'A language is a dialect with an army and navy’.
How best do you delegitimise a nation whose existence you despise?
The answer, according to Ella Shohat, an academic from New York University, is to downgrade a language to a dialect.
Ella Shohat is the high priestess of ‘Mizrahi
anti-Zionism’. In London recently to give a talk at the School of
Oriental and African Studies, she has made her name by applying the
theories propagated by the Palestinian author of ‘Orientalism,‘
Edward Said, to Jews from Arab lands. She is best known for inventing
the expression ‘Arab Jew’ to denote a creature torn from its natural
habitat by Zionism – itself deemed an extension of western colonialism.
Thus Jewish nationalism stands accused of destroying what she terms
‘Arab-Jewish culture’.
To follow Ella’s logic, an ‘Arab Jew’ does not
speak a separate Jewish language called Judeo-Arabic: he or she speaks
Arabic, albeit with minor variations. In order to reinforce her argument
she downplays these differences. The only real distinction, according
to her, is that Judeo-Arabic is written in the characters of
‘liturgical’ Hebrew.
It is possible to argue that a speaker of
Judeo-Arabic uses enough Hebrew, Aramaic, Turkish, Persian and English
terms, as well as idiosyncratic syntax and proverbs, to make himself
unintelligible to a regular Arabic speaker. And then there is the Jewish
accent, which would not only make a Jew a figure of fun to the Muslim
listener, but instantly give his ethnicity away.
In her eagerness to assimilate the Jewish
dialects to ‘regular Arabic’, Ella is forced to minimise the differences
in the ‘regular’ Arabic spoken across the Arab world. From a
linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken
varieties of Arabic differ from each other about as much as French
differs from other Romance languages. Moroccan Arabic is as
incomprehensible to Arabs from the Middle East as French is
incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers ( but relatively easily
learned by them). It is even suggested that the spoken varieties of
Arabic may linguistically be considered separate languages.
In Israel, the last generation of Jews who
were born in Arab lands are dying off and their children and
grandchildren have all shifted to speaking Hebrew. You would have
thought that Ella, who deplores the ‘suppression’ of Arabic in Israel’s
early years because it was the ‘language of the enemy’ – would welcome
the revival of interest in, not just Ladino or Yiddish, but Judeo-Arabic
( eg Iraqi-Jewish or Moroccan-Jewish). A Facebook page called
‘preserving the Iraqi-Jewish language’ has over 30, 000 followers.
But no. To Ella, there is no need to consider
Iraqi-Jewish endangered or to preserve what is still living and spoken
by the non-Jewish neighbours. Emphasising the ‘Jewish’ character of
these dialects becomes a distasteful political act. Not only – as the
controversial academic Shlomo Sand claims – has a separate Jewish
people been invented, Israel has invented ‘Jewish languages’.
But it is Ella who is manipulating language to
advance an agenda. As the saying goes,’ dialect is just politics.’ And
this is the abysmal level to which the teaching of Middle Eastern
studies in our universities has sunk today.
Read article in full
Postscript: during her lecture Ella Shohat quoted from Naim Kattan's book Farewell Babylon to illustrate an episode when Jews and Muslims began speaking the same Jewish dialect together, indicating that there was no difference between them. In actual fact, Shohat was misquoting the passage (p27 in Adieu Babylone) : the Jews did the speaking and the Muslims listened with respect.
'At the end of the evening, we'd won. We were wearing our own clothing...we were not assimilated by force to a collectivity with vague contours. We were not poured into a mould.. the masks had fallen. We were there in our luminous and fragile difference. And it was neither a sign of humiliation nor a symbol of ridicule...Our traits were emerging from the shadows and their outlines discernible. They were unique. Our faces were uncovered for all to see and recognise.'
Not only did Ms Shohat misquote Naim Kattan, but he wrote the complete opposite to what she claimed.
'
Postscript: during her lecture Ella Shohat quoted from Naim Kattan's book Farewell Babylon to illustrate an episode when Jews and Muslims began speaking the same Jewish dialect together, indicating that there was no difference between them. In actual fact, Shohat was misquoting the passage (p27 in Adieu Babylone) : the Jews did the speaking and the Muslims listened with respect.
