No laughing matter

Words can express their meaning not only by an arbitrary process of defining them, but also in the sounds and facial expressions they produce.  The first is known as onomatopoeia while the second has no name of which I am aware. 

Some classic examples in English for the former are to meow and squeak, the sounds that cats and rusty wheels make, respectively.   If you wish to see a full chart of animal sounds, I recommend the following site: http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/animal.html.  I have to note that Hungarian cats make strange noises!

Smiling requires many facial muscles as anybody who has waited for a baby to make his/her first smile would know.  In English, the mi in “smile” widens the mouth perfectly while the rire in the French “sourire” does the same.  The Hebrew חיוך [hi’ukh] and Russian улыбка [ulibka] create their smile from the last syllable also.  Similarly, laughing is a generally a happy matter.  Ignoring the difficulty of spelling it, the final f sound in “laugh” forces the lips to open as does the long e sound in the French “rire”.  The Hebrew צחוק [tzhok] ends a mouth-opening long o and k sound.  Of course, nothing beats the Russian words for laugh and laughter хахатать (hahatatz] and смех [smyeoch], which provides examples of both onomatopoeia and face forming words. 

So, next time you learn now to say something as important as laughing or smiling, remember that the choice of words is a serious affair.

Expressionist Fruits and Vegetables

The food we eat is not only concrete, but also abstract, not referring to the state of its ripeness.  Since fruit and vegetables are such a part of our daily life, they have entered our language also.

In a loving family, a person can refer to his/her significant other as a sweet pumpkin and child as the apple of his eye.  By contrast, being a couch potato is bad while being a vegetable is tragic.  A Georgia Peach is one of the special pretty girls from the American South, with bright red cheeks (at least in my imagination).  It is obvious that one should not buy a lemon because it is a very bad car.  Someone who lets out a raspberry in public is embarrassed by the smell and can drive people bananas or crazy.  It will definitely get you into a pickle, a difficult situation.

French also has its green-based expressions.  Mon chou-chou is a wonderful endearment which literally means my little cabbage. I suppose that it is no more illogical than calling someone a pumpkin.  A woman referred to as a pruneau, a plum, is not flattered as it means that she has many wrinkles.  A bad movie is a navet, a turnip, while raconter les salades means telling lies, literally telling lettuces.  If you don’t have any radis, radishes, you are broke.  (My appreciation to http://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-7627.php for some of the French terms.)

I would be interested in hearing about other imaginative uses of fruits and vegetables.

Haves and Haves Not

The verb to have seems like a such basic thing.  Every language must have one, of course?  Actually, while the Latin-based languages do, other languages have invented others ways to signal possession.

While the English to have and the French avoir are possessive verbs in themselves, Russian and Hebrew used somewhat complex structures: у меня есть [u menya yest] and יש לי [yesh li], literally meaning there is to me.  Somehow the existential verb to be gets involved, with the possessor being marked as an object, not a subject of the sentence.

The situation becomes much hotter (or colder) when viewing how people feel. The straightforward English I am cold become J’ai froid [I have cold] in French, мне холодно [mene holodno] or קר לי [kar li] cold to me in Russian and Hebrew, respectively.

As for eating, in English, one has breakfast, lunch, and dinner whereas, in French and Hebrew, people more logically eat those meals.  Russian is the most efficient by having specific verbs:  завтракать [zavtrakatz] and обедать [obedatz].

An unsuspecting American or Brit risks ridicule by saying Je suis plein(e) after a meal, literally translating I am full, unless it is a woman, who may be congratulated.  The French phrase means I am pregnant.

I’ll leave on that note and hope that you have a good day.

Cooking up words in English

As cooking shows have become such a major part of television, at least in Israel on Friday, cooking vocabulary has become more widely used and required.  For those who would like to understand what the fat man with the spoon is saying, here is a list of terms:

Cooking is using heat to prepare the main part of the meal while baking is using the oven to prepare desserts and breads, although there are some baked main courses.

A low flame on the gas is called sauté while an even lower one is called to simmer; frying is cooking over a flame with a decent amount of oil; deep frying has enough oil to cover the item, as in French fries or chips; wokking refers to cooking with a semi-cylinder shaped iron pan with little oil, but at a high temperature (as compared to walking the dog, of course, which can be done every day).  

Seering means either using the broiler or gas to cook the outside of a meat to seal its flavor.  Roasting is cooking in the oven.  Broiling is using the top burner only, convenient when it is too cold or rainy to barbeque. 

A pot roast is placing meat in a pot with some juice and cooking over the gas.  Poaching is cooking fish in a pan filled with water.  (Poached salmon is not by definition illegal unless you poach poached salmon.)

