Housing foundations

 

[Foundations of an old house*]

English is the ultimate collector of words, building on roots from any language it encounters. Yet, sometimes, meanings get lost or significantly changed in transition. To demonstrate, I present an interesting short survey of various words in English for a dwelling.

[Colorful town houses]

Both house and home originated from the same proto-German root khusan but went slightly different directions later on haim keeping its original idea of a permanent residence and hus, derived from hide, both the verb and noun, referring to a shelter.

[Irish manor]

Of course, not houses are created equal. For the rich and famous, their abode may be a mansion, from the Latin root manere, to stay, implying where the land owners actually spent lived most of the time. A slightly more modest option is a villa, clearly a Latin/old Italian word, which originally referred to a summer home, like a dacha in Russia, but now implying a permanent detached residence. For the super-rich, they may even own a chateau, literally a castle, although it has been quite few centuries since its residents needed protection from attack aside from paparazzi. On the other scale, in hot climates, a bungalow is a very reasonable option, logical as it refers to a Bengalese traditional house. The old forest cottage, merely a hut, is now rather common in the cities and has grown in size. A temporary soldiers tent in Spanish, a  barraca, became a fixed residence for soldiers, i.e., barracks. A  a home away from home in the mountain for herders known as a chalet is rather expensive now.

[Apartment building]

For those of us that cannot afford or choose not to live a detached life style, an apartment is the standard option. Curiously, the word literally means as it sounds, a separated place in Italian. Somehow, when I hear the neighbors moving furniture above me, I don’t feel so separated. Its English cousin, a flat, also has a bit of twisted journey. It is derived from an old French word for flat, the adjective. It is funny how today many English housing units are on two if not more stories. In the US, an apartment that is bought, not rented, is called a condominium, which literally means shared living, which is at least honest. Its upscale neighbor, the penthouse, was apparently an addition to the building as originally referred to an appendage, an added building in old French, apparently someone similar to the luxury suites that stadiums add to establish stadiums to increase revenue.

[Shanty town]

Alas, not everybody is fortunate enough to enjoy reasonable quality housing. Some people live in tenements, dilatated apartments, which originally implied actually owning the place, unlike today. In the country, many poor families grow up in a shack, a Mexican-Spanish word for an adobe hut,  a structure that experienced a material switch to wood. A lumberjack’s temporary home, a shanty, became a last resort of the unemployed and homless in some countries. With a history that is no less sad, crowing up on a croft in Scotland was no pleasure but it did have land and provide something to eat as it was a short land allotment until the English threw the residents off the land.

[Yurt]

Some housing is temporary by definition. The basic English word tent is derived from the Latin verb tendere, to stretch, which makes sense to any person that ever put one up. Other cultures considered home to be where the hearth is regardless of its permenance.  The Turkish root of tree lent its name to the yurt as it provided a root to those tribes. Likewise, the teepee literally means they dwell, technically the truth. The more northern igloo is merely a house. Some homes are born to roam, as Bruce Springsteen would say.

[Toy house on lawn]

So, whatever your pad, technically a bundle of straw, is, be thankful for a roof over your head and consider the magnificent collection of words the English language has succeeded in hoarding over the centuries, thus creating a fine foundation of words to describe your humble abode, often with changes to their original meanings.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credits – Pixabay

Ghosts of Thanksgiving past

[Thanksgiving table*]

Every country has at least one annual event that transcends differences in religion, generation, race and background. For the United States, in my opinion at least, that occasion is Thanksgiving, a time when extended families make great effort to get together and enjoy each other’s company.

There is a universal element in Thanksgiving. People of all stripes and colors get together and eat the same menu, with small variations. Even when alternatives are far tastier (my brother persuaded my mother to make paella one year), it is somehow sacrilegious to not eat turkey this Thursday. Even more notable, three generations of a family strive to sit together and talk, not a common occurrence in the United States. The table is set for a royal feast, with all the finest pieces being used. For the children, it is a wonderful time to play with cousins without close parental supervision. Thanksgiving is above all a family occasion.

Of course, each family has its own traditions. In my family, there was a children’s table, with the symbolic presence of my great uncle who, due to a stroke, could barely speak. Various relatives brought their specialties, including my aunt who made the incredible apple and pumpkin pies. As we grew older, we children were allowed to have gin and topic as we munched on homemade guacamole. I would play hearts, the card game, with aunt and great aunt, who would curse to the great shame of her daughter and our amusement. My father would always read the Art Buchwald column on explaining Thanksgiving to the French, still a classic. Whether we children were unaware or did not care, the adults would quietly criticize each other despite their best efforts to keep their mouths shut. I think we found their remarks irrelevant and amusing. Who cares if a certain aunt does not know how to dress properly? My cousin and I would play piano, she far better as she was much more serious than I and still is. It was a special day.

I wish I had a picture to show you of those occasions. However, this is a Thanksgiving past, before the time of cell phones and, more importantly, an awareness of the importance of taking pictures on such occasion. I believe there almost everybody there has a sense that this event was a given, an occasion that would happen every year, year in, year out, and somehow exempt from the effects of time.