'At the end of the evening, we'd won. We were wearing our own clothing...we were not assimilated by force to a collectivity with vague contours. We were not poured into a mould.. the masks had fallen. We were there in our luminous and fragile difference. And it was neither a sign of humiliation nor a symbol of ridicule...Our traits were emerging from the shadows and their outlines discernible. They were unique. Our faces were uncovered for all to see and recognise.'
Not only did Ms Shohat misquote Naim Kattan, but he wrote the complete opposite to what she claimed.
'
What do you think that's leading to? A "Mizrahi Arabic"! Mark my word.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago they had a big conference at Tel Aviv U. about those oriental dialects of Arabic, with Palestinians Arabic language activists, Yehuda Shenhav and other usual suspects. They did a survey and came to the conclusion that a very small percentage speaks those dialects of Arabic, and if anything it's judeo Arabic.
Yehuda Shenhav, who has never known his parents' spoken language, told them he went to learn Arabic but once he did, he discovered it was not his parents' Arabic! So why don't we all learn the same Arabic (the one he now knows)?
The Palestinian activists' agenda fits nicely in that program but for different reasons. They want their dialect to become the only legitimate Arabic dialect and to simply call it: Arabic.
So Shohat is not making things up, what she says is very likely part of that program.
What those radical "Mizrahis" are doing is perpetrating cultural genocide. They have held us back for decades, wasted years and years of sterile debates on made-up identities.
This is they donexactly that
The trouble with Ella Shohat is that she does not know anything about linguistics. If she were serious she would study Temanit. But she is a bogus academic. As Sylvia says she is perpetrating 'cultural genocide' and has contributed nothing except division and sterile debate.
ReplyDeleteThis is very difficult to do Malca for anyone who hasn't been immersed in the language since birth. We say "a" dialect but there are many versions of the same dialect because of regionalisms, linguistic and ethnic influences. The Jews of Fes didn't speak Moroccan arabic exactly like the Jews of coastal cities although in Israel everyone seems to have adopted the speech of Casablanca. I imagine the Jews of San'a didn't speak exactly like the Jews of Aden. Just like Yiddish was not uniform throughout Central and eastern Europe.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid this is already happening.
ReplyDeleteWe have since May a new brodcasting corporation called KAN that has replaced Kol Israel. There were programs in Judeo-Maghreban (and I assume in other Arabic dialects) for years in Kol Israel. But they can't be found in Kan.
On the other hand, Kan has a whole channel in Arabic, a channel in Persian, a channel called reka that features French English, Spanish, Amharic, Georgian, Bukhari, Russian, Russian and Russian.
There are older people in my neighborhood who are just devastated. I keep hoping it's there but I can't find it.
Kan has a website.
Professor Shohat is bound to devote time to studying Temanit after she reviews the data and analyses on the Cairo Genizah. That will certainly result in her next invitation to a conference at SOAS.
ReplyDeleteHere's one from SOAS that you can read a bit of on-line.
https://library.soas.ac.uk/Record/10094392
http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/books/10.1163/ej.9789004187764.i-270.42
The demonstratives in the Judaeo-Arabic letters from the Genizah are employed in a very different way to Classical Arabic. In the 11th-century letters, a clear distinction between pronominal and attributive demonstratives can be observed. There also appears to be a differentiation between anaphoric and cataphoric demonstratives in most cases. The varieties of Arabic use various negation particles for different functions. To give a comprehensive overview of the negation particles used in Judaeo-Arabic, this chapter is divided into three major parts.
--malca
Sylvia said, " although in Israel everyone seems to have adopted the speech of Casablanca. "
ReplyDeleteSylvia -- it is the case that that dialect is considered to be more prestigious or found in more films? How do speakers pronounce the Khet in Rahel when they are speaking Hebrew and when they are speaking fusha? Is it more h-like or more kh-like?
--malca
Malca, Ella Shohat did mention the Cairo Geniza, but it was to stress how similar the language used was to Arabic.
ReplyDeleteMalca
ReplyDeleteMoroccan Jews don't usually know fusha though there are exceptions. In fact, even in the wider Arab World, Arabs study fusha, write in fusha read newspapers and books in fusha but rarely converse in it. There are historical reasons as to why Jews don't know fusha but it will take a full paper to discuss it.
