2759: Linguistic Connections: ζεῦγος Jul 10, 2024
The concept of pairing or joining may not seem very complex, yet it is in these simplest instances that we find the greatest adaptation and variation. The Ancient Greek ζεῦγος (zeugos), meaning ‘yoke’—not in the burdensome sense but in the sense of things joined—gave rise to words like ‘zygote’ and numerous everyday terms. It was adopted into Aramaic as זוגא (zuga), meaning ‘pair’, which led to Hebrew זוג (zug), meaning ‘pair; couple’, and זיוג (zivug), meaning ‘soulmate’. Arabic also borrowed it from Aramaic, forming the root ز و ج (z w j), resulting in words like ‘marriage’ زَوْج (zawj) and ‘spouse’, as well as مزدوج (muzdawaj), meaning ‘bisexual’ in the sense of twos. Sanskrit योग (yóga), while not directly from Greek, shares the same root (also found in ‘yoke’ itself), relating to pairing, but in a religious Hindu context concerning the body and soul.
2197: Biblical Hebrew has No Tenses Dec 20, 2020
Biblical Hebrew contains no verb tenses, a fact which is often misunderstood. Hebrew did of course have a way of expressing the action—just not time—in verbs through aspect. Unlike, in English however wherein aspect only can express Perfect (i.e. that the action is completed) and the Imperfect (i.e. that the action is incomplete), using the prefix וְ (v-) known as 'vav', other verbs could signal sequence. In other words, there is morphology to indicate that the action came in sequence (after) another whether that is in actual time or simply conceptual.
Somewhat counterintuitively sounding, the Sequential Perfect expresses similar meaning to the Imperfect and vice versa, but this is because if a Perfect verb is followed by a verb in the Sequential Perfect, it would have to have the sense of ongoing action. For instance”I read a book and I ate an apple” (both Perfect) does not actually show the sequence of time how “I read a book and I am eating an apple“ would and hence the Sequential Perfect looks almost the same but acts like an Imperfect.
Of course, there were ways of expressing the concepts that English uses tense to describe using other words and structures, but it is technically wrong to use the term 'tense'. This use of the וְ prefix is known as the Vav Consecutive form. This is distinct from the Vav Conjunctive, which merely expresses the same meaning as the English 'and'. This is why often Biblical translations will often write 'and' even at the beginning of sentences or indeed chapters. Modern Hebrew and even Mishnaic Hebrew does employ tenses, but these developed closer to the Indo-European system.
2170: The Productivity of בן (Ben) Nov 23, 2020
The Hebrew בן (ben) or Aramaic בר (bar) both are used to mean 'son', but unlike in English it has other constructive uses, especially historically. For instance, it is still used to indicate age, with הוא בן שש (hu ben sheish) translating effectively as "he is 6 years old" but meaning literally "he is a son of six". Likewise, though it is no longer productive in Modern Hebrew, it was used to describe possession or ability, like בן דעת (ben da'at) literally "son of knowledge" to refer to someone who is logically competent.
2142: South African 'k*ffer' & Hebrew כפרה (redemption) Share Same Arabic Cognate Oct 26, 2020
The Arabic كفر (k-f-r) is the source of the very offensive South African slang 'kaffer', but also to the Hebrew כפרה (kapará) which in modern slang is a term of endearment. This is because the Arabic word meaning as a verb 'to disbelieve' can be used as a noun, كَافِر (kāfir), essentially to mean ‘infidel’. This word comes from Bantu—the Africans of this region of East Africa having extensive contact historically—but has now been taken up in other languages as an offensive term for black people. Meanwhile, the Hebrew כפרה (kapará) literally means "atonement; redemption", and also practically 'sacrifice'. This connection then to 'infidel' may seem odd, but it may seem even odder than the Semitic root relating these words means 'village'. Essentially, an infidel would be someone outside the village, and in other Semitic languages it came to refer to a more generic covering, or in this case protection. The phrase in Modern Hebrew comes from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic 'nímšī kapā́ra ʿalēk', or literally “I will go as atonement for you”, as a way to express humility—sort of like with ciao—and abbreviated as כפרה.
2103: The Many Names of Rosh Hashona Sep 17 2020
The Jewish new year holiday, Rosh Hashona, goes by many names, but 'Rosh Hashona' (ראש השנה), literally 'head of the year' actually only appears once in the Bible—Ezekiel 40:1—and it's much later than when initially mentioned. It is first mentioned in Leviticus as Zichron Teruah (זכרון תרועה) meaning "a memorial of blowing [of the shofar]". It is elsewhere however referred to as Yom Teruah (יום תרועה) meaning 'Day of Blowing' (the Shofar) and prayers it is referred to has Yom Hazikaron (הזכרון יום), though now this is also a secular Israeli Memorial Day and is not so used for Rosh Hashona.
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2102: Paleo-Hebrew (Abjad) Sep 16, 2020
The writing system used for Hebrew is certainly ancient, but it is not the original written form for Hebrew. The paleo-Hebrew alphabet was used in the Israelite kingdoms until the Babylonian conquest. All texts, including the Bible, were written in that script at the time, such as in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The current Hebrew abjad, known as Jewish Square Script is actually from the Assyrians. The Samaritans still use a script based off the paleo-Hebrew writing system.
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1668: 2 and ב Jul 9, 2019
While the numerals used in Western society, are from India , there are some links to closer cultures. For instance, many systems use letters, such as Roman numerals or Hebrew numerals. For instance, the second letter in the Hebrew is ב. This historically was used to represent 2, and many believe it also had an influence on the development of the numeral. Although they are called Arabic numerals by some, the Arabic version for 2 is much different: ٢.
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1452: shekel Dec 2, 2018
As discussed yesterday, terms for money often outlast—at least in an etymological way—economic systems. In addition to 'capital' and 'buck' which both came from terms for animals, 'shekel', the modern currency of Israel and historically other Middle Eastern nations also comes from farming. In this case however, it is from a unit of barley, though 'shekel' comes from the Hebrew 'šeqel' whose root means ‘weigh’. These sorts of agricultural terms do have a specific biological necessity and therefore value, so when moving to coinage and paper money—which does not have a definite value—the notion similar valuation stuck.
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