2450: Hebrew סלמון: Overproduced [l] Sound Aug 26, 2021
The Hebrew סלמון [salmon] is directly taken from the English, including the now-not-silent [l]. What makes this even more remarkable is that there was never a point in English the L was pronounced in 'salmon' and in Middle English the word was 'samoun'; before this the Old English 'leax' (related to ‘lox‘) was used. The L was added in association with the original Latin root, but it's unclear where this comes from. This process of adding traditional but unproductive letters from Latin was pretty common, as in 'indict' or 'island'.
2426: Construct State Aug 12, 2021
In Hebrew grammar, simple nouns are discussed as having three states, those being indefinite, definite, and construct. English has the first two types, at least principally, distinguished usually by articles such as 'a; an; some' in the indefinite and 'the; that' in the definite, but the construct genitive is not like anything in English, and can be either definite or indefinite. For instance, בית מדרש (beis medrash) literally 'house of learning' is constructed as a phonetically modified version בַּיִת (bayis) that indicates the following word is possessed; these constructions also have a unique plural form. Traditionally, an article on the definite form would be placed before the possessed word, so in this case בית המדרש (beis hamedrash) meaning 'the house of learning' and was considered that the article was part of the word. In Modern Hebrew however, it is not completely uncommon for the article to be placed in front of the possessor הבית מדרש (habeis medrash), which complicates these distinctions of states, to a degree.
2424: Hebrew Definite Attributive Articles Aug 10, 2021
In Hebrew, the definite article ה־ (ha-) not only applies to nouns but to attributive adjectives leading to the difference in
"a small boy" ילד קטן (yeled katan) compared to "the small boy" הילד הקטן (hayeled hakatan).
Part of the benefit of this system is that it distinguishes these attributive adjectives from being understood as a predicate adjective (i.e. "the boy is small"). This would still be a function when there is no definite article marker, such as with proper nouns. This is one argument for the idea the ה־ prefix is a semantic and morphological feature, rather than per se a definite article in its own right, though this could be contested.
2423: Is 'Taurus' (Bull) Semitic? Aug 9, 2021
The Latin 'taurus', Greek ταύρος (tauros) and Lithuanian 'tauras' all could come from the Proto-Indo-European PIE *tau-ro- meaning 'bull', but this could actually be Semitic. The Aramaic for 'bull' is תור (tor), in Hebrew שור (shor), and Arabic ثور (thawr) and so on throughout the whole Semitic family. Meanwhile, many Indo-European languages do not have a word descended from this root, such as in many Indo-Iranian languages, or other related languages spoken further the East. Some notably may have exceptions to this, as in Persian or Avestan with a similar word for horses, or Sanskrit sthura- (thick; standing firm) related to the Old English 'steer'. It could be that those missing cases are simply lacking data, or that this is a wanderwort.
2412: Words for 'Green' and Plants Jul 29, 2021
Lots of languages, unsurprisingly perhaps, have words for 'green' that relate to plant growth, particularly of young ones. The Germanic 'green'—also related to 'grow' and 'grass'—which after taking on the meaning of the color eventually led back to meaning 'plant life' in the form of 'greenery'. In Romance languages the Latin 'virere' (to sprout) led to 'viridis' and descendants including the Italian 'verde'. Before this an earlier word for green (galbinus) and yellow (gilvus) developed from the same origin and would have been the same. This pattern holds up in Semitic languages as well such as the Hebrew ירק (vegetable) and ירוק (green), but the same Semitic root led to the Tamazight [wriɣ] meaning 'yellow'.
2411: Language-Specific Names for Germany Jul 28, 2021
There are a number of etymologically distinct names for Germany around the world—far more than other countries—that are shared by at least a few languages, but others too went another way. Particularly North American native tribes made these names, like Lakota's Iyášiča Makȟóčhe (Bad Speaker Land), Navajo's Béésh Bich’ahii Bikéyah (Metal Cap-wearer Land); Cree has two different names both meaning roughly the same as those. Other languages like Sorbian, Silesian, and Medieval Greek took their names from different Germanic states, not so dissimilar to the practice of ancient languages taking their names from tribes. Kinyarwanda, the language of Rwanda, uses 'Ubudage' or just 'dage' thought to derive from the 'guten Tag' greeting during the days of the German colonial presence. Old Norse used the term 'Suðrvegr' literally 'South Way', which is effectively opposite to 'Norway' (Norþweg). Medieval Hebrew went another way and used the biblical name אשכנז (Ashkenaz), thought to be the ancestor of the Germans.