In Morocco, depending on the region, Jews spoke Spanish French, Berber (3 variations), dialectal arabic and learned Hebrew. The Arabic Moroccan dialect was in a way the cement that linked all those communities, and judeo arabic, while widely spoken in the interior, was a language of communication for rabbis,leaders and traders, though not everyone knew it. For example, in some communities, they were educated in French but spoke Spanish in the street and in the home and didn't know the arabic dialect. Because of that, one can't speak of mutual intelligibility in the singular.
I don't consider the Moroccan Arabic dialect as a deviation from Arabic but I am aware it's a minority opinion. It's very similar to Maltese with the difference that there are many italian words in Maltese whereas the Moroccan contains many spanish and berber words. Arabic may have been similarly added to a preexisting language in the period of Islamisation in Morocco and Andalusia.
I think anyone studying Arabic dialects should look at Maltese. I can understand most of it (once I got past the weird spelling) without ever having heard it spoken or been in Malta.
Regarding the Het the trend is to say Khet'.Some in development towns pronounce it both in the dialect and in Hebrew. But from what I can observe, Yemenites are the ones who have maintained the het in Hebrew the longest.
As to the Casablanca dialect, it just happened naturally, it's a phenomenon started already in Morocco when Jews from other places flocked to Casablanca to find work and it continued in Israel.
I am not a linguist conversant with the subject of dialects or with the subject of Jewish dialects of the Arab countries but I do know the Iraqi Jewish dialect because that is what I spoke. Indeed, I spoke Arabic in a number of its variations – Jewish, Muslim, Fusha (classical) in Iraq. (I do not know enough to speak about other Arab countries so I will restrict my comments to Iraq). The Jewish style of speaking Arabic is fast receding as new generations of Iraqi Jews are gradually speaking their newly learned languages, (Hebrew, English, French etc..) Eli Timan, by the way, has been recording conversations in Iraqi Jewish dialect for the purpose of historical preservation of the dialect or archiving. It is a valuable research into the dialect of Iraqi Jews.
ReplyDeleteShohat argued that it was incorrect to separate out our Arabic dialects from Arabic in general. Shohat contended, that there are sometimes distinctions between dialects (between Jewish and Muslim Baghdadi ways of speaking Arabic for example), but that they were mutually intelligible and not separate languages. Moreover, she argued that the Baghdadi-Jewish dialect is close to the Muslawi Muslim dialect, so it cannot be viewed as exclusively Jewish. I tend to agree with this view.
As to Judeo Arabic, I do not see it as a separate language but as a script. The history of this use of script probably goes back to the times of the Ottoman rule of the Arab countries, which neglected giving education to the citizens of the occupied territories. Illiteracy was prevalent throughout, but the Jews had their schooling in Cheder and Midrash where they learnt Hebrew, but as the language at the time was basically liturgical, the pupils wrote in Hebrew letters while expressing themselves fluently in Arabic. This is what is now being redefined by some linguists as Judeo Arabic, as if it is a separate language. With the improvement of schooling and reduction of illiteracy in the latter third of the 19th century, Jewish people wrote Arabic and gradually Judeo Arabic script died away in the first third of the 20th century. Equally the Hebrew language was being developed in the 20th century to become a literary and conversational language in Palestine and became enriched at the birth of the state of Israel. Within a hundred years Israel miraculously created a language that is rich and well-spoken by all its citizens. Judeo Arabic script is now extinct, dead, not in common use as a script. It was never a separate language in Iraq. In short, the Judeo Arabic script has expired. Also, it should not be confused with the Iraqi Jewish dialect which is only one of many dialects of Iraqi Arabic.
I have read your postscript and I have the book of Naim Kattan but I guess that I must have a different version or (translation from French). It reads: "By the end of the evening, we had won the game. For the first time, the Muslims were listening to us with respect. We were clothed in our garments.....This was the likeness which best suited us and it was reabsorbed in the intimacy of our minds. We had not been forcibly assimilated into some vaguely defined group.... In a pure Jewish dialect, we made our plans for the future of Iraqi culture."
My interpretation of Naim Kattan words in his book and the context of his writing in the whole chapter leads me to believe that his intent was along the same lines that Dr. Ella Shohat stated and not the opposite, as you claim.
