Wednesday, April 14, 2004

ARAMAIC WATCH: It's now going onto jackets for high school sports teams:
El Camino vies for academic crown (Los Angeles Daily News)

By Lisa M. Sodders
Staff Writer


WOODLAND HILLS -- Eight El Camino Real High School students traveled Tuesday to Boise, Idaho, to compete for a third national title in the Academic Decathlon -- a grueling two-day battle among America's brightest kids.

[...]

El Camino teams are known for their distinctive black satin jackets, which each year are adorned with a secret motto, written in a foreign language, on the back. Last year's motto was a George Bernard Shaw quote -- "I want to be thoroughly used up when I die"-- written in Armenian.

This year's motto is in Aramaic and won't be revealed to non-Aramaic speakers until after the national competition.

[...]

I've e-mailed the reporter and asked her to let me know what the motto is when it's made public.

UPDATE (15 April): Oops! It's an academic decathlon, not a sports one. My bad. More on the event here. The reporter for the first article has promised to get me the Aramaic when it's available.