Verbal shortcuts and random telepathy

It has taken me a few years... but I've finally coming to terms with the fact that I will probably never fully grasp the entire lexicon of abbreviations, contractions and acronyms with which Israelis habitually pepper their speech.

First of all, many of these inscrutable 'words' trace their origin to the Israeli Army... and like all militaries, the IDF looooves its acronyms. 

Add to this the inherent Israeli predisposition for cutting corners, improvisation and finding short-cuts... and you end up with a bumper crop of words in Hebrew that sound like gibberish to anyone who hasn't grown up here.

However, the most puzzling bit of verbal shorthand has nothing to do with the IDF, and isn't, in fact, actually a word, per se.

It works like this:  If an Israeli is speaking to someone and wants to explain that something is not as the listener presumes... they have two choices.  They can take the long route (not bloody likely) and say:

"It's not [insert long explanation of what isn't meant/intended], It's actually [insert equally long explanation of what it is meant/intended].

Or, the speaker can take a verbal shortcut and simply say:

"Listen, it's NOOOOOOooooooooooooot..." and end the sentence right there.

In Hebrew it comes out sounding like:  "Tishmah, Zeh LOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo…" stretching the word for 'not' out to about six syllables of widely varying pitch. 

And the incredible part is that a native Israeli listener instantly understands (through a combination of shared experience and telepathy) everything that would have been included in the speaker's lengthly (and apparently unnecessary) explanation.

This particular verbal shortcut/mind-meld never ceases to amaze me!