[Corpora-List] "Tajweed" in English dictionaries and corpora

[Otto Lassen]

Excuse, "kafir" in the precise meaning is has for muslims: infidel, 
unbeliever, disbeliever
defined in the Quran.
Not "foreigner", nor "black" (used in South Africa with very racistic 
meaning) nor all
the other meanings the word also in e.g. OED.
Otto Lassen

-----Oprindelig meddelelse----- 
From: Francis Bond
Sent: Friday, March 08, 2013 12:06 PM
To: Otto Lassen
Cc: CORPORA discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Corpora-List] "Tajweed" in English dictionaries and corpora

> I don’t think you (or most english speaking people) have used “kafir”
> neither or other words from the islamic vocabulary which are included in
> OED.

Actually, "kafir" is part of my vocabulary (Australian English
speaker), and probably anyone who has read any fiction/documentaries
set in the middle east.   It was basically used as the generic term
for foreigner in many books I have read, similar in use (not
etymology) to "gaijin" in Japanese or "angmo" in Singapore.  It was
also used in South Africa with the same impact as "nigger".

> You would not have included “kafir” in OED or what?

It should be in any medium sized English dictionary.

> I see only one reason for the inclusion: OED makes the decision from the
> meaning of the words and from their cultural and political importance to 
> the
> english society. It seems to me that when the discussion focuses on the 
> use
> of words it is not the number of the users which counts but the weight of
> the semantic of the words. This applies particularly to the type of words
> discussed here, words for religious phenomenons.

Many words take on a life outside their original meaning :-).

-- 
Francis Bond <http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/fcbond/>
Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies
Nanyang Technological University


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