2404: @ in Hebrew and German Jul 19, 2021
The modern Hebrew word for the @ symbol is שטרודל (strudel), as in the German dessert. This is coincidental that both the pastry and the symbol are from the same name, but in German, and also Yiddish whence the Hebrew derives, this literally means 'whirlpool' and is supposed to be reminiscent of something twisting and spinning. In German, the word for the @ symbol is 'der Klammeraffe' which means 'spider monkey', though 'Klammer' on its own does not mean 'spider' but rather 'bracket'.
2403: date (palm) Jul 18, 2021
Palm trees are named for palms because of their resemblance to fingers. Less abstractly then, the date fruit may have been named fingers too. The English name is from the Greek δάκτυλος (dáktylos) meaning 'finger' as in 'polydactyl' or 'pterodactyl'. Some say this is from the fruit itself while others say it is also for the palm leaves, like the whole tree itself. Another theory gives this a Semitic root linking it to the same root as the Hebrew דקל (dekel) and that δάκτυλος (dáktylos) was only later associated by folk-etymology.
2399: Hebrew's Relationship to Chicken Jul 14, 2021
Technically, Hebrew has a distinct word for 'chicken' which is תרנגולת (tarnigolet) but this really only refers to a live chicken, specifically a hen. The word עוף (óf) is used for when referring to the meat, but this is also another word more generally meaning 'bird'. This is still the generic term for any bird in Modern Hebrew, and itself is related from the לעוף (la'uf) meaning 'to fly' but over time it gained another connotation. As it happens Israel is the number 1 consumer of chicken per capita globally, so perhaps this is not without reason.
2383: Inflected Prepositions Jun 27, 2021
Mostly, inflection is thought of as relating to nouns or adjectives, but this process can also be applied to prepositions in certain languages such as those in the Celtic or Semitic families. For instance, the Welsh word meaning 'to him' is 'iddo', which broken down from 'i-' (to) with a special ending, whereas saying *i fe (to + him) would be ungrammatical. These types of words wherein a preposition is modified with person and case are found in very few languages but are seen in Hebrew and Arabic as well where a modified form derived of the personal pronoun can be added to a preposition. A handful of exceptional cases are found such as with Portuguese.
2373: Biblical Loan Words Jun 17, 2021
Over the years, a number of collections have been arranged of word in Biblical Hebrew that are from other sources, including non-Semitic ones. Of course, some of these will be obvious, such as פרעה ('pharaoh') from Ancient Egyptian probably or קוף (qof) meaning 'monkey' from either Tamil or Sanskrit, considering that these concepts would not be native. Considering also the timespan of Bible, some of these sources will be found later historically after centuries of contact with other civilizations in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean. However, even in the Writings (כתובים) which has the greatest percentage, even a inclusive estimate would put total loan words from any language at less than 2% of all vocabulary.
2372: South Arabian Languages Jun 16, 2021
South Arabian languages, mainly confined to Oman, Yemen (including Soqotri) along with Kuwait. These were once thought to be descendents of Old South Arabian—a collection of four Yemenite languages—but were later reclassified as West Semitic along with Arabic, Hebrew, and Ethiopian Semitic languages: basically any living Semitic language. Still, these diverged from other Semitic languages early, and are closer related to Ethiopian Semitic languages rather than Arabic, though these are far from mutually intelligible. These languages (Bathari, Harsusi, Hobyót, Mehri–Soqotri, Shehri) are known for having certain archaic features, especially when it comes to phonology, lost in other Semitic languages.
2367: Anomalous: The Rare Dagesh in Guttural Letters Jun 11, 2021
Hebrew uses a system of diacritics to represent vowels, but also to represent other phonetic changes. Still, there are some anomalous cases in the Torah. The dagesh—appearing as a dot in the middle of a letter—distinguishes basically 2 features; either it will distinguish between plosive or fricative forms in six letters: בג"ד כת"פ (note that not all of these are still productive) but more often the dagesh is used as a דגש חזק ('strong dot') indicating gemination. This latter use is found in all other letters to effectively double that particular sound but those mentioned above and the 'guttural letters': א, ה, ח, ע, and in many ways ways ר. This last case, ר (reish), representing [ʁ] or [ʀ] is found in at least 17 cases, which is still very few, that are throughout the Prophets and Writings. Even fewer exceptional cases—about four—are found with א (aleph) even though this is often taken as a 'silent letter', such as in Genesis 43:26, Leviticus 23:17, and neither of these have other vowels added.
