Rosh ha-Shanah * الإضافة * סמיכות * construct form * ראש השנה * رأس السنة

I keep hearing the English phrase "the Jewish New Year" so much that I forget to translate Rosh ha-Shanah literally: Head of the Year. Rosh ha-Shana is example of the construct form, called smikhut in Hebrew and idaafa in Arabic.

In English, we use "of" to show the hierarchical relationship between the two nouns, "head"and "year." In Hebrew and Arabic, the relationship becomes hierarchical when the first noun is indefinite and the second is definite, i.e. the first noun has no "ha" (the) and the second does.

Are there cultural or theological reasons that the Hebrew expression is not "Shana Khadasha," New Year? Certainly, I've heard the Israeli expression, "Shanah M'tuka," [Have a] Sweet Year, so there is no aversion to alternate greetings.

Perhaps the Jewish view of time as cyclic, rather than linear, means that no year is ever new. Rosh ha-Shanah occurs at the end of the current year, so* marks the starting point for this year's particular instantiation. This point is the time of year when accountings are made, measured, and perhaps expunged. The time often coincides with the US Federal fiscal year. Neither the US fiscal year start date of October 1st nor Rosh ha-Shanah resembles the January 1st celebration of the "New Year."

* The reasoning behind the "so" escapes me.

prayers for rain - http://www.youngisrael.org/index.cfm

לשנה טובה תכתב l-shanah tovah tikatev

May you be written and inscribed for a good year!

Generally, I hear "shana tovah" or "l'shava tova tikatev" or "shana m'tuka" and not the whole greeting and blessing.

There are four forms. You guessed it--masculine, feminine, and then plural for each. You will need the last form (feminine plural) if you are addressing roomful of your female relatives, students, or army recruits. I mean, when else would you encounter an exclusively female group?

Should I expand this page to a wiki, so I wouldn't have to do so much typing?

לשנה טובה תכתב l-shanah tovah tikatev

tikatevi

tikatevu

tikatevn=something

next week i'a: may you be sealed for a good year!

Merger of Hebrew and Arabic

Dr. Faruq Mawasi documents a merger of Hebrew and Arabic termed variously irbiyya, Hirbia, and irvit, which is akin to Spanglish (page 126, Stavans)

Language distribution in Israel - from Amharic to Yevanic

Ilan Stavans' Resurrecting Hebrew (Schocken 2008) quotes Bar Ilan's Professor Bernard Spolsky (page 78), who cites his language policy work analyzing the 1983 census question on language, From Monolingual to Multilingual? Educational Language Policy in Israel by Elana Shohamy and Bernard Spolsky (2002, Tel Aviv University) and cites work done in the 90's.

approximately

4,500,000 Israelis are estimated to have functional competence in Hebrew (500,000 or 9% as a second language)

910,000 speakers of Palestinian Arabic and

1,600,000 speakers of Arabic in Gaza and the West Bank

800,000 of Russian

485,000 of Judeo-Arabic (which includes Moroccan Judeo-Arabic, Iraqi Judeo-Arabic, Yemeni Judeo-Arabic, Tunisian Judeo-Arabic, Tripolitanian Judeo-Arabic)

250,000 of Rumanian

215,000 of Yiddish

200,000 of French

100,000 of English first-language users

100,000 of Spanish

60,000 of Hungarian

60,000 of Persian

60,000 of Amharic

50,000 of other languages of the former Soviet Union

200,000 of other languages of foreign workers ; 300,000 according to Haaretz (July 2009)

and an unspecified number of speakers of

Ladino, Polish, German, Judeo-Persona (Dzidi) Bukaric, Judeo-Georgian, Judeo-Tat(Juduri), Judeo-Neo-Aramaic, Bulgarian, Turkish, Indian languages, Tigrinya, Italian, Israeli Sign Language, Portuguese, Circassian (Adyghe), Armenian, Dutch, Greek, Serbian, Czech, Judeo-Berber, Aramaic, and Judeo-Greek (Yevanic).

Why and Wherefore / למה ומדוע

[madu'a מדוע, la-mah למה]
"In Hebrew, there are two expressions for 'why' - madua and lamah. Madua means Mah dei'ah - What do I learn from this? And Lamah means 'L'Mah? - To what end?' How do I grow and become better from this?"

from Nothing is as simple as it looks, by Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis (Sep 23 2009)

Others have also asked "why and why": http://translate.google.co

m/translate_s?hl=en&clss=&q=why+and+why&tq=&sl=en&tl=iw

Jonah and the Whale Song (tune: I had a little dreidel)

This has more to do with Judaism in pre-school than with the Hebrew language, but I can't find the lyrics to this particular version on the internet. Here's a linguistic angle: Nineveh / נינוה lies within modern-day Mosul / الموصل‎ in Iraq. What better time than the week of Rosh Chodesh Elul / ראש חדש אלול to transcribe this ? (tune) Thanks to Morah Chana and Morah Cha-Cha.

There was a man named Jonah.
He was swallowed by a whale.
He did tshuva for three days and nights
and lived to tell the tale.

Refrain:
Oh Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,
was swallowed by a whale.
Oh Jonah, Jonah, Jonah,
he lived to tell the tale.

There was a man named Jonah.
Hashem sent him to Ninveh.
The people there were wicked
and had to change their way.

Refrain

But Jonah didn't listen.
To a ship he ran away.
So, Hashem sent a great big storm
to help Jonah to obey.

Refrain

So Jonah did Teshuva in the belly of the whale.
Hashem gave him one more chance,
this time he did not fail.

Refrain.

A pre-schooler's version of the story of Jonah and the Big Fish :
Hashem told Jonah to go to Ninveh and tell the King that the people were wicked. Jonah was afraid the people of Ninveh would hurt him so he ran away and bought a ticket on a boat. There was a big storm and the people on the boat drew sticks. Jonah got the black stick and told the people on the boat that he didn't listen to Hashem. They threw him overboard and Jonah was swallowed by a whale. He did Tehsuvah for three days and Hashem gave him one more chance to listen. Then Jonah went to Ninveh and told the King the people had to stop being wicked.