The revival of Hebrew in Israel

Essay , 2018 , 7 Pages , Grade: A

Speech Science / Linguistics

The revival of Hebrew is considered to be the most astonishing revival of a language, which however was not entirely dead, but it was used exclusively for religious matters for a period of 2000 years. It is considered to be a remarkable achievement, one tightly linked to the Hebrew pride. The high nationalism of Hebrew parents led them to using Hebrew as the language to bring up their children. Children were spoken to and taught in Hebrew and this way native speakers of the language were created. After the foundation of the Israel state and the continuous efforts concerning the revival of the language, Hebrew has gone from being an inactive language used only in the religious domain to a living language used by over nine million users.

When talking about the study of a language’s revival, we refer to the study of all factors relevant or any obstacles to that revival. Studying various language revival attempts can provide insight on revival techniques, on what actually works and which motives are strongest when attempting to revive a language. Also through comparison between those attempts a lot of useful information about what works can come up.

The revival of Hebrew in Israel

E. Agathokleous 2018

When talking about the study of a language’s revival, we refer to the study of all factors relevant or any obstacles to that revival. Studying various language revival attempts can provide insight on revival techniques, on what actually works and which motives are strongest when attempting to revive a language. Also through comparison between those attempts a lot of useful information about what works can come up (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011: 112). The revival of Hebrew is considered to be the most astonishing revival of a language, which however was not entirely dead but it was used exclusively for religious matters for a period of 2000 years. It is considered to be a remarkable achievement, one tightly linked to the Hebrew pride (Ben-Asher 1998: na). The high nationalism of Hebrew parents led them to using Hebrew as the language to bring up their children. Children were spoken to and taught in Hebrew and this way native speakers of the language were created (Holmes & Wilson 2017:71). After the foundation of the Israel state and the continuous efforts concerning the revival of the language, Hebrew has gone from being an inactive language used only in the religious domain to a living language used by over nine million users (Kaufman 2005:1).

Preceding the revival of a language is the language’s decay and death due to the absence of native speakers and the fact that the language stops being used by people in their everyday lives (Lemus 2012:71). Hebrew belongs to the Semitic languages which are a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages and it was spoken since the 14th century BC but a gradual decline lead to its death as a vernacular by the second century AD (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011:114). The Hebrew language was a victim of the Jewish-Roman wars which greatly limited the number of the Jewish people that used it. When the Jewish were converted to Christians the Hebrew language was no longer used as a vernacular and so it had no native users for about two thousand years (Lemus 2012:72). However, the Hebrew language was one that featured many different varieties. The fact that these varieties provided a lot of material in terms of written language as well as vocabulary was something that offered a starting point, a basic material on which revival could be based (Kaufman 2005:1).

The starting point of the Hebrew revival was in the years following 1850 when Jewish people started to come to Palestine from various other countries bringing with them the various varieties of Hebrew like Yiddish for those that came from Europe or Judezmo for those coming from the Ottoman Empire and they all knew the Hebrew of the bible due to their religious orientation (Khan 2013:707). Hebrew was even used by the intellectual as the language of science and philosophy texts and this fact made it a high status language that was not however used orally. As time went by Hebrew became a lingua franca for the immigrants while their own languages were considered to be lower status languages (Khan 2013:707). Because Hebrew gained such importance in communication but also in religion it started being taught at schools as a second language and parents were particularly fond of their children learning the Hebrew language. (Khan 2013:708)

When talking about the Hebrew language revival, the name of a Russian immigrant, Eliezer Ben Yehuda often comes up, as the man who played perhaps the most significant role to the resuscitation of the Hebrew language as he is considered to be the first to fully embrace and promote the revival of the Hebrew language. Eliezer Ben Yehuda became an example which was soon followed by others by adopting Hebrew in his personal life. He changed his last name from Perelman to its Jewish version Ben – Yehuda and also worked in favor of the revival in all domains possible, personal, public and academic (Mishor & Ordan 2007:1-2). Through his work Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, promoted the teaching of Hebrew but also its use as a vernacular. He himself raised his children using the Hebrew language and other Russian immigrants followed his example. There was some resistance at first from those that considered Hebrew a sacred language and thus not suitable as a vernacular, however Ben -Yehuda’s example was soon followed by others (Lemus 2012:73). Among the things he did to promote the Jewish language was to establish the Hebrew Language Council in 1889, to produce a dictionary which included words from ancient as well as Modern Hebrew and he also established Hebrew newspapers that spread the language in its modern form, a form which allowed it to be revived. Through his work the language began to be used not only by the residents of Israel but also by Jews worldwide and also became the second language of many people. This progress in the use of Hebrew made the language appropriate for use in the education field and in 1994 Hebrew became the language of instruction at all levels of education and became so widely spoken that it was as one of three official languages, alongside English and Arabic. (Mishor & Ordan 2007:1-2)

By 1888, after Hebrew became the medium of instruction for general subjects at schools the language acquired young fluent users that used Hebrew to communicate with each other since they were coming from different backgrounds. This led to the use of the language outside school as well and it was the language a family used when they married and had children of their own. These children became the native speakers that made the revival of the language a fact (Lemus 2012:74). By 1916 Hebrew had 40% of users that used it as their L1 and 75% of the young population said Hebrew was their mother language making the revival of the language a fact of an amazing time of 60 years following the path from a religious, academic language to a language taught at school and then learned at home as a first language. (Lemus 2012:75). In 1925 the Hebrew University was founded making Hebrew a complete scholar and vernacular language.

In order for all of this to happen the need for modernization of the language had to be acknowledged and after it was, the language was expanded and enriched with new, modern vocabulary and expressions, as any other natural language, giving birth to Modern Hebrew. Modern Hebrew while featuring elements from various Hebrew forms that appeared through time was also influenced by other languages with which there was contact. Some grammar features where modernized in order to cover current needs and its syntax changes flexibly and swiftly in order to allow the language to adjust and be functional. As a recently revived language Hebrew in now changing fast due to European influences but also because Modern Hebrew must keep up with everyday communication needs in order for its revival to continue as a successful one. (Khan 2013:707-8)

In 1950, following the Holocaust and the foundation of the State of Israel the law of return was issued. This law granted the immigration right to every Jew to live in Israel. In 1970 a huge amendment of the law gave citizenship to all members of a family even if some of them were not Jews. This amendment secured that families would stay united if they decided to return to Israel (The law of return). Many of these immigrants were not users of the Hebrew language but adopted it as part of their legacy and feeling of belonging to the Jewish community. This also led to the creation of native users of the language hence it was another very important factor to its revival. As recorded in the Ethnologue (Simons & Charles 2018: na) there were more than eight million users of the Hebrew language in Israel, using Hebrew as a first or second language. Among them there are many that were taught Hebrew as a second language but now use it as their primary language of communication. There are over nine million users of the Hebrew language if we include speakers that reside in other countries. (Simons & Charles 2018: na)

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• Grade: A
• Author: Elena Agathokleous (Author)
• Publication Year: 2018
• Pages: 7
• Catalog Number: V1007712
• ISBN (eBook): 9783346395610
• Language: English
• Tags: hebrew, israel