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Comments on Are questions purely about Hebrew in-scope?

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Are questions purely about Hebrew in-scope?

+7
−0

On Mi Yodeya, questions about Hebrew that aren't clearly about Judaism are considered out of scope. Should that be the case here, or should questions about the Hebrew language be ipso facto on-topic?

Questions to consider (please edit in more if you see fit):

  • Is Modern Hebrew treated differently than Rabbinic, Mishnaic, Biblical Hebrew, etc.?

  • Are other languages of the Jews, such as Aramaic, Yiddish, and Ladino, treated similarly?

  • What about comparative Ancient Near Eastern linguistics?

  • Are questions like "how does one conjugate this verb into this tense" on topic?

  • Are questions like "what does this Hebrew tattoo mean" on topic?

  • Are questions like "please translate this sentence into Hebrew" on topic?

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General comments (4 comments)
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+3
−1

Speaking personally, I agree with the other posts which propose allowing questions related to these Jewish languages but not related to Judaism as a religion.

Speaking as a moderator, I just want to emphasize that the help center mentions that you should do some basic research before asking your question. Presuming for the sake of example that these types of questions are, everything else being equal, allowed:

  • Translation wouldn't be allowed because of the ease by which any of these languages can be translated with a Google search (yes, there are actually Aramaic to English translators out there!).
  • Spelling questions should similarly be off-topic, but asking why a word is spelled the way it is would not be. (Compare "how do you spell the name Ahasuerus in Biblical Hebrew" with "why is Ahasuerus spelled אחשורוש in some locations in the Megillah, but אחשורש in others.")
  • Verb conjugation would be off-topic because of the ease by which one could search for that. Alternatively we might have a post at the introduction of this policy which gives a brief description of the verb conjugation rules, and all later conjugation questions can be closed as duplicates unless they demonstrate why that word is an exception to the general rules.
  • "What does this word say" should similarly be off-topic considering the fact that there's a number of free apps which allow you to take a picture of a foreign language and will automatically translate it for you.
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General comments (5 comments)
General comments
Isaac Moses‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

I don't necessarily agree with every one of these proposed rules, but I upvoted the principle that we can come up with some rules to restrict language questions to the non-trivial. We could look at what policies the language communities have evolved on SE for best practices.

AA ‭ wrote over 4 years ago · edited over 4 years ago

The claim here is that not doing sufficient background research is grounds to have your question closed as off topic. That's a big change from Mi Yodeya's policy. I'm not sure it's a good idea either since not everyone can do what 'you' think is sufficient background research. Plus "off topic" isn't the right label for something which is clearly on topic but poorly posed. Finally, such a proposal is better positioned in its own thread, not as an answer about Hebrew language. cc @Isaac

DonielF‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@AA Maybe off-topic is the wrong label to apply. I'm not proposing that all questions should be closed because one didn't look at every Sefer in a Beis Midrash; I'm proposing that if literally the first link when you search your question provides an answer, it's probably a low-quality question.

AA ‭ wrote over 4 years ago

@DonielF That is a major policy position and should be in it's own post. It was definitely not the policy at Mi Yodeya.

AA ‭ wrote over 4 years ago

"I'm proposing that if literally the first link when you search your question provides an answer, it's probably a low-quality question." This question should be closed then https://judaism.codidact.com/questions/276943