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Peter wrote:
"Why do we have so many stars with Arabic names?"
In part, I think it's because so few Europeans and European descendants have
spoken Arabic historically. Part of the thing that makes a "proper name"
sound "proper" is its obscurity. If you had to look up in the sky and say "that
star is called 'The Knee'", it wouldn't seem like a proper name. But
"Rigel"... that sounds mysterious and foreign and it feels like a proper name --only
because it's untranslated (and corrupted) Arabic.
-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars
