On Sun, 19 Sep 2010 08:41:41 -0400, Peter T. Daniels
<grammatim@...> wrote:

> There was a symposium in April in Cologne, Germany, on The Arabic Script
> in
> Africa, to be published by Brill, organized by Meikal Mumin, whose
> unpublished M.A. thesis (2009) was on that topic.

Good to know!

> The word "ajami" is insulting and not used.

Apparently, the NPR program's editors didn't know that. [NPR = National
Public Radio, USA]
Important to know. It seems easy to be insulting without intending to do
so. A well-informed friend tells me that, iirc, "Eskimo" can be
derogatory, or else preferred, according to geographical area. IIrc
(again), the same might hold true for "Inuit".

I recently talked with a well-educated fellow from Morocco, or
thereabouts; he says it's pronounced with the stress on the initial "A",
and the "j" is a "zh".

Is there any concise term that refers to Arabic scripts as used in Africa?

> The Arabic script for Arabic, like the Hebrew, is an extended abjad.

Noted with care; thank you. I should have checked The Book!

> Almost all of the 50+ African adaptations are alphabets, because the
> vowel marks are
> obligatory.--

Interesting; thank you. 50+! Good glory. Enough to keep Michael Everson
busy for a while. (^_^)

Best regards,

--
Nicholas Bodley _.=|*|=._ Waltham, Mass.
How to tie your shoelaces so they'll stay tied:
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/23ynbom>
(Very good site, btw!)