Swish

[shirei_shibolim]

Since it's coming up, I'd like to make a quick PSA:

It's pronounced Tu Bishvat. Not B'Shvat, or anything like that. Bishvat.

Comments

[hatam_soferet]

Ha, every time I see a ¬(Tu Bishvat) announcement I think of you saying this.

[shirei_shibolim]

What is that symbol before the opening parenthesis?

[hatam_soferet]

I don't remember its name. It negates.

[shirei_shibolim]

Got it. In high school, when I last studied symbolic logic, we used ~.

[margavriel]

Im kvar prescriptive, then "tu vishvat" or "tu vishvot".

If not, then just be descriptive.

[shirei_shibolim]

I tend to be prescriptive within the bounds of a language's contemporary behavior. Vernacular Hebrew does not feature a consonantal softening across word breaks except in phrases borrowed from earlier dialects. I see no profit in attempting to rewrite a dialect.

[margavriel]

"I see no profit in attempting to rewrite a dialect."

Isn't that exactly what you're doing each year, when you post this PSA?

[shirei_shibolim]

The difference is that the conversion of two initial sheva'in into a hiriq and a sheva is a feature of modern vernacular Hebrew. People don't say לְלְמוד, they say לִלְמוד. I'm merely correcting usage by following the forms of the dialect.

[strange_selkie]

I find this announcement vaguely reassuring each year.

[shirei_shibolim]

How so?

[strange_selkie]

Well, it's nice to know I have a reliable source, and will always know there is a proper way to pronounce the tree-hugging holiday. It comes around, you make a post, everyone's conversations sound a little better.