THE NAMES OF ISRAELI MILITARY RANKS AND THEIR LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS
THE NAMES OF ISRAELI MILITARY RANKS AND THEIR LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has a unique rank structure. Because the IDF is an integrated force, ranks are the same in all services. There is no differentiation between army, navy, air force etc. The ranks are derived from those of the paramilitary Haganah developed in the Mandate period to protect the Yishuv. The origin is reflected in the slightly compacted rank structure, for instance, the Chief of Staff (Ramatkal) is seemingly only equivalent to a Lieutenant General in other militaries. They are five basic ranks and all the other ranks are derivatives of them. The basic ranks are the following: aluf – Major General, seren – Captain, segen – Lieutenant, samal – Staff Sergeant, turay – Private. Etymologically the first three are Biblical and the last two are from Modern Hebrew. The Biblical names are all loan words from Ancient Language, which disappeared in the Biblical period. Aluf – "chief, prince, head of family" is probably a Canaanite word, the closest language family to Hebrew. There are four derivate ranks today. Seren – "tyrant, lord" is a Philistine word, the unique word from this language in the Bible. It is one more derivation today. Segen – "prefect, ruler" is an Accadian- Babylonian word with one more rank derivation. Samal and turay are Modern Hebrew words from the beginnings of IDF in the 40' of the last century. Samal is an acronym of Segen Mihuz Leminyan – "NCO, Non- commissioned officer". They are five modern derivations. Turay is from the Latin loan word Tur – "a line" with the suffix –ay denoting "agent, has the profession". It is one more rank derivation. Those two ranks are no longer in use, but are continued in Reserves.In 1996 was created a new category Nagad – "Non-commissioned officer" with two ranks derivations. Nagad is from Rabbinical Hebrew origin used as verb meaning "to stretch, draw, pull". The form Nagda exists in Aramaic meaning "one who tracks a vessel". In this paper, we will analyze the derivational ranks from morphological, semantic and etymological aspects.

• Details
• Contents