Hi Emile
ReplyDeleteWhile I appreciate your considered opinion I question how close the Iraqi-Jewish dialect would be to the dialect spoken in Mosul. The accent would have been the same, but I wonder whether a Muslawi Muslim would actually understand a Jew, since 10 percent of the words he would use are Hebrew. The non-Arabic words in Judeo-Arabic are one distinguishing marker which Ella Shohat glossed over.
Your translation from Naim Kattan's book simply serves to corroborate my interpretation. Instead of emphasising what they had in common with the Muslims, the Jews were glorying in being DIFFERENT, and having that difference acknowledged and respected for the first time by the Muslims. Shohat's thesis is built on the assumption that there are no differences of note.
To my knowledge, there hasn't been one single work by a Jew indigenous to those countries that was written in classical Arabic using Arabic script since the 9th century at the latest and up to the 20th century.
ReplyDeleteAnd even in the 20th century apart from the short-lived post-independence interlude in Iraq and Syria in the 1930s and early 1940s where Arabic education became a high national priority to which Muslims, Jews and Christians were to contribute equally, there hasn't been noteworthy literary activity. This is not to say that no Jew studied the language with Arabic script. But prior to the 20th century when they could learn it at school (as I did myself as a first foreign language and prior to that at the Alliance school), they had to do so as autodidacts or with private tutors.
The Turks can't be blamed in the case of Moroccan dialects since Morocco has never been occupied by the Ottomans. But it is true that the same thing happened with Turkish.
In terms of vocabulary the judeo and the dominant dialects are basically the same language, but the roots of phonology (accent) are key to understanding ethnic origin of the speakers.
In any case, I wish Ella Shohat a lot of courage. Her research will inevitably show what most of us already know: there is no such a thing as an Arab Jew.
ReplyDeleteA comment in two parts:
ReplyDeleteAs a Moroccan-Jewish-Israeli woman I’m outraged by Lyn Julius’s response to Professor Ella Shoat’s important scholarly work.
First, let start with your referring to Prof. Ella Shohat as “Ella” only. Prof. Shohat is not your buddy. She is an Academic who has worked hard to accomplish her title and name; to overcome the daily obstacles in a country that crushed our dreams. You should not minimize her accomplishments, even when you do not agree with her ideas and thoughts. It is the oldest misogynist trick in the book of oppression, to refer to women by their first names.
That’s a basic rule of courtesy, even to one’s opponents: Do not downgrade her titles. Mizrahi women have worked very hard to overcome Ashkenazi racism, to become more than the vocational professions that we were supposedly destined to “accomplish”. Becoming an Academic, overcoming everyday prejudices and institutional obstacles that were meant to deprive us, amongst other things, of education, should be celebrated! Not downgraded. Whether you like her work or not. Prof. Shohat should be praised to have become more than a cleaning lady, in a country that specifically excluded Mizrahis from the Education Act until the late 1970’s. Would you claim that we are inventing that? Are you that keen to please Ashkenazis that you deny years of oppression in Israel? Which brings me to my next point.
What exactly do you know about Israel? Have you even lived there? And if so, for how long? Where? Under what capacity? Do you know what it really means to be a Mizrahi woman like me in Israel? Are you now going to negate my own experience, just because you read something in the newspaper? Or just because you come a few times a year to plant a tree? Who gives you the authority to speak about “the last generation” in Israel? What do you know about us? Nothing. That’s right. You know what you have been brainwashed to know. To obey.
I am a Moroccan-Jew born and raised in Israel. A woman of faith who proudly walks with a Magen David on her chest even in the diaspora. Activist. Human-rights lawyer for whom the love to others compliments her Jewish faith and stems from it. For whom “Emunah" comes together with the love for and respect of the Ger, the foreigner. For whom compassion is a Mitzvah. A must. A Mizrahi woman lawyer fighting for the rights of those suffering from "the accomplishments" of that enterprise that you admire. With the drug addicts, prisoners and kids with no hope. What do you know about them? What? What do you know about our pains and fears, growing in a country that systematically prevents us from getting into restaurants just because we look too Arab? What? A country that does not allow more than a certain quota of Mizrahis in Universities? That kidnapped thousands of Jewish-Yemenite (and Iraqi) babies? Radiating thousands of Moroccan babies by the order of Prof. Shiba? So, what exactly do you know? A country that does not allow Mizrahi artists on official radio playlists, not until they change their names, and then suddenly their songs and poetry are legitimized? Just because you might write a few words here and there about Israel, does not make you an expert about our lives and experiences.
