Language
From “nation” to “pagan” to “non-Jew.”
Once an international language, it is now in danger of extinction.
Some of the oldest examples were found in China.
Yes, argued Hayyim N. Bialik, one of the great poets of the early 20th century. He wanted to “reprogram” Hebrew for mundane use by stripping. . .
In the long history of the Diaspora, Jews have preserved Hebrew as a ritual language almost wherever they have gone; they have also developed their. . .
Is the tech term, as in computer hacker, connected with the verb hakn, meaning to chop?
The Hebrew Bible generally refers to Jews by some variation of the word Israel. (The word Jew does not appear as such until the later. . .
Much as vulgar language is acceptable in certain social situations but not in others, different forms of address are appropriate for different situations. Many European. . .
A new history of the creation of modern Hebrew ends with speculation about whether the Hebrew language could become the basis of an Israeli identity. . .
The Yiddish phrase talmid hokhem denotes someone learned in Talmud. But, despite a common misconception, it does not contain the word Talmud. Rather, it comes. . .
Israel recently decided, at the behest of Christian religious leaders, to recognize those Arabic-speaking Christians who wish to identify themselves as “Arameans.” This has raised. . .
Hebrew, like many languages, has a strict system of grammatical gender. Most verb forms indicate whether the subject is male or female; nouns are always. . .
A Yiddish expression that translates literally as “I have it in my left earlock,” and figuratively as “I don’t give a damn,” is not one. . .
When it comes to the Gaza campaign, linguistic obtuseness leads to radical distortion at the New York Times and tendentious, error-riddled assertions at the Forward.. . .