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Distribution of North and South Levantine Arabic

Levantine Arabic is a mutually intelligible group of vernacular Arabic varieties spoken in the Levant, in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Turkey. With more than 44 million speakers, Levantine is, alongside Egyptian, one of the two prestige varieties of spoken Arabic most widely understood in the Arab world. It is the closest vernacular Arabic variety to the official Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), with half of all words being common. Nevertheless, Levantine and MSA are not mutually intelligible. Levantine speakers often call their language al-ʿāmmiyya ('slang' or 'colloquial Arabic') and until recently it was rarely written. However, with the emergence of social media, the amount of written Levantine has significantly increased online where Levantine is written using Arabic, Latin, or Hebrew characters. Levantine pronunciation varies greatly along social, ethnic, and geographical lines. Its grammar and lexicon are overwhelmingly Arabic, with a significant Aramaic influence. (Full article...)

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Blind cave eel

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... that John Hutchison, in his role as Mayor of Toronto, signed the city's bid to become the capital of the Province of Canada?
... that there is a Gambian literature even though it has been argued that there is "minimal basis" for its existence?
... that Brooklyn Nine-Nine actress Melissa Fumero is the daughter of Cubans who fled to the U.S. as teenagers?
... that George Balanchine stated that he choreographed Divertimento No. 15 as he forgot his previous ballet to the same Mozart composition, but some dancers said the two works are nearly identical?
... that All-American cornerback Drane Scrivener later became a published author on fire safety issues involving children with special needs, newborns, and older adults?
... that French broadcast regulators failed to mediate a dispute between four Jewish radio stations in Paris sharing the same frequency: Judaïques FM, RCJ, Radio J, and Radio Shalom?
... that Abishabis claimed that he could create a map to heaven?

In the news

Marcus Ericsson

In auto racing, Marcus Ericsson (pictured) wins the Indianapolis 500.
In association football, Real Madrid beat Liverpool to win the UEFA Champions League Final.
An Indian court sentences Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik to life in prison.
In the United States, nineteen children and two teachers are killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

On this day

May 31: World No Tobacco Day; Feast of the Visitation (Catholicism and Anglicanism)

Mark Felt

1293 – Majapahit forces under Raden Wijaya won a major victory in the Mongol invasion of Java, now considered to be the founding date of the Indonesian city of Surabaya.
1862 – American Civil War: Confederate troops under Joseph E. Johnston and G. W. Smith engaged Union forces under George B. McClellan at the Battle of Seven Pines outside Richmond, Virginia.
1902 – The Second Boer War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging in Pretoria, South Africa.
1941 – The United Kingdom completed its re-occupation of Iraq, returning 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.
2005 – A Vanity Fair article revealed that the secret informant known as "Deep Throat", who had provided information about the Watergate scandal, was former FBI associate director Mark Felt (pictured).

Géza II of Hungary (d. 1162)
Walter Sickert (b. 1860)
Jørgen Jensen (d. 1922)

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Today's featured picture

The Federal Republic of Central America was a sovereign state in existence from 1823 to 1841 in Central America that consisted of the territories of the former Captaincy General of Guatemala of New Spain. The republic consisted of the present-day countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The republic's currency was the Central American Republic real; this photograph depicts the obverse and reverse of a four-escudo Central American Republic coin, minted in San José in 1835, and now in the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

Coin design credit: Federal Republic of Central America; photographed by the National Numismatic Collection

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