22.2.06

Nightcap

At our friendly neighbourhood 24-hour roti prata joint:
"Which is older, Sanskrit or Arabic? Are they related?"
"Sanskrit, I think --- "
"Don't think they're related --- "
"Sanskrit's older.
"Why do you ask?" Beat. "Because they both have squiggly script??"
The things that pass through our minds over overly sweetened coffee and Milo...

For the record, a little judicious Googling puts Arabic as dating back to the 4th century CE, while Sanskrit dates back to 2500 BCE.

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2 Comments:

At 2/22/2006 12:58 pm , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think they're related. Totally different things altogether, even though both are squiggly.

I'd love to learn Arabic though - it sounds beautiful. Remind me to tell you why the next time we meet up! :)

 
At 2/23/2006 3:27 am , Blogger doubleyellow said...

hey, i dont think they are related too. The 'squiggly' I'm afraid can be found in other languages too...

But derivates of Arabic and Sanskrit (Persian, Urdu, Hindi) have a lot in common, although they differ significantly in script.

Oh btw, Bahasa Indonesia has a LOT of Sanskrit influence although the script as you prob already know, is very different :p

 

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