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Wed 18 Feb, 2004 05:30 pm
Ok, I'm a total nerd. The above phrase is in hebrew, and it's metalinguistic - it's about language. I learned it in middle school when I was learning hebrew as the second language I ever studied, and it refers to grammatical thing or some odd rule for which I didn't know the term in English, so I called whatever it was a yotzeh min haclal no matter what language I was speaking. I tried to invent my own language shortly after, and labeled some word in it as a "yotzeh min haclal" and I can't for the life of me remember what it means. I also called the command tense "tzivui".... But if anyone here knows hebrew and would like to help me figure out what I meant, it'd be much appreciated....
Or maybe I knew it in english but thought the hebrew sounded cooler. I really can't remember.
Eek, I haven't been to Hebrew School since, um, Moses was taking 2 tablets. But I digress.
The only word I know in that group is "Ha", which means "The". As for "tziviu", is it perhaps a verb form of "Tzivivon", which is spinning top (e. g. a synonym for dreidel)?
I know that Yotzeh means fulfil...
The rest I will try to figure out, although my hebrew is confined to a few months' learning in a mostly-Jewish appartment.
I know that tzivui is the word that refers to the command tense, but there wasn't really a word in English that I thought went, so I just used tzivui. I don't know the etymology of it though. The verb form of tzivivon (which does mean dreidle) I always thought might have been ?l'tzviv or something along those lines.... but it's been a long time.
Tzivui, or imperative in English, shares a common root with mitzvah or commandment. It is transcribed by Semitists as s.wy, wherein s. stands for an s with a subscripted dot.
A dreidel, or sivivon, is part of the traditional Jewish cerebration of Hanuka. The name sivivon (the first i tends to be omitted in Israeli speeches) comes from the root sbb, which denotes rotation, going around, and being surrounded.
Are there also people here who speak Yiddish (or Ameridish, or Yinglish)? Last winter I got the book "The joys of Yiddish" from a good friend. And really, it is just so funny! Oy, what can I say?
The meaning of this prase is exception, irregular
The meaning of this prase is exception, irregular
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Yotzeh = coming out of ...
min = from (also "sex" but not in this context)
haclal = ha-clal = the rule
like saying that some thing is out of the ordinary rule.
Hi, I speak hebrew. Yotzeh min haclal means better then ordinary.
Thanks, Clubernj! Since rufio asked I have wondered what it meant.
clubernj wrote:Hi, I speak hebrew. Yotzeh min haclal means better then ordinary.
Thank you for clarifying my Jewish brethren...although born into the faith, I am not religious, and I have forgotten a LOT of Hebrew. I was curious about this phrase as well.
Would you all say that Hebrew is a difficult language to pick up?
No problem. If there are any other sayings, I will be glad to interpret.
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