Re: OT: Physicians for a National Health Program

["Israel \"izzy\" Cohen" <cohen.izzy@xxxxxxxxx>]

>> After you prove that the earth is round, the sky is blue and
>> there's no green cheese on the moon.

There is a valid psycholinguistic explanation for why the moon is made
of green cheese (when it is growing larger). See example 2 in this
copy of my February 2005 post:

Hebrew puns translated into other langusges

I am gathering a collection of Hebrew expressions that appear in other
languages as idioms or nonsense. Some examples are provided below,
using @ = aleph, X = het, and 3 = aiyin. I hope the members of the
list can provide additional examples.


Type 1: The translation of a Hebrew pun on a Hebrew phrase

Ex. 1:
Clear text: B'QoSHi = barely, hardly, scarcely
Heb. pun: B'3oR SHiNai (biblical book of Job verse 19:20)
English: "by the skin of my teeth"

Ex. 2:
Clear text: YaRa:aX GaVNooNi = gibbous moon
Heb. pun: YaRoK G'ViNaH
English: The moon is made of "green cheese".
[Compare the cognate in Yiddish "gebenet" = humpback]

Ex. 3:
Clear text: PeLeTZ + K'Foo = shiver, tremble + frozen (compare English
palsy)
Heb. pun: P'LiZ + KoF
English: brass monkey (weather)
(Treating P as B in Arabic, P'LiZ KoF => balls (k)off ..., hence
"cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey")

Ex. 4:
Clear text: YeReKH yod-resh-khaf = buttock, haunch, thigh
Heb. pun: YaRa:aX yod-resh-het = moon
English: to moon = to expose one's buttocks as a prank or gesture of
disrespect.

Type 2: The translation of a Hebrew pun on a phrase in another
language

Ex. 5
Latin: sopor sond = sleep soundly/deeply [compare English soporific]
Heb. pun: S'PoR TZo@N = count sheep (imperative)
English: Count sheep (to go to sleep)
[This idiom has been borrowed back into Israeli Hebrew as LiSPoR KeVeS
= to count sheep]

Ex. 6
Latin: Saccharomyces cervisae = Brewer's yeast (an ancient hangover
remedy)
Heb. pun: Sa3aR MiNSHaKH KeLeV = hair bite dog
(compare Gk Cerberus, the 3-headed dog guarding the entrance to
Hades)
English: Take "hair of the dog that bit you" (as a hangover remedy)

There are far more cases where a Hebrew phrase is transliterated (not
translated) into an [English] idiom. I can post some of these at a
later date. In the meantime, I hope to receive more translation
examples from list members.

Best regards,

Israel "izzy" Cohen
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BPMaps