Introduction

Israel is the male body part (on an anthropomorphic map of West Asia) that gives delight to God
when it is yod-shin-resh = straight, upright. Usually it is bent, curved, as in Ya'akov. Rabbis would say
this means morally straight / upright, but the Phoenicians would give a more physical explanation.
TA'ANUG: Erotic Delights from Kabbalah to Hasidism by Prof. Moshe Idel contains this text about
"Israel":
>>... in the case of the rabbinic view, Israel, or the righteous, provide sustenance [mefarnesim] to
God,[34] but in Hasidism this becomes “Israel provides delight to God.”[35]
34 See e.g., Midrash Zutta on Shir ha-Shirim, ch. I.
35 See the collection of traditions from the Great Maggid’s circle, entitled 'Or ha-'Emmet, fol. 53c.
Compare also to his 'Or Torah, fol. 27b. <<
I reached the same "delight to God" conclusion independently via etymology. Yod-shin-resh = gives
delight. Delight = aleph-shin-resh. The aleph moved from the end of the noun to the beginning,
probably under the influence of Aramaic which uses aleph as a suffix for the definite article.
Giving shin its ancient dental D/T-sound, letting the resh rotate to L (which looks like a resh rotated
180 degrees), and giving the aleph its ancient CHS/GHT-sound, shin-resh-aleph is cognate with
DeLiGHT.
The links to my DropBox describe
(1) changes in the sound of some Hebrew consonants,
(2) patterns of idiom formation via phono-semantic matching (PSM) and (3) reversal,
(4) Origen's Hexapla,
(5) my interpretation of William Carlos Williams' Red Wheelbarrow and Robert Frost's Birches, and
(6) the Phoenician anthropomorphic maps of West Asia and North Africa.
1 - Historical sound changes
The sound changes described in this file are relevant to the other topics referenced below.
Utilization of these changes facilitates finding cognates of words and phrases.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kw2yvwanac7jhhp/SoundChangeHandOut_2.docx?dl=0
2 - Phono-semantic matching (PSM) as disguised code-switching
Idioms formed via PSM are so well disguised that neither the speaker / writer nor the listener / reader
realize that a switch has occurred. After formation (mostly by transliteration), an idiom may be
translated to other languages. Biblical idioms such as "pillar of salt" (Genesis 19:26 = a stroke,
thrombosis) and "escape by the skin of my teeth" (Job 19:20 = barely, with difficulty) have been
translated to many languages. PSM indicates why they have these meanings.
The Latin words sopor quies
Do sound like Hebrew spor keves !
So to help you sleep deep,
We now tell you "count sheep!"
That pun 's for a polyglot, yes?
The "bell" in "Does that ring a bell?" is probably the translation of French cloche, German Glock, or
Dutch klok as a pun on Latin recollectus.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/d247l8wejcdvw1c/Idioms_via_PSM.pptx?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sqbbsipjovkih26/idiom_Formation_pics.docx?dl=0
Some angry idioms
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5bmhhljrhweftfg/SHeTZeF%20QeTZeF_2.docx?dl=0
My father's favorite Yiddish expression
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4qr9a6ofo3pk2tv/Teakettle.doc?dl=0
Forget-me-not flower
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6mltrna6hlq3htz/ForgetMeNot.docx?dl=0
3 - Some words and idioms are formed by reversal
https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1mn920bficdk5k/Reversals2.pptx?dl=0
Example: "conniption fit" (a panic attack) < reversals of "panic" + "tiff" (which is a reversal of "fight").
Some languages use reversal to convey meaning without saying the words that literally have that
meaning. Examples: dangerous creatures (Hebrew KaRiSH = shark, cf. QoReSH = bite / nip off),
deities (Mercury < kHermes + Semitic RaTZ = messenger), sexual parts & functions (tw_t < Hebrew
TaVaH = box ~ Bacchus), and even words that express good fortune (to avoid the "evil eye").
Hebrew sometimes reverses a word to produce its antonym, e.g.: haMaLiTZ = the interpreter
(Genesis 42:23) < TZeLeM = image). Egyptian was written with hieroglyphics. To translate from
Egyptian to any other language is to un-picture.
Ancient Greek disguised words by moving the last sound of the root to the beginning of the word, a
procedure that is the precise opposite of the primary rule of Pig Latin (< Hebrew PaG = unripe fig =>
child before reaching age of majority => premature infant) + LaSHoN = tongue). [Pig Latin moves the
