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qawwaliI had not known the word qavvālī والي before( link) 'singing and playing (esp. for dancing dervishes)'. No doubt of Arabic origin as so much of the Persian vocabulary of Urdu. I looked it up in a most handy online Arabic etymological lexicon ( link) 'qawwal : story-teller [qala] Hin kavval, Per qawwal borrowed from Ar.' Arabic qala 'say' from Proto-Semitic * KWL, cf. Hebrerw qol 'voice'. The Wikipedia article on qawwali ( link) tracks the Semantic shift from Arabic قَوْل ( qaul) 'utterance (of the Prophet)' to " Qawwāl is someone who often repeats (sings) a Qaul, Qawwāli is what a Qawwāl sings." My Pakistani friend Ferhiz has on more than one occasion enthused to me about Urdu language poetry. The Farsi word seems to be قوالی ( ghavvalee, link) 'a minstrel, a singer'. I am reminded of the singer of tales, Homer. There was a time when poetry, song, and tales were all one. The entry on the nastaʿlīq script [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nastaliq]link[/url) was interesting also. (Some day I must learn Arabic and Perso-Arabic script systems.)
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Nov 2007
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qawwaliI had not known the word qavvālī والي before( link) 'singing and playing (esp. for dancing dervishes)'. No doubt of Arabic origin as so much of the Persian vocabulary of Urdu. I looked it up in a most handy online Arabic etymological lexicon ( link) 'qawwal : story-teller [qala] Hin kavval, Per qawwal borrowed from Ar.' Arabic qala 'say' from Proto-Semitic * KWL, cf. Hebrerw qol 'voice'. The Wikipedia article on qawwali ( link) tracks the Semantic shift from Arabic قَوْل ( qaul) 'utterance (of the Prophet)' to " Qawwāl is someone who often repeats (sings) a Qaul, Qawwāli is what a Qawwāl sings." My Pakistani friend Ferhiz has on more than one occasion enthused to me about Urdu language poetry. The Farsi word seems to be قوالی ( ghavvalee, link) 'a minstrel, a singer'. I am reminded of the singer of tales, Homer. There was a time when poetry, song, and tales were all one. The entry on the nastaʿlīq script link was interesting also. (Some day I must learn Arabic and Perso-Arabic script systems.) That was very interesting. I would only add that I am not a follower of Sufic Islam and the qawwalis I like come from films and are different from the devotional qawwalis.
Last edited by latishya; 10/27/09 12:02 AM.
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stranger
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And yet of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
My father collected books of quotations. He never wrote anything without some added sparkle, clarity, expertise, or humour from the past. Quotations illustrated and, in his eye, validated his opinion. He took great care with his selection. I think it's my fondest memory of him. At family or other gatherings he was often asked to speak. He took the task, no matter how small, very seriously. His delivery would be ponderous because of diffidence, but he was always able to get his audience to laugh, and, as toward the end funerals became more frequent, cry.
I kept many of his books of quotations. I couldn't keep them all because I live across an ocean. My sisters expected me to send the lot to Half Price Books, but I couldn't give them up.
I do love a well-placed quotation or allusion. A bad one is an abomination. Better never to have quoted at all. I prefer mine from the books I have read myself, but it's not a hard and fast rule.
How long is a ball of string? Like the Apprentice's broom, Frankenstein's enquiry or Phaedrus' hypotheses, the search for one quotation can lead you on an ever widening gyre. At first the flesh might be strong, but the soul will weary.
As my father often said, 'There's no substitute for common sense.'
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Welcome, Christine. It sounds like your father was a man worth knowing.
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stranger
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Hi latishya. Just noticed you're online. Our time zones probably aren't that different. What does "qawwali Hamesha" or "Qawwali forever" mean to you? I'm off to work now. Have a great day everybody.
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Hi latishya. Just noticed you're online. Our time zones probably aren't that different. What does "qawwali Hamesha" or "Qawwali forever" mean to you? simply an expression of my love for the music. I spent all afternoon listening to a recently purchased compilation of filmi qawwalis. i love them and hope they are with me forever.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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'There's no substitute for common sense.' That's what I always tell myself when I've made another goof. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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"Formal grammatical rules may help a weak or stupid mind, but a vigorous intellect creates new and more accurate forms and less gifted thinkers intuitively accept without a thought these beautiful creations as they accept without a thought the countless creations of nature with which they are surrounded. Thus our language is growing richer from generation to generation."
G. Curme, Has English A Future Tense?, The Journal of English and German Philolog, 12(5):528-529
I have no idea who G. Cume is and Google was no help at all.
But I love the quote.
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Carpal Tunnel
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[i]given by one collector
From one source/person Thanks olly, for explaining me this. 'Collector' I'd never seen used in such way and half the wisdom was lost to me.
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Carpal Tunnel
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G. CurmeGeorge Curme was an American linguist and grammarian ( link). I have his grammar of the English language from the thirties of the last century. He was one of the first descriptive linguists who wrote a grammar. It's up there with those by Jespersen and Poutsma.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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