Prof. Ella Shohat is a pioneer. She revealed a new vision in an era of terrible blindness, giving women like me hope. To girls like me growing up in a public housing project where we were sent by the Government (tons of evidence, please do not try to minimize that too), following the infamous “dispersal plan”, oppressed and indoctrinated to want nothing but to survive each day at a time. Prof. Ella Shohat gave me words. She gave me the words so that I could conceptualize what I have been carrying intuitively, that is the notion of accountability instead of feeling that we are the ones to blame for our poverty and despair. She is the voice of agency, the one who enabled me to feel proud as a Moroccan-Jew. To be proud of my heritage and tradition. Of my culture. Allowing me to believe in God AND to be an Academic.
A comment in two parts:
ReplyDeleteAs a Moroccan-Jewish-Israeli woman I’m outraged by Lyn Julius’s response to Professor Ella Shoat’s important scholarly work.
First, let start with your referring to Prof. Ella Shohat as “Ella” only. Prof. Shohat is not your buddy. She is an Academic who has worked hard to accomplish her title and name; to overcome the daily obstacles in a country that crushed our dreams. You should not minimize her accomplishments, even when you do not agree with her ideas and thoughts. It is the oldest misogynist trick in the book of oppression, to refer to women by their first names.
That’s a basic rule of courtesy, even to one’s opponents: Do not downgrade her titles. Mizrahi women have worked very hard to overcome Ashkenazi racism, to become more than the vocational professions that we were supposedly destined to “accomplish”. Becoming an Academic, overcoming everyday prejudices and institutional obstacles that were meant to deprive us, amongst other things, of education, should be celebrated! Not downgraded. Whether you like her work or not. Prof. Shohat should be praised to have become more than a cleaning lady, in a country that specifically excluded Mizrahis from the Education Act until the late 1970’s. Would you claim that we are inventing that? Are you that keen to please Ashkenazis that you deny years of oppression in Israel? Which brings me to my next point.
What exactly do you know about Israel? Have you even lived there? And if so, for how long? Where? Under what capacity? Do you know what it really means to be a Mizrahi woman like me in Israel? Are you now going to negate my own experience, just because you read something in the newspaper? Or just because you come a few times a year to plant a tree? Who gives you the authority to speak about “the last generation” in Israel? What do you know about us? Nothing. That’s right. You know what you have been brainwashed to know. To obey.
I am a Moroccan-Jew born and raised in Israel. A woman of faith who proudly walks with a Magen David on her chest even in the diaspora. Activist. Human-rights lawyer for whom the love to others compliments her Jewish faith and stems from it. For whom “Emunah" comes together with the love for and respect of the Ger, the foreigner. For whom compassion is a Mitzvah. A must. A Mizrahi woman lawyer fighting for the rights of those suffering from "the accomplishments" of that enterprise that you admire. With the drug addicts, prisoners and kids with no hope. What do you know about them? What? What do you know about our pains and fears, growing in a country that systematically prevents us from getting into restaurants just because we look too Arab? What? A country that does not allow more than a certain quota of Mizrahis in Universities? That kidnapped thousands of Jewish-Yemenite (and Iraqi) babies? Radiating thousands of Moroccan babies by the order of Prof. Shiba? So, what exactly do you know? A country that does not allow Mizrahi artists on official radio playlists, not until they change their names, and then suddenly their songs and poetry are legitimized? Just because you might write a few words here and there about Israel, does not make you an expert about our lives and experiences.
Prof. Ella Shohat is a pioneer. She revealed a new vision in an era of terrible blindness, giving women like me hope. To girls like me growing up in a public housing project where we were sent by the Government (tons of evidence, please do not try to minimize that too), following the infamous “dispersal plan”, oppressed and indoctrinated to want nothing but to survive each day at a time. Prof. Ella Shohat gave me words. She gave me the words so that I could conceptualize what I have been carrying intuitively, that is the notion of accountability instead of feeling that we are the ones to blame for our poverty and despair. She is the voice of agency, the one who enabled me to feel proud as a Moroccan-Jew. To be proud of my heritage and tradition. Of my culture. Allowing me to believe in God AND to be an Academic.