2345: Digamma: Greek's Ghost Letter May 20, 2021
The letter G effectively replaced the letter Z in the Latin alphabet, but in the Greek alphabet the letter Ζ,ζ was also affected in its order in the alphabeta. The Hebrew and Phoenician letters, zayin, are both 7th and as numerals means (7) as is true in Greek numerals despite it being 6th in order. This is because the letter Ϛ,Ϝ known as Digamma which used to be 6th was used and eventually disfavored, merging with Sigma—namely the Lunate Sigma—creating the only Greek letter with 3 distinct forms (capital, lower case, and word-final). This had originally represented the sound /w/ which no longer exists in Greek.
2344: A History of G and Z May 19, 2021
The letter Z is pretty uncommon in English and at the very end of the alphabet, but this was not always the case. Much like in the Hebrew or Greek writing systems, this letter (or its equivalent) both are numerically 7th though now in Greek it is 6th in order. The elimination of Z was done deliberately by the Roman censor Appius Claudius who saw Z as a foreign letter even though this is only true insofar as Latin doesn't really use it; it was very much present through the creation of the alphabet. This was then replaced with the Roman-invented G now occupying the 7th position, with G being based off of C in form to represent that it is just the vocalized form. The use of the letter G to represent [d͡ʒ] (as in 'giraffe') is from French orthography.
2341: shavuous May 16, 2021
The holiday of Shavuos (associated in Christian theology as 'Pentecost'), one of the major Jewish holidays, goes by many names in the Bible is first mentioned as חג הקציר (Chag haKatzir) literally 'holiday of the reaping' as it is based around a grain harvest festival followed shortly after with the name used today חג השבועות (Chag haShavuos) meaning "holiday of the weeks" since it is measured by 7 weeks after the second day of Pesach. This term is also used more often in the Bible. Later after that though there is יום הבכורים (Yom haBikkurim) which is often translated as 'First Fruits' but this word is used for any first-born offspring including for sons and doesn't relate to 'fruit' per se. Outside of the 5 Books also, it is referred to as עצרת (Atzeres) meaning 'conclusion' as it is a conclusion of a 50-day counting process and זמן מתן תורתנו (Zman Matan Toraseinu) or 'Time of Giving of Our Torah' as this is the date for the revelation on Mount Sinai.
2324: manna Apr 29, 2021
The Biblical substance known as 'manna' in English is מָן (mon) in Hebrew, and I likewise in Arabic does not have this added [ə] at the end. This was definitely added in by the time of introduction of Greek to the region (which happened long before Arabic even existed) with the Greek μάννα (mánna) using this extra vowel and long [n]. This was probably not from Aramaic nor especially an Aramaic phrase though many early writings have claimed this origin for the word and particularly the added extra syllable from Greek.
2299: Hebrew's Alternative Plus Sign: ﬩ Apr 2, 2021
Numbers in modern Hebrew writings, including in math equations, are written left-to-right, even though Hebrew is written right-to-left. This means that math and numerals in general are exactly the same as in Europe for instance, with one exception. The plus-sign, conventionally + for most places, is often written ﬩ as a sort of inverted capital T. This is because historically, the Jews using the symbol wanted to avoid writing something that resembled a Christian cross but even in secular settings now the symbol remains present.
2296: (New) Hebrew Stress Mar 30, 2021
Traditionally, Hebrew stress was almost always placed on the final syllable of the word, though there is a pattern which places it on the penultimate syllable. Increasingly however the stress is placed on the penultimate syllable outside of that aforementioned pattern, in general colloquial use, names, and loanwords. Previously, the stress was always predictable depending on syllable weight—i.e. the syllable length and whether the syllable had a coda—but the stress now is phonemic, insofar as it is now used to distinguish between words of different meanings, such as
/ˈboker/ (בּוֹקֵר)—"morning" /boˈker/ (בֹּקֶר)—cowboy
2267: How לחם (Lechem) is Related to नान (Naan)
There is a Proto-Semitic reconstructed root *laḥm- which broadly would have meant food, but in many of its descendents like the Hebrew לחם (lechem) and Aramaic לחמא (lachma) it came to mean bread. That said, the Arabic لَحْم (laḥm) also comes from this root, but here it means 'meat'. It is clear it hasn't always though, because a derivative of this Arabic word is the somewhat distant sounding Middle Persian LHMA which becomes نان (nân) in Persian. This did have closer form in other languages like the Old Armenian loanword նկան (nkan); in turn this root lead to the Hindi नान (nān) and Urdu نان (nān): bread which came to English as 'naan'.
