Sunday, February 04, 2007

The grammar of "blogging in Hebrew"

On Shabbat while talking to a neighbor in Hebrew (I am in Shiloh, Israel) I said:


בלוגתי על
blogti al...
I blogged about...

I felt that "to blog" should be translated as לבלוג l'blog and conjugated as קל kal, the "simple." It works fine in past tense, but I don't like it in present tense. It's easier to say:

אני עושה בלוגינג. אני כותבת על
Ani osah blogging. Ani kotevet al...
I "do" blogging; I write about...

That's the same structure and rhymes with what's said for "jogging."

In future tense it's easiest to just say:
אני אכתוב בבלוג שלי על
Ani echtov b'blog sheli al...
I'll write on my blog about...

Of course I have to explain what a blog is. I end up just saying that I have a free internet site.

How ironic for me to be dealing with innovative Hebrew.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like!

It's more fun to have actual Hebrew words written properly in posts, but unfortunately, some computers can't display Hebrew fonts. Such is life.

YMedad said...

A glossary of useful hebrew blog terms can be found here:
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/10/ART1/023/030.html
I did a quick check and it seems "blog" isn't used as a verb.

Here's another collection of Hebrew computer terms:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3078958,00.html (there are two parts, 55 words in all)

The suggestion for blog in hebrew is רשומון

Batya said...

Languages do grow.
לפקסס is in פיעל
"l'faxceis" to fax, is in "pi'el"
Who knows what will be the normative Hebrew term for blogging in a few years?

Esser Agaroth said...

B"H (sigh) OY! Maybe we can ask the Hebrew Language academy for an official Hebrew word or phrase.

Ya'acov Y. in Shilo, whom you know, whose father was a member of the academy may be a good resource.

How about ma'amarit b'reshet for "blog entry?" Or rishtonit? Or something like that? ;-)

Batya said...

Link this post and blog about it.

Alex said...

YMedad, I think רשומון would have to be the term for a blog entry which each reader perceives in their own, mutually contradictory, fashion! (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashomon_effect)

Batya said...

makes sense to me,
good translation of "post"

YMedad said...

Actually, I was just quoting the official source. The word for a "blog post" could be רישום. SMS is מסירון.

Batya said...

Once there are more Hebrew speakers blogging in Hebrew, we'll see how they talk about it.