File extensions (e.g. the .doc and .txt in document.doc and writing.txt) have always reminded me of Hebrew verbal roots. 1) They usually have three letters in them (exe, txt, doc, jpg, bmp, wav, mp3, dll, png, mp4, avi, mid, htm, gif, ini, I could go on forever), but they do sometimes have 4 letters (html, jpeg, tiff) and occasionally particular programs have their own variants of arbitrary length, anything from .u (UnrealScript classes) to the rather specific .Civ5Save (no explanation needed). Similarly, most of the time Hebrew words have a root of 3 letters, with 4 letters being used occasionally too. There are also 3 letter roots where one of the letters is weak (like a semi-vowel or something) and doesnt always manifest, and so the word in some sense only has two root letters. There are also modern coinages with 5 or even 6 root letters where consonant clusters act as single letters (e.g. לטרנספר = letransfer = to transfer , conjugated like a piel verb with the root effectively being tr-ns-f-r). 2) File extensions often look like txt spk abbreviations of real words to fit the 3 letter requirement: txt = text bmp = bitmap doc = document And yeah, they quite often dont have vowels in them (jpg, dll). This reminds me even further of Hebrew roots because they are also entirely made out of consonants. In fact, when they borrow words from English to use as verbs, they devowel them and but them into a binyan which preserves the consonant clusters. (e.g. הקליק = hiklik = to click, putting the root k-l-k into hifil).
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 09:05:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015