What is our policy regarding using non-English languages in a post?

A slightly different take on AA's idea to use the Categories feature:

Maintain two categories of Q&A with the same scope and rules, but with the language of discourse in one (Q&A) being English, and the language of discourse in the other (שו"ת) being Hebrew. Whatever accessibility rules we have that assume knowledge of English apply in שו"ת with the assumption being knowledge of Modern Hebrew.

If possible, use a set of tags in שו"ת that are in Hebrew, but are synonymized to their English counterparts in Q&A, so that tag searches bring up related results from both. (I expect this would require code changes.)

On Meta, keep the language of discourse in English. As much as possible, make FAQ and Help pages bilingual.

To make this work, we'd need to make sure that the moderator team includes at least one moderator who's fluent in Modern Hebrew.

This setup would allow us to host Q&A for much more of the Jewish world, while ensuring that in each Q&A space, all of the posts are baseline legible to those reading them.

posted over 4 years ago

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Isaac Moses‭

975 reputation 11 17 107 39

I like and support Isaac Moses's idea of having a content-in-Hebrew Q&A category parallel to the English Q&A one. With it as a backdrop, I'd like to address the questions in the question post above, with MHO:

 1. Should we allow users to write questions in non-English languages?

… is answered.

 2. Should we allow users to write questions in specifically Hebrew or other Jewish languages like Judeo-Aramaic, Yiddish, and Ladino?

I think only Hebrew. The others are rare enough among Internet users that it will be difficult to find both answerers and community members / moderators who can improve/flag/delete the posts.

 3. Should we require the question to be written entirely in English where possible?

In the English Q&A category, because of the subject matter, it will sometimes be necessary to write non-English words. When that's necessary, the word should be explained if possible, or a link to an explanation should be included otherwise. This should be done bearing in mind the audience, both immediate and long-term. For example, if someone asks a question on an esoteric concept in kabbalah, its answers should explain¹ only such words as they think that question's audience may not understand. If someone asks "I know Jews blow shofar on Rosh Hashanah. Why?", the answers should explain¹ any Hebrew word used, since the asker and others interested in the question may not understand any of them.

One exception to the forgoing is words whose meanings don't matter. I can think of two examples: The first is titles of books, which should probably link to a description no matter hat language they're in, but need no translation. The other is words used for g'zera shava or the like, whose meaning is not relevant to the point that the post is trying to bring out, but whose wording is.

 4. In instances where a word cannot be fully translated into English (particularly legal or technical terminology), should we require the word to be at least transliterated into English, or should it be left in Hebrew script?

I don't much see the harm in leaving in Hebrew script in small quantities. Having a bunch of Hebrew-script words floating around a question will be very confusing for someone who doesn't know how to read Hebrew: he'll have to compare them to one another to know which are the same and which are different. Having one, repeated, or two to three, none of which are repeated, seems okay.

 5. In instances where a word cannot be fully translated into English (particularly legal or technical terminology), should we require an in-line translation of the word as well?

See my answer to #3.

 6. When citing Judaic literature in a non-English language, should we require users to include a translation of the excerpt as well?

A translation or a summary, yes.

posted over 4 years ago

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msh210‭

1264 reputation 38 27 177 100

My opinion:

1. Should we allow users to write questions in non-English languages?

No. The primary language of the site should be English, so each question should be substantially English for the functional question. It may depend upon Hebrew (Aramaic, etc.) text for part of the question, but it should be discoverable and substantially understandable by any English speaker.

2. Should we allow users to write questions in specifically Hebrew or other Jewish languages like Judeo-Aramaic, Yiddish, and Ladino?

No, unless they provide it in both English and the alternate language.

3. Should we require the question to be written entirely in English where possible?

No. Hebrew (Aramaic, etc.) can significantly enhance a question. In fact, there may be questions (already one example of "b'mezid" vs. "intentional") where only a simple translation leaves out key meaning of the question.

4. In instances where a word cannot be fully translated into English (particularly legal or technical terminology), should we require the word to be at least transliterated into English, or should it be left in Hebrew script?

No. It really depends on the word. Sometimes a word just really has no simple translation, and transliteration is, by itself, often not that useful. Using the "b'mezid" example, that is a word where it could be in Hebrew or in transliteration, or both, but including the basic translation ("intentional") is very helpful even though it is not a complete/Halachically precise translation.

But I can see other words (particularly names of people/places, names of non-kosher birds or animals from the Chumash, etc.) where a translation is counter-productive if the question is "what is this?" and a transliteration really doesn't help much. In such cases, a reference (Sefaria link if possible) together with the Hebrew text and English text of the rest of the question would work well.

5. In instances where a word cannot be fully translated into English (particularly legal or technical terminology), should we require an in-line translation of the word as well?

I think it depends on the word. "Fully translated" can range from "pretty close" (like "b'mezid" vs. "intentional") to "almost pure guesswork" (some bird or animal names).

6. When citing Judaic literature in a non-English language, should we require users to include a translation of the excerpt as well?

Require, no. Often providing a translation in the excerpt would either self-answer the question (so if they could do that, they wouldn't be asking) or bias the answer (due to too many words that have variant meaning). That being said, I think if a reasonable translation is readily available and having the translation present doesn't significantly affect the intent of the question, then including a translation is a good idea.

An example of that (on Mi Yodeya, not here):

https://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/115362/shlish-mi-yodeya/115407#115407

I originally referenced Bamidbar 28:14 (since that is the Pasuk that came to mind). I included the translation. It was changed to reference Bamidbar 15:6-7 arguably better because it is an earlier reference and has the key word Shlishi twice, so I really have no problem with that but no translation was included. (I just added the translation now.)

posted over 4 years ago

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4y ago by Dani‭

manassehkatz‭ staff

727 reputation 6 36 79 42

Questions about Judaism written in Hebrew could potentially find a home in a Hebrew category as described at https://judaism.codidact.com/questions/276362#answer-276423

Roughly half of Jews speak Hebrew. Let's welcome them to the community.

posted over 4 years ago

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AA ‭

475 reputation 0 15 41 1

People should be allowed to post questions in Hebrew if they want. How that affects how many potential answerers engage with their question is just a consequence of that choice.

A great question is engaging to the largest audience, but mediocre questions are allowed. If someone is only comfortable of a mediocre question at least let them have that.

That holds true for single Hebrew technical words all the way to entire posts. It's better to choose formulations that are engaging and accessible to more people but you can post even not in that ideal state. If someone volunteers to edit to improve your post to make it more engaging and accessible, say thank you.

posted over 4 years ago

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AA ‭

475 reputation 0 15 41 1