Philologos
Farewell Philologos
For 24 years, Philologos has graced our pages with an erudite, engaging and often surprising column about language. He has decided to leave the Forward.
Could Spoken Language Be the Key to Unification?
What if Israel wasn’t a Jewish state but a Hebrew state? Having one common language might help forge one Israeli identity — but not without some problems.
Chickenshit: The Sequel
Philologos admits that he is no stranger to profanity, and defends himself against critics, who argue that he misinterpreted what it meant when Benjamin Netanyahu was called ‘chickenshit.’
At Least Six Degrees of Wisdom and Nuttiness
Philologos points out that not every rabbi is a ‘rabbinical scholar’ and not every rabbi’s pupil is a smart man. Did a Forward article muddy the Talmudic waters?
Political Correctness Doesn’t Make Speech More Meaningful
Should we bend over backward to avoid using male-centric language? No, argues Philologos, because political correctness can sometimes get in the way of communicating properly.
Philologos Takes On The Times and the Forward in Epic Hebrew Battle
The New York Times isn’t the only paper that can have a little trouble with Hebrew: Philologos takes issue with an article that recently appeared in the Forward.
When Jews — and Everyone Else — Learned How To Have Fun
Why doesn’t any Jewish language have a word for ‘fun’? It’s not because the tribe doesn’t know how to amuse itself, Philologos explains.
The Origins of Yiddish, Part Dray
Is it possible that Yiddish comes from Sorbian, a little-known Slavic language that is still spoken by a few thousand people in Germany? Philologos says it very well might have.
The Origins of Yiddish: Part Tsvey
The origins of Yiddish are subject to serious scholarly dispute. It’s so serious, in fact, that Philologos dedicates a second column to deciphering its beginnings.
Origins of Yiddish Are Anything But Understood
The origin of Yiddish was long thought to be an open-and-shut case for Jewish historians. But serious linguistic and genetic challenges have made it a much tougher call.