a neat pun we found in Coptic reading group:

ⲡⲁⲓ ϩⲱⲱϥ ⲟⲛ ϥⲛⲁⲁⲁⲩ ⲁⲩⲱ ϥⲛⲁⲣⲛⲉⲧⲛⲁⲁⲁⲩ ⲉⲣⲟⲟⲩ.

"he himself will do them too"
(ⲛⲁ-ⲁⲁ-ⲩ "will do them" [great works])
".. and he will do [things] which are greater than they"
(ⲛⲁⲁⲁ-ⲩ "they are great")

>open up pre-Columbian codex
>first page is a giant Cross pattée with a Cross of Burgundy inside

came across this gem in Coptic reading group today:

ⲟⲩⲗⲁⲥ ⲛⲥⲁⲣⲝⲡⲉ ⲡⲁⲗⲁⲥ ⲁⲩⲱ ⲟⲩϩⲏⲧ ⲛⲣⲱⲙⲉ ⲡⲉⲧⲙⲙⲟⲓ

"my tongue is a tongue of flesh, and mine is a human heart"

(referring to the author's own human limitations in writing adequate praises of a saint)

Late Latin drictus 🤝 Middle Chinese 直 drik

when i was growing up in socal the standard pronunciation of j in foreign words was [h], as in spanish, so we’d be saying stuff like falluhah and rohava

old japanese be like “woman”

Certain epichoric Greek alphabets wrote ξ (x) as 𐌇𐌔 (hs). Pinyin vs. Wades-Giles has been going on far longer than anyone could’ve imagined.

What we really need is a good Indological transcription system for Middle Chinese. Hill’s proposal is a step in the right direction, but still not quite right. Every government in the world should have agencies working round the clock on this.

New video series by yours truly on Biblical and Semiticist stuff – "banal [within the field], yet awesome" facts and opinions. First episode out now, on whether Greek or Hebrew is harder for beginners:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4726...

just got nasal ʿayin jumpscared by a 17th century dictionary of Vietnamese

anyone ever point out that Αἰθίοπες appears to be a translation of 𒊕𒈪𒂵/ṣalmāt-qaqqadim (Sumerian autonym)?

Anyone know what’s up with with the aleph in Phoenician pʾl ‘(Egyptian) beans’ in KAI 51 Vs. 4? No parallel in the Semitic cognates (Heb. פּוֹל, Aram. פּוֹלָא, Ar. فُول, Ge. ፉል, etc.), but it does look suspiciously like Bohairic ⲫⲉⲗ ‘bean’, which would go back to Proto-Coptic *pʰɛʔl.

was finally able to complete this etymology tree