whereas symbiotes are supplemental.

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Can't say I know how driving works, but it seems like a good place to start a search. And remember that escape velocity is measured in currency units.

I was about 16 or so, and a new road was under construction close by, not yet connected at the other end, so no traffic on it. My mother decided to take me and her SO out for a private driving lesson one weekend - he didn't drive either. So there I was, sitting in the back seat (it was to be his turn first), and noticing that while she explained about the brakes, he was busy inspecting the gas pedal etc. - he wanted to <go> just then, not <stop>!

Once we got going, I said to mom, in Hungarian (her SO is Russian, and never wanted to learn Hungarian - btw, in retaliation, I refused to learn Russian :p - we spoke Hebrew at home) - "in a minute, he's going to ask you how to stop."

"No way", she sez, "I just told him how!"

"Uh, Vera..." said he, with some anxious urgency in his voice, as soon as she stopped talking, "how do I make this thing stop, again?!"

<Dom: <<helpwherearethebrakes> Uh, under your feet?>>

Well yes, but so is the gas pedal, and not being sure *which is which* can be... inconvenient.

<And remember that escape velocity is measured in currency units.>>

Aha... "I'd like some change, but all I have is bills".

<Dom: <But I'm not buying the idea that linguistic idioms derive from individuals. These usages (girls, boys etc) seem to come from the linguistic substrate - 'translations', conscious or otherwise, from another language. Most of the peculiarities of Hiberno-English - the variety of English spoken in Ireland - relate directly to grammatical features of the Irish language (even though the Hiberno speaker may not know Irish and may be several generations removed from contact with it.)>

&

<At another level, you're right about individuals. Every word was a novelty once, and every novelty starts *somewhere*. It may be a question of perspective - or even an ideological bias between the individual and the group - but I find 'population thinking' more useful with regard to languages.>>

I think both processes contribute at times. As you say, everything starts somewhere, and sometimes it's with an individual.

Think about it - every family has its own internal idiom, based on shared experiences: an anecdote involving relatives often retold, or the way some child used to mispronounce or misuse a word that the adults thought cute and started to imitate... in such a small group, the idiom development is kept in check by the necessity to remain understandable in the "outside world" - but the bigger the group adopting a mannerism, the weaker the inhibition. And it <is> sometimes possible for a few such "private jokes" to slip into common parlance, either by slow mouth-to-mouth dissemination (hey, if a whole family - or group of friends - thought something was cute enough to adopt, they *are* after all often a fairly representative sample of the larger culture they live in...), or even by a popularization shortcut, if a member of the group is a "celebrity" - standup comedians in particular are in a position to widely popularize humorous material from private sources, but so are politicians, actors, etc.

<I don't know much about Modern Hebrew, but I could make some guesses.... an influx of Russian borrowings in the past 20 years? Before that, a period of Americanisms? And a difficult and ambiguous relationship with other Semitic languages, notably Arabic? Because it's the closest relative both linguistically and geographically, but there are certain political considerations which might give a negative spin to the act of borrowing Arabic words or idioms ... while at the same time former residents of Arabic-speaking countries arrive with linguistic baggage of their own ...

I could be completely wrong. Maybe the energy that went into forging Modern Hebrew was strong enough to resist such influences. But I'd be surprised.>

Arabic is present in mainstream Hebrew where the shared vocabulary goes a long way back, and is also widely present in slang. Don't forget that it's not just the language of the neighbor countries - it's also the language of the Israeli Arabs, who interact with the rest if the citizenry at many points. And of course, as you said, the original language of the Jewish immigrants from the Arabic countries as well.

Americanisms are also common - both actual imported English terms, and "directly translated" expressions. This trend is not only still ongoing, but has actually gained momentum since the 90's, starting with heightened exposure of the youth to English, first via the MTV channel, and later via the internet. Kids these days actually know English fairly well here - which wasn't the case before MTV.

In fact, I was astonished to discover a few years ago that quite young children were already READING in English, thanks to Harry Potter! I saw many parents with children in the bookstores whenever a new HP volume was published - apparently, they'd rather make the effort to read it in English, than wait out the extra time until the Hebrew translation is published. :D

First SO and so...

Well, it seems that SO is reserved for non-married couples; the married partners are usually referred to as DW or DH, with multiple interpretations possible there... :p

<Or First POSSLQ, pronounced 'postle-cue' ... person of opposite sex sharing living quarters. Even on set in the White Location.>

Heh... I like POSSUM then - Person of Opposite Sex Sharing US Maintenance.... gives the term "playing possum" a whole new meaning.

< every family has its own internal idiom, based on shared experiences>

If I ever acquire a biographer to codify my 'sayings', one of the first I'd want quoted is this (by Sartre out of Le Corbusier?): "A family is a machine for dying in".

Yihikes... the mere idea... that's jus' one ♘ hop away from "(jus) primae noctis"*, and guess who would probably have <loved> *that* idea... :p

My favorite idiom which emerged within the last 20 years is "My bad".

One could probably trace it to a big city basketball court.