Hebrew Didn't Stop Growing If Israel was Born
by: Neal Walters on Fri, 10 Apr 2009 at: 6:42 AM Go to: Previous Article Next Article
The ancient Hebrew language is not static. During the last 25 years, over 10,000 words have been added to the Hebrew language. This was required to meet the exigencies of modern life in conversational usage. William Chomsky's "Hebrew: The Eternal Language" is full of examples.
Some words are cloned from Indo-European languages. One example is "TILPHEN" which is the verb "telephone". Even during Talmudic times, words were often borrowed from other languages. An example is "HIT'AKHSEN" (received hospitality) from the Greek word "XENIA" meaning hospitality.
Altneuland is the name of a novel published by Theodore Herzl. The name came from the German "ALT" and "NEU" meaning "old and new". How does the modern city of Tel Aviv related to this book? "TEL" means mound or ruin (thus something very old), and Aviv is the month of Spring, symbolizing new.
Hebrew often adds prefixes and suffixes to words to slightly modify the meaning. For instance, you can often add the suffix "-ut" to a word. SAMKHUT means "authority" from the root verb SEMEKH" meaning "support". SIFRUT means "literature" from the noun SEFER meaning book.
Another pattern is for professions. RAMMAN menas genadier (someone who throws hand grenades) from "RIMON" (a pomegrante or "grenade". Similarly, TZALAM is a photographer, from the stem TZELEM meaning "image" or "shadow".
Some nouns can be performed by adding the letter "MEM" as a prefix. We see with with Biblical words such as MIKDASH (temple) from KADASH (to sanctify/make holy) and MISHKAN (tabernacle) from SHAKAN (dwell). In Modern Hebrew, we can see such words as MABREG (screwdriver) from BARAG (screw) or MATZLEMAH (camera), from TZELEM ("image" or "shadow").
As in English, two words are combined to form a new word. For instance, "goodbye" is a shortend version of "God be with you". KOLNOA (movie theater or sound pictures) is a blend of KOL (sound) and NO'A (motion). Interestingly, TAPUZ is an orange, from the word TAPUACH (apple) and the first letter of ZAHAV (gold).
Hebrew has also absorbed word from English, Yiddish, Russian and other languages. SHWITZ means sweat in Yiddish, which inspired the Hebrew word MASHWITZ - an overbearing person. From English, Hebrew has borrowed words such as jeep, garage, and sweater. From Russian, the suffix "Nik" is occassionaly used, such as KIBBUTZNIK (a man belonging to a Kibutz).
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