Ever since I became an English teacher, only ten plus years ago, I've become even more conscious and sensitive to word usage. My mind remembers all sorts of grammar and usage rules. I can hardly match my students' names to faces, except in the smallest groups, but I can tell you where and when I learned the difference between בגלל and -מפני ש (because and because of-) and when they should be used. Of course, 99% of Hebrew speakers don't follow the rules, but I do.
I'm also very sensative to the sounds of words. So when I heard about רקטות התפוצצו "rackettot hitpotzetzu," cute little rockets self-exploded, on the TV news, while I was scrubbing the floors, before Shabbat Purim, I called to my husband who was on the computer:
"Send me an email saying רקטות התפוצצו "rackettot hitpotzetzu," so I remember to write about it after Shabbat!"
Yes, this is it.
Rackettot are kassams, primitive but deadly rockets developed by the Arabs who want to destroy the State of Israel. They launch these weapons at innocent Israeli civilians. This has been going on for years already. It began before Disengagement, when Israel banished/exiled/evacuated/transferred thousands of peaceful innocent Israelis from their homes, communities, businesses, schools, etc in Gush Katif for nothing. Not for peace. It was a unilateral withdrawal. That means that nothing was demanded or agreed in return. It was just to attempt to weaken the Land of Israel loyalists.
The Arabs have been launching kassams at Gush Katif and nearby Sderot before Disengagement. The Jews of Gush Katif held firm and refused to flee. G-d was good, G-d has been good, because amazingly few Israelis have been murdered by the Arab-launched kassams. As bad as it has been, it could have been much worse. It could be much worse.
I get very upset when I hear the word "rackettot" instead of kassams, because it makes those dangerous weapons sound like toys.
And what bothered me about the phrase התפוצצו hitpotzetzu? It's in the reflexive, as if the kassams have some independent control. I'd prefer using the stronger and more accurate פיעל pi'el, which would be used to say that the Arab-launched kassam exploded a house, destroying....
Do I read too much into the nuances of the news? If Israel had balanced news, then maybe you'd be right. But Israel's media ranges from Far Left to Extreme Left. When they bring in an opposition leader, he's from the fringe Left, like Meretz. They very, very rarely give Bibi or Steinitz, of Likud, opportunities to speak, and they're Centrist. So Right leaders, like Arieh Eldad, don't have a chance.
There was a time we thought that Arutz 7 would really try to be an alternative news media, but after their radio was shut down, they've made do with the internet, and that's it, no real TV or radio. So along with them on the internet and we bloggers, also on the internet, that's pretty much it.
I feel like I'm running my own independent "newspaper" here. I even have a few other writers who contribute their words of wisdom.
If you have any other examples of words, phrases, grammar used to distort the truth, please let me know in comments.
Shavua Tov
Shushan-Shiloh Purim Sameach
6 comments:
Very interesting. It reminds me of newspapers refering to suicide bombers as 'militants' or even 'activists'.
Exactly. Not just the nouns, labels and adjectives. It would make a great doctorate thesis in linguistics, would't it?
While you might not like the sounds of the words -- "cutesiness" is about as subjetive as any other benchmarks -- the Hebrew terms are correct and appropriate, mostly.
If one is a stickler for correct Hebrew terms, then "missiles" or "kassams" would probably be best describes as טילים - tilim. But once one accepts the adoption in Hebrew of English words, "rockets" is correctly pluralized as רקטות, regardless of how it may evoke an image of children's toys to individual Anglo listeners (but not this one).
התפוצץ is the correct term for any device that explodes, i.e. blows itself up. The active verb, פוצץ, could be applied to a bomb sapper that blows something else up, or perhaps even to a countdown timer connected to something explosive.
While I agree with some of the political sentiments expressed, there is clearly no linguistic conspiracy to encourage any particular point of value.
Both "raketa" and "kassam" are non-Hebrew, but they have very different feels to them. When a rocket התפוצץ, it could do so harmlessly in the air or open field.
Very interesting post. For several years, the New York Times has been describing the rockets as "homemade", "crude", "inaccurate", and "mostly harmless". I guess they came to the "inaccurate and mostly harmless" conclusion by dividing the amount of rockets fired by the amount of people injured/killed.
By that formula, the roadside bombs that have been killing U.S. troops in Iraq could also be described as "homemade, crude, inaccurate, and mostly harmless", since there are many more bombs that don't work/go off than there are successful attacks.
Instead, these bombs are referred to as "indigenously produced improvised explosive devices". Sounds much more serious.
"Homemade" are the kind of cookies your mother bakes. Nothing to worry about when it's "homemade."
good points
and we're punished by the world, because of the miracles
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