azforeman

azforeman , 3 months ago to histodons

Hey want to see a fun way of reading the Bible?

Here's me reading Deuteronomy 31:24-32:43 in reconstruction, with the prose part done as if it were the early Second Temple and the actual song itself in something pretty archaic, with lateral fricatives and fully preserved diphthongs and everything.

Copious notes are on-screen rather than being consigned to a mammoth thread

@bookstodon @linguistics @histodons @poetry @jewishstudies

https://youtu.be/1bpM9MHsKpc

azforeman , 3 months ago to histodons

Hey want to see a fun way of reading the Bible?

Here's me reading Deuteronomy 31:24-32:43 in reconstruction, with the prose part done as if it were the early Second Temple and the actual song itself in something pretty archaic, with lateral fricatives and fully preserved diphthongs and everything.

Copious notes are on-screen rather than being consigned to a mammoth thread

@linguistics @histodons @poetry @jewishstudies

https://youtu.be/1bpM9MHsKpc

azforeman , 4 months ago to medievodons

In which I read Deuteronomy 6:4-6 in in six different reconstructed historical pronunciations of Biblical Hebrew, from the 8th century BCE to the 10th century CE

https://youtu.be/S2l-YLsCY7s

@jewishstudies @linguistics @histodons @medievodons

azforeman , 4 months ago to poetry

Video of me reciting a short poem by Adunis in Arabic and then in English

Prophecy
By Adunis

Out of our thousand-year-old sleep,
Out of our stunted history,
To the country dug grave-like into our lives,
To this drugged, murdered land,
A reverenceless sun arrives
To kill the sheikh of locusts and of sand
And time that grows on its plains
And withers on its plains
Like fungus
Up from behind this bridge comes dawn
Of a death-loving, destroyer sun.

@poetry

https://youtu.be/OX_5fRl-zLc

azforeman , 4 months ago to litstudies

In which I recite the prologue to Romeo and Juliet in early 17th century English pronunciation, about two households /boːθ ələik ɪn dɪɡnɪtəi/

Note the mid-vowel /eː/ in "scene", the lower front vowel /æː/ of "make", the diphthong preserved in "pair", the velar fricative in "nought", the rounded vowel in "grudge", the non-raised TRAP vowel in "hand" and the preserved voiceless "wh" sound

@linguistics @litstudies @histodons @histodon @bookstodon @poetry

video/mp4

azforeman , 4 months ago to litstudies

This is a passage from Romeo and Juliet in the so-called "original pronunciation" i.e. a reconstruction of how London English (or rather a couple varieties thereof) was pronounced in the early 1600s, from your friendly neighborhood historical linguist and poetry nerd. For this one I gave Mercutio a somewhat more innovative accent than Romeo, with raising and monophthongization of the WAIT vowel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTuYBw-RPU0

@linguistics @histodons @litstudies @poetry @bookstodon

azforeman , 5 months ago to linguistics

@linguistics

azforeman , 5 months ago to litstudies

In which I read Milton's "Methought I saw my late espousèd saint" in a reconstruction of mid-17th century London pronunciation

@linguistics
@litstudies @poetry
@bookstodon @histodons

video/mp4

azforeman , 5 months ago to litstudies

In which I read the villain's opening monologue from Richard the Third in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation. (I used a monophthongized and raised WAIT vowel, unlike some of my other readings)

"Now is the winter of our discontent..."

@linguistics
@litstudies
@poetry
@bookstodon
@histodons

video/mp4

azforeman , 5 months ago to linguistics

In which I read Sir Thomas Wyatt's poem on the death of Anne Boleyn in a reconstruction of early 16th century pronunciation

@linguistics @histodons @medievodons
@poetry
@bookstodon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kAbEo6GjAI

azforeman , 5 months ago to litstudies

In which I read Shakespeare's sonnet 6 ("Then let not winter's ragged hand deface") in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation

@bookstodon @histodons
@litstudies
@poetry
@linguistics

https://youtu.be/WneX9ypFopU

azforeman , 5 months ago to litstudies

In which I read Shakespeare's sonnet 6 ("Then let not winter's ragged hand deface") in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation

@bookstodon
@bookstodons @histodons
@litstudies
@poetry

https://youtu.be/WneX9ypFopU

azforeman , 5 months ago to literature

In which I read Nathan Alterman's poem "Moon" in Hebrew & 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 , 5 months ago to histodons

Ever wondered what it would be like to have Milton's Paradise Lost as an audiobook in mid-17th century pronunciation?

Probably not. But I did that with a part of book 1 anyway.

@linguistics @histodons
@poetry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiqgHoR-yaw

azforeman , 5 months ago to poetry

In which I read Baudelaire's "Correspondances" first in French, then in my English translation

@poetry

video/mp4

azforeman , 5 months ago to linguistics

Table of contents for all the readings of Shakespeare's sonnets in Early Modern pronunciation that I've done so far. Asterisked ones are available publicly. The rest are available to subscribers.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/75623729

@linguistics

azforeman , 5 months ago to litstudies

In which I read Shakespeare's sonnet 8 ("Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?") in a reconstruction of early 17th century pronunciation

https://youtu.be/GqzhMrPzjQI

@bookstodon @histodons @linguistics
@litstudies

azforeman , 6 months ago to histodons

In which I read the first 201 lines of Beowulf in a reconstruction of how it might have sounded in a dialect of Early Mercian

@linguistics
@medievodons
@bookstodon
@histodons

https://www.patreon.com/posts/dawn-of-things-1-94137461

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 histodons

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 histodons

"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 (edited 6 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.

Ours is a true pact, the one tie time can't sever.
Only what I've lost is what I have forever.

@jewishstudies @poetry

azforeman , 7 months ago to litstudies

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 litstudies

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 poetry

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 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 poetry

In which I read four poems by Bialik in Hebrew and in English. The Hebrew is in Ashkenazic pronunciation, because I refuse to mess up its sound.

The poems are כוכבים מציצים (koykhovim metsitsim) "Stars Flicker", בתשובתי (bisshuvosi) "On Coming Back", עם דמדומי החמה (im dimdumey hakhamo) "At Flickering Sundown" and על השחיטה (Al Hashkhito) "On Butchery"

@poetry

https://youtu.be/MqpEIbeuFZY

azforeman , 8 months ago (edited 6 months ago) to litstudies

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 poetry

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 histodons

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 , 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 linguistics

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 linguistics

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