Arabic-L:LING:the Mother of all Borrowings

[Dilworth Parkinson]

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Arabic-L: Fri 14 Mar 2003
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l at byu.edu]
[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to
listserv at byu.edu with first line reading:
           unsubscribe arabic-l                                      ]

-------------------------Directory-------------------------------------

1) Subject:the Mother of all Borrowings

-------------------------Messages--------------------------------------
1)
Date: 14 Mar 2003
From: Aly Farghaly <farghaly at systransoft.com>
Subject:the Mother of all Borrowings

The headlines in several news network on the Internet today are
referring to  the biggest conventional bomb in the military's arsenal
that was tested this week by the US  Air force calling it "The Mother of
All Bombs". CNN says "The MOAB, privately known in military circles as
"the mother of all bombs".  March 12, 2003

This is direct borrowing from or probably an analogy of  Sadam Hussein
who was the first, and probably the only one, who used this phrase in
Arabic to name   the war  in 1991  as "The Mother of All Battles"

The phrase is clearly foreign to the English language style, culture and
norms of use. It is very interesting how in a global world, languages
are influencing each other regardless of the balance of power between
them.   As  a phenomenon,  It is worthy of study.
Does anyone have an explanation?
Regards,
Ali Farghaly
Senior Linguist

------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
End of Arabic-L: 14 Mar 2003