The goal of the volume is to shed fresh light on Modern Hebrew from perspectives aimed at readers interested in the domains of general linguistics, typology, and Semitic studies. Starting with chapters that provide background information on the evolution and sociolinguistic setting of the language,… read more
Edited by Edit Doron, Malka Rappaport Hovav, Yael Reshef and Moshe Taube
The emergence of Modern Hebrew as a spoken language constitutes a unique event in modern history: a language which for generations only existed in the written mode underwent a process popularly called “revival”, acquiring native speakers and becoming a language spoken for everyday use. Despite the… read more
This introductory chapter presents general information about Modern Hebrew (MH), as the topic of the present volume. It delineates major features of MH in order to contextualize the language in space – in terms of its community of speakers; in time – in relation to its diachronic background and… read more
The chapter starts by outlining the timeline of the language known as “Hebrew” from ancient times since the 2nd millennium BCE and Biblical times via the period of exile when the language existed in a state of diglossia for nearly two millennia, serving mainly for ritual and religious purposes,… read more
The formation of the colloquial register of Modern Hebrew has been customarily attributed to the effects of speech revival. Based on an extensive textual examination of pre-modern texts, this paper suggests that some of the most conspicuous features of contemporary colloquial usage in fact… read more
Modern Hebrew provides an idiosyncratic case for historical linguistic study: due to the discontinuity of its use as a spoken language, differences between contemporary structures and classical ones do not necessarily reflect change processes, but may instead result from imperfect language… read more
