[Multilingual Monday] English effects on Hebrew; Tricky German
Reimmersing myself in the world of Modern Israeli Hebrew, I've noticed that English has quite an effect on the language. You can see it in nouns (מודם, "modem"; אינטרנט, "internet"; טלפון, "telephone"; דיאלוג, "dialogue"; שמפו, "shampoo", all pronounced more-or-less the same as in English; ברייקסים, breiksim, "brakes" (on a car); לוקיישונים, lokeishonim, "locations"), to verbs (לטרפד, letarped, "to torpedo"; לדסקס, ledaskes, "to discuss"; לזפזף, lezepzep, "to zap through TV stations"), but then I saw a compound verb form a la English.
At least, I assume it's from English; I can't actually confirm this, but I know for a fact that this is NOT Semitic grammar nor found in the Torah or any works until late revival period. See the sentence אני הולך לנסוע, ani holex linso, "I am going to travel." That's literally what it says. A substitute for the actual future in Hebrew (which in this case would be simply אסע, esa. While the "I am going to x" form is easier to produce -- you only need to know how to conjugate "to go" in the present tense and then add an infinitive -- the obvious brevity of the real future, though much trickier to conjugate, can't be overstated.
I'm VERY curious to see when this form started being used -- it's common enough that even Rosetta Stone, once you get to the future, gives you the "going to" form, rather than the actual future. Since I have very little actual knowledge of this formation, I can't say for sure what other differences in nuance, etc., there may be between the two... anyone? :: laugh ::
On a different note: I admittedly get stuck on words found in the German language that seem to be used everywhere yet with varying -- if any -- meaning. Though it's on about.com, I found this to be a great article on troublesome words like doch: take a looksee.
At least, I assume it's from English; I can't actually confirm this, but I know for a fact that this is NOT Semitic grammar nor found in the Torah or any works until late revival period. See the sentence אני הולך לנסוע, ani holex linso, "I am going to travel." That's literally what it says. A substitute for the actual future in Hebrew (which in this case would be simply אסע, esa. While the "I am going to x" form is easier to produce -- you only need to know how to conjugate "to go" in the present tense and then add an infinitive -- the obvious brevity of the real future, though much trickier to conjugate, can't be overstated.
I'm VERY curious to see when this form started being used -- it's common enough that even Rosetta Stone, once you get to the future, gives you the "going to" form, rather than the actual future. Since I have very little actual knowledge of this formation, I can't say for sure what other differences in nuance, etc., there may be between the two... anyone? :: laugh ::
On a different note: I admittedly get stuck on words found in the German language that seem to be used everywhere yet with varying -- if any -- meaning. Though it's on about.com, I found this to be a great article on troublesome words like doch: take a looksee.