ShoReSh -- SoReS -- SoRS -- SouRCe

The language of the Torah, what we called "Hebrew," is also known as "Lashon haQodesh" -- "The Holy Tongue."  The Torah tradition regards this language as the first language, a divinely architectured language, a language that lies at the root of all other languages.  Based on this tradition, we are not surprised to find words in other languages that hint at their Hebrew roots (for example, the title of this post).  This is too extensive a topic for me to explore here in depth, but I do recommend a fascinating article on the subject entitled "Edenspeak" by a Hebrew University linguist (whose name escapes me) that is available on the Internet (just do a search).  (Forgive me.  It is not out of laziness that I don't do the search myself and offer a link here; I no longer have web access and can only update this blog via e-mail.)

 

I just wanted to share a thought I had today about a word in English that I believe fits this paradigm.

 

The Hebrew word "yoneq" (root: Yud-Nun-Quph) literally means "suckling babe," related to the word "tinoq," meaning "baby," from the same root.  ("Linoq" is the infinitive verb, "to suckle.")  However, both words are used euphemistically to refer to all young children in both Hebrew and Aramaic, as in the Hebrew phrase, "tinoqoth shel beth raban," (literally, "babies of the rabbinic academy") meaning "school-children," or the Aramaic word "yanqutha," meaning "youth" or "childhood."

 

It is therefore my belief that this Hebrew word is the source for the English word... (drumroll...)

 

"Young" - The "Y" and "N" consonants are obviously derived from the "yud" and "nun" Hebrew sounds.  As for the "G" consonant, both the "g" sound and the "q/k" sound are produced in the back of the mouth through contact between the tongue and the palette and are therefore easily interchanged.  As a result, the original Hebrew "quph" sound was corrupted into a "g."  (This phonetic similarity between the Q and the G is also presumably the reason for the similarity in their written forms:  q  g  )

 

 

Here's another Hebrew/English similarity which indicates at least a biblical root for an English idiom:

 

Shemoth (Exodus) 27:1-2: "You shall make the altar of cedar wood . . . and you shall cover it with nechosheth."

 

The word "nechosheth" is often translated as "copper," but it can also be translated as "bronze."  (See.Marcus Jastrow's Dictionary of the Talmud)

 

Rashi explains why Israel was commanded to cover the altar with this material:

 

"and you shall cover it with nechosheth" - "to atone for bold-facedness (azuth metzach) as it says: 'Your brow is nechushah' (Yishayah/Isaiah 48:4)."

 

"Your brow is nechushah" could be translated as, "Your brow is copper," or, according to our suggestion, "Your brow is bronze."

 

In addition, if I am not mistaken, the word "brazen" means "bronze-like," and if so, the verse would be read, "Your brow is brazen," and as Rashi points out, this material represents stubbornness.  In English as well when one is described as "brazen," it means one is bold, stubborn or chutzpadik.  We have, then, a startling parallel between the English and Hebrew idiom for boldness or stubbornness -- in both languages, this attribute is described as "brazenness," literally compared to this particular metal!  This is likely not coincidence, and is either another demonstration of the phenomenon described above, of all languages tracing themselves back to a Hebrew root, or is just another example of a modern idiom with a biblical source (similar to "the writing on the wall" from the book of Daniel).

 

 

One more really cool example of Hebrew as the source of all language, from a recorded lecture by Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz entitled, "Paradox of the Spirit":

 

The Hebrew word for water is "mayim."  Mayim is a plural noun, as is apparent not only from the "-im" ending, but also when we consider that "cold water" is "mayim karim"  and "hot water" is "mayim chamim," karim and chamim being the plural forms of the adjectives "cold" and "hot."

 

That being the case, what is the singular form of the word?

 

The answer is: the word "mah," meaning "what."  "Mayim," then, means, "whats."  This is the definition of the word for water, since water has no apparent definable essence.  It has no color; it has no taste.  It has no independent form; it takes on the form of the vessel that holds it.  "What" is "water."

 

Rabbi Tatz points out that we can detect this definition of the word for water even in other languages, since they all derive from Hebrew.  For example, in English, the word "what" and the word "water" are phonetically very close.  So too in German: "Vos" and "Vasser."  Even in Latin: "Qua" and "Aqua"!

 

Kind of gives you the Hebrew-Jee-Beez, doesn't it?