Non-Egyptological friends of Egyptology Masters student Daniel Foulds have reported a mysterious appearance of Arabic words in his everyday conversation, each with an English translation immediately appended. Some - but not all - of the snippets of Arabic are also followed by digressions into Arabic etymology and semantics. The phenomenon is a puzzling one, since Foulds has only a smattering of conversational Arabic, having attended a ten-session introductory course and invested in a miniature phrasebook before his most recent trip to Egypt. 'It's kinda annoying, but he seems to be enjoying himself so I guess we shouldn't tell him,' reported one friend. 'A couple of months ago he started saying 'shukran' instead of 'thank you''. Not just saying it, but totally over-pronouncing it, like shhooookharaaaahn. Then, I went round to his house the other week and he opened the door and said 'Ahlan wa sahlan', waited till I looked a bit confused and then said 'that's how Egyptians say welcome!' with a sort of flourish at the end of the sentence as if he expected me to be really impressed. I've been to Spain on my holidays, but I don't say welcome in Spanish every time someone comes round to my house'.

Among Foulds' other current affectations, which he apparently considers to be charming despite the lack of any external corroboration for this view, is an insistence on appending the words Insha'allah to any reference to the future. This has particularly puzzled long-time friends of his, who confirmed to us that he is not a member of the Muslim faith, and so is unlikely to actually think that the will of Allah has any effect on the unfolding of future events.

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