Flambé involves lighting alcohol with sugar to create a caramel sauce over a dessert. 

If you are hungry, go prepare some food!

You and Your Country

People are sometimes identified by their country of origin. The question is what you call them.  In many languages, the native noun has a predicable form based on the name of the country.  However, due to the wide variety of endings on country names, it is sometimes difficult to predict how to name the person.

In English, if a country ends in a or o, the person generally ends in an.  People from Liberia and Morocco are called Liberians and Moroccans.  In some cases, the suffix ian is used, as for Argentineans and Canadians.  Ese is occasionally used as in having dinner with a Chinese and a Portuguese.

Some nationality nouns use the country as a base form and take off some letters, as in Turks, Germans, and Greeks.  There are suffixes that are used in rare cases.  Ard is only found in Spaniards, while “i’  is used for Israelis, Iraqis, and Bengalis. People from Latvia and Finland are Letts and Finns, respectively.  Some natives don’t even have a special form, using the country name as an adjective.  People from France, Ireland, and Britain are known as Frenchmen (or women), Irishmen, and Englishmen, although the latter may be called Brits.  Then, there are the Dutch, who come from the Netherlands. 

Aside from the official name of the nationality, there are nicknames, some of them derogatory and some not.  Canadians are sometimes called Canucks (I don’t know whether they like it or not) whereas an older term for Brits is Limeys, since they were the first to have the sailors eat lime juice to avoid scurvy.  To the best of my knowledge, Australians have no problems being Aussies, although New Zealanders hate being called such since they are definitely not that.

 If you don’t know what you are, check the dictionary.  Personally, I am an Israeli, American, and Frenchman with a little bit Iraqi from my previous marriage and can be found under the term ethnic salad.

Holidays in the Holy Land

Reality is often quite ironic.  In the Western World, the only place where almost everybody is working on Jesus’ birthday is in the place he was born.  Throughout Europe and the United States, people will be taking this Sunday off, with only a few luckless individuals having to work.  (I have worked holidays;  Even the extra pay does not make it feel better.) Just in Israel, the birthplace of Jesus, is Sunday a regular working day, albeit with the kids off for Hanukah.  Not only that, there is no sign of snow or reindeers here, not mention, aside from a few Christian villages, any sound of Christmas carols.

In fact, the winter solstice holiday in Israel remains pleasantly banal.  People go to work, unless they work in high tech or some other industry so tied to Europe and the United States that it makes no sense for a business to remain open.  Every night until Wednesday, a candle will be lit and a few short prayers and songs sung in honor of Hanukah.  The Moslems and Druze have no holiday at this time.  So, they conduct business as usual.  The Christians will spend their holiday with their families, but it is not a very public celebration in most places. 

In fact, the most significant signs that there is any holiday at all are the omnipresent sufganiot [doughnuts], the smell of levivot [potato pancakes], and malls packed with kids and teenagers trying to spend their money as fast as they can.  They of course are quite happy to be excused from school for a week, the exact same feeling their teachers have. 

On the bright side, people in Israel are not assaulted by fat men wearing red clothing, a constant background of cheerful songs, the pangs of guilt and foot pain involved in buying gifts, and a week of too much alcohol and food, not to mention fascinating small talk.  This is almost a normal week. For us freelancers, we have two weeks of being in great demand as our colleagues in the West are generally busy socializing. 

Still, I would not protest if someone offered me an eggnog, nice and strong of course, and sang once, but only once, and in key Little Drummerboy.  Aside from that, I prefer the Israeli version of the holiday atmosphere.  It is quite possible that Jesus would feel at home with it.

Baseball and the English Language

Every language is shaped by the experience of its speakers.  The sea and (European) football have shaped England.  Ranching and its wilderness experience have shaped Australia.  One of the strongest influences on modern American language is sport.  While American football and basketball attract more fans per game, American baseball attracts more people per season and strongly impacts the language.

If life throws you a curveball, you have an unpleasant surprise.  A person who is called a minor leaguer does not get much respect.  If you strike you, you had no success.  Speaking of scoring, teenagers used to refer to a date’s progress by how far the boy got, i.e. a kiss was first base while the mythical homerun was generally a lie at that age.   A ballpark figure is an approximate number while a bleacher bum is an uneducated, boorish individual who is always criticizing.  If your batting average is poor, you are not successful most of the time.  A person who tries hard until the bitter (or maybe happy) end knows that It isn’t over until the fat lady sings.  A screwball is a completely strange person.   The world series is where the best play each other

So, whether you like watching baseball or not, baseball is a part of America’s language.