Philologos
By Philologos
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News The Gist of The Gimmel
I ended last week’s column, which had to do with the pronunciation of the letter Gimmel in ancient Hebrew, with an explanation of how the dual nature of the beged-kefet consonants as both plosives and fricatives came into being, and of how the presence in them of a dagesh, a small dot, indicates that they…
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News A Reader Revolt: Part 1
Don’t blame me if this week’s column is a bit technical. It’s by popular demand. No fewer than five readers have written to question the statement in my column of November 10 that “classical Hebrew never had a soft ‘g’ or a character representing it.” All five of you cite the same two facts: 1)…
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News An Essential Point
Ron Kalom writes from Taos, N.M., to ask: “Dos pintele yid? Dos pintele yud? Dos pintele yod? Which one is correct, and how does one translate this Yiddish idiom?” Let’s take these words one by one. Dos means “the” or “that” in Yiddish — in this case, “the.” Pintele (PIN-teh-leh), a noun with a diminutive…
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News Of Jewish Mothers
Often, words and expressions change meaning by happenstance, or because a secondary meaning gradually becomes a primary one. There’s no wider significance to it. Sometimes, though, the change is indicative of a real cultural shift. I had this thought the other day, as I was reading an article about the current trend in some American…
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News A Look at ‘Juk’
Forward reader George Steinberg writes: “My supervisor, born and raised in Israel, had his young son visiting the office. When the boy noticed an insect crawling on the wall, he said to his father in Hebrew, ‘Abba [“Daddy”], jook!’ ‘Jook?’ I asked. My boss explained that that’s an Arabic word used in Hebrew for ‘bug.’…
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News French Dressing
From Raphael Rothstein comes an e-mail query: “I am curious about the Hebrew slang expression la-lekhet franji, [literally, “to go franji”], i.e., to dress fancily. I believe it comes from the Middle Eastern word for Frenchman, European, or stranger. Is this so?” It is, indeed. Franji is the Arabic word for a European or European-like…
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News Answering a Reader Who Tried and Tried Again
Doris Gahler does not give up easily. Like many of you, she found that her first e-mail to me received no answer. There are good reasons for this when it happens. They include: 1) Laziness; 2) Procrastination; 3) Lack of space in my next columns; 4) Not knowing the answer to your question; 5) Having…
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News Accountability
Yakir Segev, according to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, is a social activist and major in the Israeli reserves who came back from last summer’s war in Lebanon determined to change things. And what is it that he wants to change? “The main thing missing [in Israel],” he told the paper, “is that same concept for…
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