Comparison of several words in Hebrew with and without vowels.*
Translation is the art and skill of translating an idea in one language
to another language while both faithfully transmitting the various levels of
meaning of the source language text and respecting the integrity of the target
language. As each language is unique, even if they sound similar, such as
Spanish and Italian, this conversion of ideas can be sometimes quite
challenging, even incomplete. It is not always possible to full capture the
layers of the word or create a seamless text. For example, in Dostoevsky’s Crime
and Punishment, the Russian word сознающий [soznayushi] implies both knowledge
and conscience, a combined meaning difficult to transmit into English (and
vital for the story). Clearly each language has its unique aspects that pose
challenges to the translator. For example, modern Hebrew is a both very young
and very old, in linguistic terms, Semitic language. This affects its alphabet,
vocabulary, structure and registers.
The first aspect of Hebrew that strikes non-readers is its alphabet,
which initially appears alien. However, fundamentally, it is not difficult to
learn how to recognize and read Hebrew letters. The process of learning a
foreign alphabet is essentially a mechanical process, a matter of practice, not
actually cognitive. The difficulty with Hebrew letters for a new learner and an
experienced translator alike is the fact that in most text the vowels sounds
are not presented, i.e., the reader is given the consonants only and is assumed
to be able to insert the right sounds. As Hebrew words follow strict rules in
terms of form, it is possible to most cases to properly ascertain the sounds, such
as a short or long e or a. The greatest challenge comes with
foreign words, especially names, that are transcribed into Hebrew and don’t
follow established patterns. For example, a drug begins with a short a,
as in tap, or a short e, as in bed, would both begin with the
letter aleph. It requires to knowledge or research to discover the
original name in English unless the vowels are marked, which is rare. When I
receive a “simple” birth or marriage certificate to translate into English, I
often have no idea how to spell many of the names, which are extremely
idiosyncratic by nature. Thus, the challenge of the Hebrew alphabet is not in
what is seen, but what is not seen.
One characteristic of Semitic languages, which include Hebrew and
Arabic, is their extreme genderification. All nouns and personal pronouns,
singular and plural, reflect gender. There is no way to express neutrality. For
example, if the staff at an elementary school has 20 female teachers and 1 male
teacher, teacher being a neutral word in English, in Hebrew, the writer
must decide whether to apply the standard rule, the masculine gender applies
for all mixed groups, or the minority approach that majority rules, the
feminine form in this case. Since the verb also reflects the gender, in
academic writing, the translator must find out who exactly is A. Jones
in order to insert the right form of the verb. My wife, a medical translator,
has a whole series of tricks to figure this out but it can be a very
time-consuming task. The fun really kicks in second-person texts, including questionnaires
and marketing materials, where the translator has to understand who the
potential audience is and find an elegant way to address it. For example, since
there are men that suffer from breast cancer, the masculine form may be
appropriate in some medical forms. Sex is everything in Hebrew and complicated.
Almost uniquely, Hebrew is both an ancient and new non-Latin-based
language. Its root date some 23 centuries but its modern form is not even 150
years old. In terms of vocabulary, this ancient past and newness create some
strange versions of rich and poor. On the one hand, some areas of activity have
numerous words, including putting on a piece of clothing, each type with its
own verb, and types of rain, depending on when it falls. On the other hand,
while English has effective and efficient, two clearly distinct
meanings, pure Hebrew has only one word, יעיל [ya’il],
leaving the translator to use a borrowed English word, effectivi, or use
multiple words, a less than elegant solution. Starting off with such a limited
pool of words for modern concepts, Hebrew is still in its lexical growth
period, adding words at an incredible pace and creating numerous disputes on
which Hebrew-rooted word should be used to describe the concept or whether an
English word recognized by most Israelis should be applied. This uncertainty
forces translators to choose between readability, the understood English
borrowing, or purity, the new Hebrew word, if it exists at all. In terms of
vocabulary, the lexical earth for a Hebrew translator is not very stable.
Finally, there is the curious issue of register. More established
societies, almost without exceptions, have social classes. The relations
between these social classes are reflected in the form of address and
vocabulary. Examples of distinction include titles, such Mr. and Mrs., use of
first names, different forms of the word “you” and the choice of active or
passive structure. Israel is a young society essentially composed of
generations of landless, poor immigrants of all religions.
This economic equality was reinforced by a socialistic/communistic ethos of the
rejection of European formalism. Thus, everybody from the youngest to oldest is
addressed by their first name without titles. In fact, the best way to shock,
if not insult, a woman is to call her “giveret”, Ms. Her reaction probably
would be “What, do I look that old?” Not only that, having such a small number
of roots, there are simply almost no sources for alternative “high-fulutin”
alternatives, except for the Bible, which, alas, is to modern Hebrew what
Shakespearean English is to modern English, artificial (except in certain
subgroups). So, Hebrew essentially has really only one register, so different
from more complex and older societies.
These features of Hebrew are far from negative. They enrich the language
and process of working to and from it. Translators enjoy their job specifically
because it involves the effort in finding the right turn-of-phrase that
transmits the idea to the target language in the best possible way, even if
something often gets lost in translation. In point of fact, translators are no
less writers than the original writers, especially when working with Hebrew.
* As my friend from yesteryear Len Burns has reminded me, blind people also should be able to know what the picture is. Please label your pictures.
