DATE: Friday, May 9, 1997                   TAG: 9705080050

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   57 lines

``IT'S NOT HARD TO BE OPTIMISTIC'' - NIZAR HABASH, OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY

AT AGE 15, Nizar Habash began creating his own language, with its own script, resembling a cross between Japanese and Arabic. He called it Delason.

He even made up a mythical Mideastern country where Delason was spoken. That he named Salamon. And he constructed a history for the nation, including its being overtaken by Napoleon.

A momentary teenage hobby? Not quite.

In the past eight years, he's kept at it, compiling a 1,200-word two-way dictionary with translations for words like ``approve'' and ``acid.'' (With a wink to Shakespeare, the Delason translation of ``guilty'' is ``Makbeti.'')

The exploit showcases the insatiable interests of the Old Dominion University senior - his love for languages, his mania for detail: ``I don't like things that are vague or undefined; that bugs me so much,'' he said.

And he says it subconsciously reflects something else about him: his desire for harmony in the Mideast, where he someday hopes to return to live in a Palestinian state. Salamon, he realized years after his brainstorm, is not far from the Arabic salaam, which means ``peace.''

``There was this underlying need,'' he said, ``to have a country and to have peace.''

Habash will graduate tomorrow with a dual degree in linguistics and computer engineering - and a 3.96 average, just shy of a straight-A. In the past few weeks, he's picked up a half-dozen awards, including the Phi Kappa Phi Award for Excellence and the award for best engineering student at ODU.

Habash, 23, who has Jordanian citizenship, considers himself a Palestinian. As a youth, he lived in several countries, including Lebanon, Syria and Tunisia. While in high school, he spent a summer improving his English at ODU. He decided he'd return for college.

I moved so much, I finally wanted to stay in one place,'' he said.

John P. Broderick, an English professor who has worked closely with Habash, said: ``The thing about Nizar is, he's not only an extremely bright student but he has an amazing interest in all kinds of things and people. He's learning all the time.''

Broderick describes Habash as a student hungry for cultural experiences, whether it's taking a pottery class or taking in the opera. Habash says he also has tried to immerse himself in other religions, visiting midnight Masses and Passover seders.

Habash will attend the University of Maryland at College Park to pursue a doctorate in computer science. He hopes to return to the Middle East to teach.

Recent tensions don't dampen his vision of living in a Palestinian state at peace with Israel. ``It's not hard to be optimistic; being pessimistic doesn't get you anywhere,'' he said.

Meanwhile, his new language is getting some exposure, at least at ODU. His fellow graduates of the university's honors program recently received two certificates - one in Latin, the other in Delason. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

VICKI CRONIS, The Virginian-Pilot

Nizar Habash, a graduating senior at Old Dominion University, will

be going to the University of Maryland for graduatte school.

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