Selam?

[mcmanuf]

Hi there.
can I ask what the beta name stands for!
I mean salam in arabic means peace. But does the same goes for the beta name?

[Koepi]

Aloha, Ciao, Selam...

those all are greeting formulas.

Regards
Koepi

[Latexxx]

alpha, beta, gamma, delta...
Beta is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the computer world beta normally refers to an unstable test version which is released before the product is considered to be mature enough for production use.

[IvS]

Actually, it's "Salam" not "Salem". Salam = "a salutation. It is also the last recitation at the end of Salat (a muslim ritual prayer)". Salem = "peace, commonly supposed to be another name of Jerusalem (Gen. 14:18; Ps. 76:2; Heb. 7:1, 2)." and actually the other name of Jerusalem (Yerushalaim) is "Shalem" in hebrew (in the source mentioned), "Salem" in arabic.
</uninteresting_lesson> :)

lol. the XviD release is called "Selam" not "Salem"...which makes the uninteresting lesson even more uninteresting. Anyway, it's spelled "salam" not "selam" :).

[Jaques]

Originally posted by IvS
</uninteresting_lesson> :)

:( I thought it was interesting.

[IvS]

:D hehe, nice to know someone finds it interesting (this is obvious stuff to me since i'm from israel)

[Mole]

Well, IIRC, in written Arabic, there's no definite way of writing vowels. For instance, the written name "Mohammad" can also be read as "Mohammed", "Mahammed", "Mahammad" etc. How to read it all depends on the local dialect. But it's spelled the same.

So, salam, salem, selam could all be correct.

I'd appreciate if somebody who knows Arabic can shed more light about it.

(If the word is actually Arabic. It could also be other languages which use similar greetings such as Turkish or Persian..)

[Dali Lama]

Hi,

First, I believe this build of Xvid is named in honor of Iago, a friend of Xvid and everyone's friend. He sometimes used the Turkish salutation, Selam. I do not know Turkish, but its cultural and religious ties to Southwest Asia and Islam is evident. Hence, the Islamic custom is to use the word as a gretting and salutation. In addition, Turkish once was written in Arabic script, but Mustafa Kemal Ataturk changed the Romanized script of the Turkish language. So, I believe Iago, spells the word correctly as he is Turkish -> "Selam"

Indeed, in Arabic and Turkish, "selam" means peace. However, phonetically, the word is pronounced "salam" in Arabic. This may be slightly different in Turkish ("selam"). Other languages with roots in the Semetic language also have this word, such as Hebrew -> "shalom" In summary, any language which is derived from the ancient Semetic language or has religious ties to Judaism, Christianity, or Islam may use this word or a derivation with the same meaning.

In answering Mole's question:
Arabic does have a way of representing vowels in script. There are 3 letters that either solely represent a long vowel or both a long vowel and a consonant. By placing various punctuation marks either above or below the script, three more short vowels and two more long vowels can be represented. However, traditionally, Arabic did not use punctuation marks to represent these additional short and long vowels. The Arabic speakers knew by memorization how to pronounce words without them. This practice is still used today, as newspapers, magazines, and much of the literature in Arabic does not use these punctuation marks. However, in children textbooks they are used to teach them how to pronounce words. It is also used in the Quran to ensure clarity.

To succinctly answer your question Mole, the name Muhammad is spelled in English in various ways due to confusion and misunderstanding of both languages. Nevertheless, there is a definite way to pronounce the name, which is clearly repesented in Arabic by use of punctuation as necessary.

I think I overdid this post :p

If I made any errors please enlighten us.

Peace,

Dali

[Koepi]

Very impressive post, Dali! I already thought I need to ask my GF how to explain the differences, but you did it very well :)

Thanks,

Regards
Koepi

[iago]

Selam everyone, ;)

Dali's interpretation and explanations are literally fantastic! I myself cannot find anything to add or correct! ;)

best regards,
iago

(P.S: As you can see from Koepi's post, it seems that it's not only Iago to be honored here! :))

[IvS]

@ Dali Lama
Hehe yeah, you made a mistake kind of like i did, you mixed "selam" with "salem (peace)"
I didn't know about the turkish "selam", searched for its meaning but didn't find anything. There is an explaination on babylon.com, but..it's in turkish :D..
Maybe Iago can explain :)
btw, sorry for the first post, i have a kind of dyslexia, in some cases i may read a word like "selam" a million times but my mind is convinced its reading "salem". Same thing with "XviD", i may in some cases read "DivX" and be sure i just read "XviD" :D.. kinda funny actually.

@ Mole
Indeed that's correct, and Dali Lama explained it very well :) however in arabic there's only one way of saying salam, i've never heard an arab person (and i've heard many) say "selam". And yes, the word is arabic, and is taken from the similar hebrew salutation "shalom" (which can also be used as "peace" or "tranquility")

[IvS]

ooh here's iago, say, what exactly does Selam mean :) i'm interested.

[iago]

OK, to cut it short:

"Selam" means "hello" or even "hi" in today's daily Turkish language. It's been a part of common colloquial use and is greatly detached from its original meaning and connotations actually! :)

So, briefly, the formula can be: "Selam = Hi" !

regards,
iago

[Mole]

Fascinating reading!

Thanks for clearing it.

[communist]

Originally posted by Dali Lama
In answering Mole's question:
Arabic does have a way of representing vowels in script. There are 3 letters that either solely represent a long vowel or both a long vowel and a consonant. By placing various punctuation marks either above or below the script, three more short vowels and two more long vowels can be represented. However, traditionally, Arabic did not use punctuation marks to represent these additional short and long vowels. The Arabic speakers knew by memorization how to pronounce words without them. This practice is still used today, as newspapers, magazines, and much of the literature in Arabic does not use these punctuation marks. However, in children textbooks they are used to teach them how to pronounce words. It is also used in the Quran to ensure clarity.
Yup - native speakers can read arabic just fine without those vowels while people like me would read a lot wrong if those were not present.
Nice post :)