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Arabic???

Despardo

By Despardo
in The Deli

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Despardo Mentor

Despardo

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Oh, he's a great looking guy. My quibble is that the word Arabic refers to the language. An odd mistake for someone of Arab origin to make. Rather like saying Scotch when you mean Scottish, or Grecian when you mean Greek.

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Oh, he's a great looking guy. My quibble is that the word Arabic refers to the language. An odd mistake for someone of Arab origin to make. Rather like saying Scotch when you mean Scottish, or Grecian when you mean Greek.

Geesh. Have you considered that maybe English isn't his first language? I like to give those who make the effort to learn our language a break, much as I love good grammar! :cool:

 

And, yes, he's gorgeous!

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liubit Grand Master

liubit

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For someone whose mother tongue is not English (like me, for example), it can be very easy to use "Spanish" instead of "Spaniard", or "Scottish" instead of "Scotch", mainly because the word for the language and the one for the nationality are very, very, very often the same....Examples abund: Italian, French, Russian, Norwegian, German, Portuguese,.....and even "English", refer to both. Oh, and do people really use "Grecian"?

 

Give us a break, guys! Please!

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mike carey Grand Master

mike carey

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What am I missing here? I looked at the listing and he has written "Arab"

In the 'About me' section he writes VGL Handsome Arabic Guy. As I recall, identity as an Arab is linguisticly based, not racially, so he may not appreciate that there is a linguistic difference in English between Arab and Arabic.

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Despardo Mentor

Despardo

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That's why he speaks Arabic and not Arab or Arabian, and as a speaker of the Arabian language he is an Arab.

 

'Arabs are a people whose place of ethnic origin is the Arabian Peninsula.

 

The language which they speak, and which has spread widely to other areas, is Arabic. “Arabic” is not generally used as an adjective except when referring to the language or in a few traditional phrases such as “gum arabic” and “arabic numerals.” Note that in these few phrases the word is not capitalized. Otherwise it is “Arab customs,” “Arab groups,” “Arab countries,” etc.

 

A group of Arab individuals is made of Arabs, not “Arabics” or “Arabians.” The noun “Arabian” by itself normally refers to Arabian horses. The other main use of the word is in referring to the collection of stories known as The Arabian Nights.'

Thank you. That was my original point. I just assumed that someone of Arab origin would know the correct usage of the word.

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