish would be appropriate to the Aztecs in that sense.
posted by brachiopod at 11:49 AM on September 24, 2021
posted by brachiopod at 11:49 AM on September 24, 2021
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posted by brachiopod at 9:09 AM on September 24, 2021