Part two:
ReplyDeleteSo, that woman that you have just ridiculed for spreading anti-Zionist stuff, actually allowed me to wish for more, and become a lawyer helping thousands of victims of Ashkenazi institutional discrimination. She has allowed me to make Israel a better place. Not you. Not your words of hate. Her, “the anti-Zionist”, made me want to change the world. To aspire for a better Israel. So, next time you ridicule a heroine, ask the many people whom she has helped. Always humble and modest. Not asking for anything. What do you know about her? Have you really read and understood her work? Her scholarly work on “the question of Judeo-Arabic language” appeared in several prestigious publications.
Which brings me to the next point: when you have an issue with an argument, “attack” the argument, not the writer. Try to be respectful. You attacked her for “downgrading a language to a dialect”. Well, try to implement your own preaching, and do not downgrade an academic to a mere “priestess”. That’s not nice. Be to the point. If you cannot analyze her argument, which you clearly cannot, do not resort to the oldest oppressive means of attacking the woman, using vacant and empty buzz words, such as “Priestess of Mizrahi Anti - Zionism”. It is such a cheap and shallow demagogical trick. Even your use of the concept of Zionism is shallow. But, that is the subject of our next class…… What makes someone a Zionist or Anti-Zionist? What? Being critical? For me, being critical is the epitome of Judaism, to be able to question everything. The Talmud is just one example. To be able to converse, challenge and question. So, please try not to label and categorize people into really reductionist categories, making people (including intellectuals) enemies. It is so easy to call someone anti-Zionist. What would be next? Salem witch hunt?
The article by Lyn Julius is just the product of the same mechanisms that Prof. Ella Shohat has revealed and been writing about for years. It shows the indoctrination of Diaspora Jews. Lyn Julius now becomes like a watch dog attacking other women, let alone Iraqi women. In other cultures that’s called a sellout.
Prof. Shohat is the priestess of hope and dignity. She made me and many others believe in ourselves. And, you know what, many of them are people you would consider as devout Zionists. People who know hope when it is presented to them, who can see beyond categories and listen to a true Gospel of redemption. She has allowed me to understand that we are not responsible for the hatred against us. That we are more than the “primitives”, as Ben-Gurion referred to us, suffering from decadence. She made me proud, allowing me to acquire knowledge. To be able to write in Hebrew not to mention writing to you now in English. And without her contribution we wouldn’t have the tools to academically analyze and put into scholarly language our experiences. Dialect or not, Zionist or not, Prof. Shohat is one of the reasons I am able to master the language of rights, fighting for the betterment of Mizrahis, and other oppressed minorities in Israel, such as Ethiopians and Palestinians.
And, by the way, a dialect is not inferior to a language. What a typical categorical and narrow interpretation of languages.
Claris
Hello Claris, congratulations on your empowerment as a woman and a lawyer. If Professor Shohat has helped you in this, kol hakavod. I would refer you to an interesting article by Merav Wurmser who comes from a similar background to you - in the sidebar of this blog. She says anti-Zionism is not the answer to discrimination.
ReplyDeleteYou say that one should attack the argument and not the person making it, but in your comments you have done just that. You attack Lyn Julius for what she may or may not be. I have looked in vain for any substantive refutations of her argument that Professor Shohat Is engaged in the denial an denigration of a separate Mizrahi Jewish identity in language. SHE is being reductionist: we are all part of an amorphous Arab culture. That Professor Shohat's work is published in prestigious journals, is only relevant in her specialist field. She is not a specialist in language.. Academia is riddled with post- colonial guilt and there is nothing more fashionable than professors who bash Israel.
The Prophet Isaiah actually called the language spoken by Jews of his time >> Canaanite [19:18 or 18:19]. Linguists are divided on calling ancient Hebrew a Canaanite dialect or a member of the Canaanite family of languages. It is a separate, distinct language on account of pronunciation differences, at least [Qart Hadasht instead of Qeret Hadashah.]
ReplyDeleteBe that as it may, it seems that KAN has also left Yiddish and Ladino out of the broadcast menu. The new programming on Reqa is faulty in several ways.
The irony is easier to see when you quote the aphorism is its original instantiation:
ReplyDeletea shprakh iz a dialekt mit an armey un flot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_language_is_a_dialect_with_an_army_and_navy
--malca