Alas, nothing stops time, not even Thanksgiving. The generation of my grandparents has long gone to the grave. Of my parents’ generation, only my mother (96 years old) is alive but no longer capable of preparing a feast for 4 people, let along 20+. As for the children, alas, we have drifted, geographically and/or emotionally. Some of us belong to our adopted families. I have not lived in the US for some 35 years now nor celebrated Thanksgiving in that period.

Unlike in Dickens’ book, in my case, there is no ghost of Thanksgiving present. My brother will celebrate the holiday with this wife’s family. I am not sure that I will remember that Thanksgiving is Thursday at all as there is no hint of the holiday in Israel, especially with the war going on. My mother will be alone. I do share and concur with her comment: she can live without celebrating Thanksgiving because her Thanksgivings were so wonderful. So, ghosts of Thanksgiving past are loyal friends.

To those celebrating the holiday Thursday , treasure the day even if the food is a bit heavy and the family is a bit annoying. The memories are priceless.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.

Picture credit

Non-OEM language learning

 

[brain in four parts*]

Sammuel Beckett is the exception proving the rule. While he only learned French at the university, he wrote many of his works in French, including En Attendant Godot, Waiting for Godot for those that only read English. Try to find another person, not even an author, that is equally fluent in a language only learned as an adult. My personal experience with this challenge is having lived in Israel for some 35 years in a Hebrew speaking house and having a French mother that has lived in the United States for over 70 years. As fluent as a second language can be, it is not native.  An acquired language is different from a mother tongue in terms of crossover, vocabulary retention and confidence. A second language learned as an adult is not the same as your mother tongue.

Most second-language speakers suffer from  having syntax and grammar elements from their first language incorrectly entering their adopted language. My personal bugaboo is common weather expressions in English, specifically “it is cold outside” (or hot)  because I frequently forget that Hebrew does not require the it is, i.e., the Hebrew expression translates as "cold outside".  Another example is many Israelis never switch the future to the present in future clauses, such as “when I wake up, I will call you”, which comes out “when I will wake up” as in Hebrew. Russian speakers have no intuitive understanding of which article (the and a) to use in writing English and seemingly use the lottery system in English. Even after years, language interference never completely disappears.

Over time, there is one struggle that only worsens, specifically the ability to remember words at night or at times of stress. It is amazing how difficult it is to speak a foreign language at 11:00 at night or when a customs official is asking pointed questions. Suddenly, all of your vocabulary goes into hiding, leaving you talking like an idiot (and being treated as one also). Of course, it is a rare person that can do mental arithmetic in a foreign language. Apparently, foreign languages don’t like clutch time very much

Psychologically, the greatest difference between native and acquired languages is assurance. I will dispute (and confidently do so with pedantic editors when they mark up my translations) the correctness of my English, my native language. On the other hand, it seems that the default mode with acquired languages is that the native speaker is correct, which is not always true, even when the foreigner actually studied and understands the formal rules. This feeling of “what do I know” is generally stronger than the academic knowledge of language rules. When it some to acquired languages, when in doubt, a person doesn’t know. This lack of confidence does not disappear or even dissipate with age.

Knowledge and study are two different matters, including in regard to foreign languages. What people absorb in their early years is a certainty, even if incorrect, while what they formally studied later on is a matter of doubt, even if exact. Please do not take me wrong. To acquire a language is a wonderful experience. Even if the native languages contaminates it, words seems to run and hide and we lack trust in our judgment, conversing with a person in their native language makes you a superstar and a citizen of the world even if we don’t reach the level of Sammuel Beckett.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet

Picture credits

Translator, forgive thyself

 

[English version of the Torah*]

It is said that reading the Bible can be an inspiring experience even for those who have no faith. I just had one such moment but not from the text you might expect.

To explain, I recently discovered that I had made a serious terminology translation error on a previously delivered document. Of course, I will correct the error, inform the customer and provide a revised document. Still, the fact that I had made that error upset me as I had spent considerable time trying to find an appropriate English equivalent and thought I had succeeded. I must admit that I felt disappointed in myself.

Then, this Shabbat, I happened to glance at my bookshelf and see the English Torah – the Five Books of Moses that I had received on my bar mitzvah some 50 years ago and have probably never opened since. It is the second edition of the version published by the Jewish Publication Society of America. By chance, I began to read the text on the flap, a seemingly irrelevant part of any book. However, in this case, the words took on new meaning. I quote:

“The Jewish Publication Society of American first produced its first translation of the Bible in 1917… The need for a new translation has been obvious for years….For one thing, it was considered possible – and therefore necessary to improve substantially on earlier versions in rendering both the shades of meaning of words and expressions and force of grammatical forms and constructions… The Trustees and Committees of Translators are grateful for the hundreds of suggestions and scores of reviews that this translation of the Torah has evoked… They incorporated those suggestive changes of whose need they had been convinced. Consequently, this second edition, while adhering to the same policies and principles of Bible translation that were followed in the first edition, occasionally differs from it in phrasing and sometimes in meaning.” [emphasis added]

If a group of translators and editors working together and having a liberal deadline, I assume, still produced substantial errors, is it reasonable to expect freelancers, working by themselves under tight deadlines, to be always perfect?

I forgive myself and will professionally deal with the issue. Of course, I will strive to avoid such errors. I will also admit that God or, if you prefer, fate does work in rather mysterious ways.

* Picture captions help the blind fully access the Internet.