first sound to the end of the word (and adds AY).] Example: Mt. Olympus, abode of the gods and a
navel of the world (axis mundi) < Greek omphalos = navel.
4 - Origen's Hexapla
I suspect that Origen's transliteration of Hebrew text to Greek letters in the Hexapla triggered the
formation of Greek idioms whose spelling nearly matched the Greek transliteration but whose
semantics matched the biblical Hebrew source.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sgrxloacu37f6de/OrigensHexapla.docx?dl=0
One can test this hypothesis by searching the transliteration column of the Hexapla for Greek words
and phrases which have the meaning of the translated Hebrew source. If more than a few are found,
it may be worthwhile to reconstruct the missing portions of the Hexapla in order to find more idioms
that were formed in this manner.
To do this, one must know the sound changes that occurred in some Hebrew consonants. For
example, the Hebrew vav had an F or PH-sound at the time when Greek phasis (phase of the moon)
was borrowed into Hebrew as vav-samekh-sof with the meaning "menstruation". I think the Hebrew
het lost its ancient W-sound due to the influence of Greek which had already lost the W-sound of its
ancient 6th letter that we call digamma.
5 - Interpreting nonsense verse
I used Hebrew as a bridge language to discover the semantics of The Red Wheelbarrow, a very
meaningful "nonsense" verse composed by William Carlos Williams.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/77gf5wujame6e9u/Red_Wheelbarrow_pics.docx?dl=0
Robert Frost did something similar in his poem Birches. It is a poem in praise of enticing virgins to
sexual activity, which Frost claims (in this poem) to have done himself. The phylogenetic name of the
European birch is Betula pendula. The Hebrew word for "virgin, membrane" is BeTuLah. It is cognate
with English "petal". Now you know why we throw rose petals at the bride (who, presumably, is soon
to be deflowered). This poem is about swinging / swaying virgins.
http://www.ketzle.com/frost/aboutbirches.html
6 - Phoenician Anthropomorphic Maps
Anthropomorphic maps were generated by configuring the gigantic virtual body of a god or goddess
over the area to be mapped. The name of each part of that body became the name of the area under
that part. I was able to discover the existence of these maps because Hebrew and Phoenician are
both Western Semitic languages with a similar lexicon
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ksjxfos5myl6e1w/Anthropomorphic_Maps_3.docx?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4hkl71mi8zu93u/Hermes_Aphrodite_3.pptx?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7yo2cjm5xt811m/BodyPartList_4.docx?dl=0
For unbelievable but genuine folk etymologies for most of the same areas, see this file.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g578l4f5ec542cf/CarlMasthay_email_exch.docx?dl=0
The toponyms Philistia / Roman Palestina were borrowed from Greek phallos. So there is a psycho-
linguistic aspect to the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The (threatened) loss of this part produces
castration (anxiety).
At the time of Queen Sheba (a reversal of Hebrew kHaBaSH = Abyssinia / Ethiopia), the map of
Cassiopia (the Queen of Ethiopia) stretched all the way from present-day Ethiopia to the South
Atlantic Ocean (formerly called the Ethiopian Sea).
I suspect there is another female body-part map whose navel (Sanskrit nabhila) is Nepal. Her
stomach (Hebrew BeTeN) would be Bhutan, her back (Hebrew GaV) the Gobi desert, and her
menstruation (Hebrew NiDaH) the Indus river. Her face (Hebrew PaNim) or face mask would be
NiPPoN / jaPaN. Someone who is familiar with ancient Far Eastern languages will have to find the
rest of her.
Blackfoot Maps of Napi and his wife in Alberta, Canada & northern Montana were described by Dan
Moonhawk Alford (deceased) and Stan Knowlton. On American Indian maps, the male & female
bodies are always a discrete / discreet distance apart.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ravvjibss9llncl/BlackfootMaps.doc?dl=0
You may treat all of this material as public domain except the graphic (which I did not make) inthe
SoundChangeHandOut file. You may use this material in any manner you think appropriate and may
forward the links or files to anyone you think would want to receive them.

Best regards,
Izzy

Israel A. Cohen
cohen.izzy@gmail.com
BPmaps founder & moderator
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/bpmaps