OrBinah

"Essays on Languages and Mentalities"

A new publication in Arabic by Mohamed Elmedlaoui (2010)

Maqaamaat fii al-lughaati wa l-'aqliyaat; al-huwiyatu wa ttahdiith maa bayna ttadhkiiri wa tta'niith ("Essays on languages and Mentalities; Identity and Modernity, between Masculine and Feminine ") is the title of a new publication (Rabat, 2010) in Arabic by Mohamed Elmedlaoui (IURS, Rabat).

In a somehow satiric style from time to time, where fantastic story, etymological analysis and  the questioning of certain intellectual evidences overlap, the author turns to good account the elements of the lexicon in order to sound mentalities. Although the author, who specializes in linguistics, makes use, in this work, of etymological developments of several languages (some Semitic, Berber, Latin and Anglo-Saxon ones) in order to raise some anthropo-linguistic questions, the work is not at all a proper essay in etymology nor in anthropo-linguistics; it is rather a non-specialized essay with a literary spirit, accessible to the common Arabic educated people. The main domains from which the developed terms and items were drawn are:  Language, Mentality and Identity, and the main words-keys are the following:

Language, Arabic, Berber, mentality, mind, masculine, feminine, woman, man, matriarchy, patriarchy, repudiation, culture, identity, education, teaching, instruction, intellectual, intellectual imposture, science, university, study, reading, evaluation, politics, power, justice, equity, right, law, state, city, citizenship, democracy, revolution, republic, society, secularism, etc.

From the point of view of literary creation, and besides various narrators and commentators, the characters that lead stories and develop ideas belong to two tribes of the Brass City: Banu Kharuuf having ram as their totem and Banuu Bakr having camel as theirs. Concerning the overall subject and approach, the work is in complementarity with La Comédie Berbère written in Berber and published by the same author (Rabat, 2089; see http://www.bladi.net/la-comedie-berbere.html).

For another presentation in Arabic, see the following page:

https://orbinah.blog4ever.com/blog/lire-article-162080-1674906-_en_arabe__langues_et_mentalites__identite__modern.html