Modern Hebrew in Retrospect: Between the Literary Norm and Reality

Abstract

The history of modern Hebrew started in the 19th century, when Eliezer Ben-Yehuda set out to bring back the sleeping since the third century Hebrew language. This process was called the “revival of Hebrew”. Some innovations characteristic of the Slavic and Germanic language groups were added to the basis, that was preserved in traditional literature. However, we have not yet had to talk about the final design of the literary norm. Hebrew continued develop during the first waves of Jewish migrations from Europe to Eretz Israel, absorbing the regional characteristics of the settlers. Changes are still taking place in it. Modernization processes in Israeli society are leaving their mark on Hebrew. Language revises norms that are not relevant to modern discourse, acquires neologisms and slang, discards hopelessly outdated elements. Special institutions have been established to stabilize and codify continuous development. It would seem that they should become an aid in teaching modern Hebrew, because all educational and methodological literature is focused on their rulings. However, the role of such organizations is highly controversial. In practice, they often do not solve the controversial issues of comparing literary norms and conversational status, but leave them open. This puts the teacher of modern Hebrew in front of a moral choice: to adhere to the study of dry rules or sometimes to the detriment of them to give preference to a lively informal language. For Hebrew, this problem has the character of an existential question, laid down during the first waves of Jewish migrations at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries, and does not have an unambiguous answer. The choice depends on the preferences and views of the teacher.

References

1. Bar-Asher M. O printsipakh grammaticheskoy normy v deyatelnosti Komiteta yazyka ivrit i Akademii yazyka ivrit [On the principles of grammatical norms in the activities of the Committee of the Hebrew Language and the Academy of the Hebrew Language]. Ivrit: problemy sovremennogo yazykoznaniya [Hebrew: Problems of Modern Linguistics]. Moscow, Israel, 2009. (In Russ.)

2. Gadish R. Akademiya yazyka ivrit i obshchestvo, govoryashcheye na ivrite [The Academy of the Hebrew Language and the Hebrew-speaking society]. Ivrit: problemy sovremennogo yazykoznaniya [Hebrew: Problems of Modern Linguistics]. Moscow, Israel, 2009. (In Russ.)

3. Morag Sh. Yazyk i estetika — sovremennyy ivrit [Language and aesthetics — modern Hebrew]. Ivrit: problemy sovremennogo yazykoznaniya [Hebrew: Problems of Modern Linguistics]. Moscow, Israel, 2009. (In Russ.)

4. Polyan A.L. Ivrit III-XIX vv. n.e. kak «spyashchiy yazyk» [Hebrew in the 3rd–19th centuries AD as a “sleeping language”]. Voprosy yazykoznaniya [Issues of Linguistics]. 2014. No. 5, pp. XX–XX. (In Russ.)

5. Shcherba L.V. Ocherednyye problemy yazykoznaniya [Current problems in linguistics]. Izbrannyye raboty po yazykoznaniyu i fonetike [Selected works on linguistics and phonetics]. Leningrad, 1958. (In Russ.)

6. Davar [Davar]. March 22, 1993. (In Hebrew.)

7. Dawid Kena’ani. Ha’aliyya hasheniya ha’ovedet weyaxasah ladat ulamasoret [The Second Aliyah and its relationship to religion and tradition]. 1977. (In Hebrew.)

8. Contemporary Israel: Languages, Society, Culture. Edited by Elena Nosenko-Stein, Dennis Sobolev; Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS. Moscow: IOS RAN, 2020.

9. Avinery Sh. The main directions in Jewish political thought. Israel, 1983. (In Hebrew.)

10. Kornienko Yu.M., Fain T.M. Teoriya yazyka ivrit [The Theory of the Hebrew Language]. Moscow, 2010. (In Russ.)