Arabic-L:LING:Original 'mother' response

[Dilworth Parkinson]

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Arabic-L: Mon 24 Mar 2003
Moderator: Dilworth Parkinson <dilworth_parkinson at byu.edu>
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1) Subject:Original 'mother' response

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1)
Date: 24 Mar 2003
From: Jan Hoogland <j.hoogland at let.kun.nl>
Subject:Original 'mother' response

[This message was inadvertently misplaced.  It was actually the first
reply I received to the original message--Dil]

> 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?

I would say it's just a cynical way to make a fool of Saddam Hussein.
This devastating piece of weaponry might probably be used against him
(but
probably killing thousands of Iraqi citizens instead) soon.

Of course it would be even more interesting if this would be translated
as
'umm al-qanabil'.
I was able to find one occurrence of this string through Google.
http://www.alwatan.com/graphics/2001/Dec/17.12/heads/ot2.htm

Jan Hoogland


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End of Arabic-L:  24 Mar 2003