A Gift from the Arabs.

Well, my Grammar Professor, Dr. Hourani (same last name as Guita Hourani, LERC's director, no relation), is so funny. He is the one who told us about love. He also told us about the "gift from the Arabs". In Arabic there are feminine and masculine nouns, like French or Spanish. (Thank God, there are only two, unlike German which has feminine, masculine AND neutral nouns). Anyways, it's pretty simple in Arabic, almost always, if it is feminine, you just add what is called a Taa Marbuta, or the Tied T. It looks exactly like an O with an Umlaut, like this: ö. So, says my professor, it is a gift from the Arabs, the small tee. They (the women) can put it (the small tee) in their hair (hair). This is the gift from the Arabs to women.

He also went through the verb conjugations (I think) and it starts with the masculine "He" form of the verbs. And he said, the Arabs don't let women go first, we start with the men.

All of this he said while laughing.