Joel M. Hoffman > Quotes

“Sweetbread is not sweet and it’s not bread.”
― Joel M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

“English speakers will readily agree that dogs and cats do not end with the same sound once that fact is pointed out, but most will not realize it for themselves. Likewise, in Spanish, too, the pronunciation of the letter s differs from word to word. And in Russian, the pronunciation of the letter g (Γ) differs from word to word (though, admittedly, the Russian g is somewhat anomalous, in that most Russian letters show less variation from word to word); the pronunciation of the vowels also varies considerably from word to word. The imperfect match between sounds and letters in these languages reflects the fact that even native speakers often do not understand the sounds of their langauge.”
― Joel M. Hoffman, In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language

“A severe example is the common modern American phrase “I could care less,” which, it turns out, means the same thing as “I couldn’t care less.”
― Joel M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

“In addition to changes in the meanings of English words, we find differences in what linguists call “register,” such as how formal language differs from informal, spoken from written, casual from stiff, etc. (We”
― Joel M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

“The most reliable way of determining what a word in a dead language means is to see how the word is used in context. Once”
― Joel M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

“Marriage is so important in modern America that we even have a legal term, “ex-wife”—and a related social term, “ex”—that applies equally to an ex-wife and to an ex-girlfriend. And because English is generally nongendered, it also refers to an ex-husband and an ex-boyfriend. (We don’t have an English verb for the feeling one has for an ex, but Russian conveniently does: razlubit’—literally, to “unlove”—is how you feel for someone you used to love. It’s like the English “falling out of love.”)”
― Joel M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning

“In his play House master, one character complains of another that “he can translate English into a Greek not spoken in Greece, and Greek into an English not spoken anywhere”).”
― Joel M. Hoffman, And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible's Original Meaning