<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>Arabic-L: Wed 16 Feb 2011<br>Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <<a href="mailto:dil@byu.edu">dil@byu.edu</a>><br>[To post messages to the list, send them to arabic-l@byu.edu]<br>[To unsubscribe, send message from same address you subscribed from to<br><a href="mailto:listserv@byu.edu">listserv@byu.edu</a> with first line reading:<br> unsubscribe arabic-l ]<br><br>-------------------------Directory------------------------------------<br><br>1) Subject: Naming Egypt events<br>2) Subject: Naming Egypt events<br>3) Subject: Naming Egypt events<br>4) Subject: Naming Egypt events<br><br><div>-------------------------Messages-----------------------------------<br>1)<br>Date: 16 Feb 2011<br>From: Robert Ricks <<a href="mailto:rsricks@gmail.com">rsricks@gmail.com</a>><br>Subject: Naming Egypt events<br><br>On Twitter, which was widely used to mobilize protestors and disseminate information over the past few weeks, the hashtag #Jan25 (and occasionally #25Jan) gained broad currency in marking messages ("tweets") related to the protests/revolution. (There were others, like #tahrir, but this one seemed the most common.) One can see <a href="http://hashtags.org/Jan25">here</a> (<a href="http://hashtags.org/Jan25">http://hashtags.org/Jan25</a>) that at 11 AM on Feb 11, 1.35% of all messages on Twitter were marked with this tag.<div><br></div><div>Given the crucial role of young, internet-savvy Egyptians in the revolution—as well as Egyptians' apparent predilection for events named after dates generally (e.g., 6 October, July 23)—I wouldn't be surprised if the Jan 25 tag sticks.<div><br></div><div>Robert<br></div></div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>2)<br>Date: 16 Feb 2011<br>From: Nadia Yaqub <<a href="mailto:yaqubn@yahoo.com">yaqubn@yahoo.com</a>><br>Subject: Naming Egypt events<br></div><div><br></div><div>Hi Dil,<div><br></div><div>I know that this is not the answer you're looking for, but a colleague of mine at Duke, Frances Hasso, has coined the term "1/11 Revolutions." We can now speak of pre- and post-1/11 just as for the past 9 1/2 years we have spoken of pre- and post- 9/11. Best, Nadia<br></div></div><div><br></div><div><div>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>3)<br>Date: 16 Feb 2011<br>From: <a href="mailto:maizaki@GMAIL.COM">maizaki@GMAIL.COM</a><br>Subject: Naming Egypt events<br></div></div><div><br></div><div>Dear Dil,<br><br>Thanks a lot for this list, it is indeed interesting to see how this revolution was named, and even how the names kept on changing each day with new developments.<br><br>I personally think that the name ثورة اللوتس understandably didn't get picked up in Egyptian press because it is would seem so historically moved from the present mood, the lotus is always associated with the phaoronic era and the mood was all about changing the present with an eye for the future.. Another reason, in my opinion, is that it seemed a cheesy attempt to mirror ثورة الياسمين in Tunisia.. I mean, there was a lot in common between the two cases but we shouldn't really push it..<br><br>I would add to the list 2 more names: ثورة التغيير - الثورة البيضاء<br><br>The other thing that might be worth noting is the kind of language used by the people in their chants and on their signs during the revolution. I was especially interested to see the contribution of standard Arabic (e.g. الشعب يريد اسقاط النظام), and of Egyptian Arabic (e.g. مش هنمشي، هو يمشي) and the influence of the English language (e.g. Hit the Road Mubarak). <br><br>Finally, whatever its name, it was a historic two-week period in Egyptian history, and definitely the most exciting period my generation will ever see.. I am flying to Cairo myself in a couple of days, and can't wait to actually stand in Midan El Tahrir for the first time after the revolution :)<br><br>Mai Zaki<br>Middlesex University <br></div><div><br></div><div><div>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>4)<br>Date: 16 Feb 2011<br>From: David Wilmsen <<a href="mailto:david.wilmsen@gmail.com">david.wilmsen@gmail.com</a>><br>Subject: Naming Egypt events<br></div></div><div><br></div><div>Somewhat off the main subject, it annoyed me terribly when blow hard American media bigmouths like Chris Matthews (who by the way supported Mubarak) persisted in calling the demonstrations "riots" and the demonstrators "rioters"<br><br>I think if al sharq al awsat was using "lotus" it was aping Western news sources. (It is, after all, a mouthpiece for the Saudi royal family, and by a rather roundabout route then Neo con in orientation). <br><br>The news sources I was following did not use the term lotus at all, as if it had never been uttered anywhere. But I was mostly glued to al jazeera, occasionally reading the Lebanese al akhbar, about the only Arab paper worth reading - that and al Masry al Youm.<br><br><br clear="all"><div dir="ltr">David Wilmsen<br>Associate Professor of Arabic<br>Department of Arabic and Near Eastern Languages<br>American University of Beirut<br>Bliss Street, Hamra<br>Beirut, Lebanon<br>1107 2020<br>tel: +961-1-350000 ext. 3850/1<br></div></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div>--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br>End of Arabic-L: 16 Feb 2011</div></div></body></html>