SOME READERS OF MY TRIVIA MAY wonder why I occasionally use Hebrew characters.
In a word: pronunciation.
I HAVE A RABBI who is Ashkenazi. Nice guy.
He knows Hebrew and he can communicate in Hebrew on paper.
But when he SPEAKS Hebrew it is as if he is speaking another language,
The rabbi speaks Ashkenazi Hebrew. That’s what he learned at his father’s knee.
Most of the people in his congregation – at least those that know Hebrew on a “conversational” level – can understand the rabbi. He speaks their language.
I know many people who can READ prayer book Hebrew, but they have little or no concept of WHAT the words mean.
Sender, the rabbi, has a blog and he occasionally allows me a preview. Sometimes I even get a preview of a coming d’var Torah. (I’m honored.)
I have no problem with his English, but when he transliterates a Hebrew word to an Ashkenazi pronunciation, I often am lost.
Truly a case of its not WHAT you say, but HOW you say it.
Sender writes as he talks – vus-vus.
To be fair, there are Sefardim who ALSO turn a taf (ת) into a samach (ס).
I have a son-in-law who can “speak Yemenite.” When he does, I can’t understand a word he says.
If Sender will write the transliterated word in “Ashkenaz,” and then follow it up with the same word in Hebrew characters, I’ll know what he means. (If I don’t, I have several Hebrew-English dictionaries and 501 Hebrew Verbs handy.)
I’m fairly certain he has the same problem with my Sephardi/Israeli Hebrew.
But if I write a word in Hebrew, I know that everyone who has even basic, survival level Hebrew – that is, my level of Hebrew – can (assuming I spell the word correctly) comprehend my meaning.
Unfortunately I have not found a way to insert nikudot in LibreOffice on a Windows 10 platform.
Even sans the nikudot, Sender can read סליחות even if he pronounces it selihos (and I pronounce it selihot).
I try to follow good journalism practice and “spell it out” on first use. For the Hebrew it means presenting the word in Latin characters first followed by the Hebrew characters inside parentheses: selihot (סליחות).
Another journalism practice I try to follow is to cite my sources.
For many years I was a reporter and I had to attribute what I wrote to a source; “anonymous” was NOT an option. I wish more writers accepted the same obligation.
I like to read Sender’s works, but I still get tripped up with his Hebrish – Hebrew with an Ashkenazi sound.
Now you know why I scatter Hebrew words in some of the blog entries.
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
