Opuscula
Why can’t Israelis
Speak (and write)
Proper Hebrew ?
HEBREW IS NOT MY “first language.” I struggle with it as I try to read a newspaper or magazine article, or decipher a sign over a business. Never mind that except for prayer books, humashim, and a few other publications, the printed words lack vowel marks — ni’ku’dot.
TODAY I ENCOUNTERED
I was stymied ; stumped, flummoxed, without a clue.
The word appeared on Page 9 of the Israel HaYom printed edition for July 29, 2001.
Again, no nikudot, but even if there WERE nikudot, I’m not sure I could have deciphered the word.
“ה" was easy enough: “ה" in most cases equals “the.”
טרנזיסטור and ספישל were two words I encountered in my first days in Israel.
(My first Hebrew word, after גלידה — I knew THAT word before I got on the plane — was סבלנות, something I never acquired.)
I saw the word “ספישל” above an ice cream (what else) shop in Tel Aviv — my first trip off the ulpan reservation.
Don’t panic. All the Hebrew-alphabet words are defined near the end of this blog. סבלנות.
I stood and stared at the word for a good five minutes before someone took pity on me and told me what it was.
Later, working for Tadiran Electronics in Holon (as a tech writer creating English-language documents) I was perusing a Hebrew technical document when I came to an impasse; the word: טרנזיסטור. After breaking my head trying to “sound out” the word, I finally gave up and asked an Israeli engineer.
I’m no Eliezer Ben Yehuda (https://tinyurl.com/wkcwrvuv), but I’m pretty certain Ben Yehuda (right) could have come up with Hebrew words for הפרויקטור and טרנזיסטור . There IS a perfectly good Hebrew word for מיוחד — ספישל
At least with טרנזיסטור, I had reason to believe the word was imported. Words transliterated to Hebrew having a “T” sound get a tet (ט) rather than a taf (ת).
I have an old set of Megiddo English/Hebrew and Hebrew/English dictionaries I bought at the ABC Book Store in Tel Aviv c 1975. (The store is long gone; at least I failed to find it during a recent search.) I also bought 201 Hebrew Verbs, fully conjugated — my latest copy is 501 verbs with examples (!) — so I would finally understand what the ulpan teacher was talking about when she repeatedly mentioned “שבע משפחות.”
The internet is fine, providing it is available. While it is faster to find a word on line, it is not as satisfying as looking it up in a book — and often getting side tracked to other words of interest.
I am a visual learner; I need to SEE a word. Spoken Hebrew, especially when spoken quickly or with a strong accent, gives me pause.
With the written word, I usually am able to identify the shoresh (root) and the context also helps.
I suppose I could, perhaps should, spend more time in front of the television; it might help me with spoken Hebrew.
The problem with Israeli tv news — aside from the typical slant to the right or left, is that here the news is captioned. I don’t know of any way to turn off the captions. Sounds like a good idea, especially when the grandkids are being noisy, but I try to read the captions instead of listening to the speaker.
Unfortunately, I cannot read the captions as fast as they change.
Also, captions are nikud-free.
There is one other problem for me and printed Hebrew: roshi tavot, a/k/a abbreviations.
Hebrew is replete with abbreviations.
Some are understandable in context; many are not.
Worse, some have multiple functions.
Then there are words so new they cannot be found on the internet.
חיתול vs. תיתול
Is תיתול a word or slang that, akin to “פניסתי” will disappear in time. Even The Academy of the Hebrew Language (https://tinyurl.com/cpctc2b5) fails to list תיתול.
The words המילים
הפרויקטור = the project
פרויקטור = מנהל מיזם — The Hebrew Language Academy
ספישל = special
גלידה = ice cream
סבלנות = patience
טרנזיסטור = transistor
שבע משפחות = seven families
חיתול = diaper
תיתול = disposable diaper
פניסתי = finished
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