Thursday, November 18, 2010

Zheimer? Come again?

The photo above is the new Adel Imam movie... It is not him I am interested in (the motto "quit while you're ahead" could never have fit anyone better than him!), it is the title of the movie: Zheimer.
Never heard of a disease with such a name? Think more? Could it be that you have Zheimer yourself?... Other cultures and countries called it Alzheimer.... Except that in Arabic, "al" is used an article, and more precisely as "introductory article" (al atta3rif), which is why when the disease's name came to Arabic, one could not say "ma3o al-alzheimer" (he has a "alzheimer" or he has a a"zheimer"), so it became "ma3o al"zheimer"" (he has a "zheimer") - that way the "a" could not be repeated twice.... Another case of taking internationally recognized symbols and modesticating them in the Arab world.

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