Another use of à

J'ai appris un autre usage de la préposition "à". Il s'agit des expressions 'vivre à deux', ou bien 'une vie à deux'. Ne jamais dire "une vie de deux'. Je crois que c'est la même construction que "ménage à trois", que Nina m'a apprise.

Bonne découverte!

J-N-N

I was walking in the street today, listening to Nancy Ajram's Sheel 3oyounak 3anni, and figured out a new word, the root j-n-n. Not sure what the 3sg. past is but it seems to mean 'to drive mad'. She was passionately singing 'bitjaninni, ah ah ah ah, bitjaninni' which, according to the translation I had read, meant 'you're driving me crazy.' And I suddenly realised that it was linked to the epically famous name Mecnun, or Majnun which precisely means 'someone that has been driven mad', the past participle of j-n-n! Bitjaninni, however, can be broken down to bi-t-janin-ni. The prefix bi- is used in the Lebanese/Egyptian colloquial to denote present progressive, t- is the classic 2sg masc. marker.

I was thrilled at this discovery. I love moments like this when you just figure out how a language works without having to laboriously study from a grammar book.

Déclaration

Voilà encore deux mois sans que j'aie écrit quelque chose ici. Oxford is too hardcore. Couldn't really find time.

My linguistic life has basically fallen on two languages: French and Arabic. I'm not going to do language work of other languages for now, and maybe for the following three years. I'm not gonna worry about Italian or Greek until I *really* speak fluent French and Arabic. I already speak them and can use them whenever I need to. Greek, however, I'm planning on taking it up again at the earliest in my fourth year of university, and I should do a course in Greece.

I'm really glad to have decided to concentrate now. My life will be much easier.