Hi [new to the list, just read some archives for last ~month], I had some thoughts on the 2002-12-07+ thread on some new words by the academy (hmm, that's not a hebrew word; sorry, I couldn't ;-).
Now, I'm surely no "poretz". While I can't deny beeing "mahur lemahshevim", that misses the whole point. A hacker is one who hacks and produces hacks that others can enjoy. "etmol hitmakarti lemahshevim al <progname>" ?? "raita et hahitmakrut lemhshevim hazot?" ?!?! *Shudders*, no way! The point is not how do we say "hacker" but first how do we say "hack" in Hebrew. Any ideas? Someone suggested to translate the jargon file. It seemed sort of passing remark on the unrelevance of the academy but I think it's a very deep point. The academy deos its job as well as it manages (which is sometimes very bad ;) but it principally can't fulfil the role of a Jargon File in Hebrew. The file grew from deep inside the hackers community itself and systematically documents what hackers actually use (and all the subtle reasons and humour behind it). >From this point of view, it's just as valuable to say that Israelis use "lekampel'" much more than "lehader" (because the later, while not bad, sounds too much like an optimizer not a compiler). [This is just an example, I might be wrong here on other's usage]. The trouble with Hebrew word formation is that doing it right is like writing a brilliant hack. It must sound well and catch all little meaning shades. The fact that the words already come from english with much sub-context doesn't help... Nobody but the Israeli hackers community can come up with great Hebrew words for them. And a central point like the Jargon File could be very useful. I live here but having read the Jargon File (and read enough mails and posts in English), I actually know english jargon usage much better than Hebrew usage! Perhaps there is not enough of it (because communcation tends to be in English) - that makes a central resource even more important. I'm thiking along the lines of having online something starting with e.g. the Jargon File, with a forum/wiki/etc. attached to each word (+ ability to add words without English counterparts). Better yet, the forum will be bi-directionally gatewayed into an archived mailing list, with some agreed special markup signalling that "this message is relavant to words X,Y,Z"... So the web thing will be an archive/search on steroids for the mailing list's discussion. This way, a documentation of Hebrew words used/invented by hackers will slowly be formed. It would help people understand the subtle issues (good or bad) with existing words and the requirements for inventing new words and maybe could speed up the invention of good hebrew words. Comments? Do you think such a project could fly? P.S. "mara d-atra" was brilliant! -- Beni Cherniavsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Holy resolution for a holy war: the Torah stores most numbers as little-endian (e.g. "seven and twenty and a hundred years")! ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
