Language

Collins Barrow
Chartered Accountants

Best wishes
to all for a
Happy Chanukah!
Suite 800 - Burrard Building
1030 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, Canada V6E 3B9
T. 604.685.0564 F. 604.685.2050
vancouver@collinsbarrow.com

www.collinsbarrow.com

Best wishes for a Happy Chanukah!

Servicing All Makes of

Light, Medium & Heavy Trucks
(Cummins, Detroit & Cat)
604-251-6205

SERVICE
604-251-3101 PARTS

www.midtowntrucks.com

JEW SH INDEPENDENT DECEMBER 12, 2014

Happy Chanukah!

44

CONSTRUCTION
MANAGERS

7019 Russell Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5J 4R8

Tel: 604.254.4499 Fax: 604.254.9926

Miracle of languages birth

NURIT DEKEL

ebrew is an ancient language still spoken in

Israel and by Israelis
worldwide. We all know
that. This is history. Hebrew was revived about 130 years ago by Zionist Jews coming to Palestine, and
those of us who speak Hebrew
know that we speak a Semitic language that evolved from biblical
and mishnaic Hebrew. However,
when thoroughly researching the
structure of Israeli Hebrew, things
appear differently.
In Colloquial Israeli Hebrew: A
Corpus-based Survey (Walter de
Gruyter & Co., 2014), I show that
spoken Israeli Hebrew is different
from ancient forms of Hebrew. Different in almost every linguistic aspect. Different to the level of defining
two separate languages; one is ancient, the other is new. The ancient
one has a set of Semitic rules; the
new one has a new set of rules that
are sometimes Semitic and sometimes not. The vocabularies of the
two languages are similar, but not
identical. And, linguistically, it is very
difficult to define them as if one
evolved from the other. Despite their
similar vocabularies, they differ in
too many linguistic characteristics to
be considered one language.
Language is commonly considered a set of words, but languages
are much more complicated systems
than just a random collection of
words. Language is a human system
of communication. It contains a set
of signs, common to all speakers of
the same language. These signs represent notions in the real world.
Grammatical rules govern the way
these signs are formed, pronounced
and ordered. These grammatical
rules define the relations between
the elements in the language, which
form the final contents we transfer
to others. These rules are common
to all speakers of the same language.
Languages have native speakers
those who acquired it during
childhood, and use it natively to
communicate with others. Language
acquisition is a biological process
that all of us, humans, undergo. We
are all born with a linguistic system
that allows us to acquire a language,
our language. The process of language acquisition takes about 10 to
12 years. Then, the system with the
linguistic properties of our native
language is permanently stored in
our brains. This system contains all
the information about our native
language that we need for communication. It is an unconscious system, not an organized set of rules
like the ones taught in schools. All
native speakers of the same language share the same set of linguistic rules. Otherwise, they would
be unable to communicate with one
another, i.e., produce coherent
speech and comprehend others
speech, using the same set of signs
and rules.

Vocabulary vs. grammar

Vocabulary is the easiest part to
transfer from one language to another. Words are borrowed from
one language to another all the
time. Only phonological adjustments are sometimes needed to
turn a foreign word into a word in
ones native language. But borrowing other elements is much
more complicated, and much less
common. Languages have different
structures and different linguistic
preferences; what is friendly in
one language can be very complicated in another. Many words were
borrowed from biblical and mishnaic Hebrew into Israeli Hebrew
over the years; some have gained
additional or alternative meanings.
At the same time, very few rules
could be transferred in their original form from these sources into Israeli Hebrew. This is because of an
interference of the revivers native
languages, which were very different in their linguistic structures from
the Hebrew sources.
When learning Hebrew grammar,
we have been frequently taught that
we speak Hebrew with mistakes.
However, we still produce coherent speech in Israeli Hebrew, and
we still comprehend other peoples
speech. This means that we all share
the same system of linguistic rules.
True, these are not the rules desired by our teachers. These are
other, unconscious, rules that are
situated in our minds, but they are
our native rules, which we master
and use all the time. If we have
passed the age of 12, our language
system has been completed, and we
have a grammar of our native language in our minds. And it is the
same grammar to all speakers. Native speakers cannot make mistakes
in their own language. Furthermore,
what seem like mistakes are usually identical among all native speakers. This is an indicator that they are
not mistakes, but rather rules. Only
no grammarian has officially defined
them yet, and they are different from
the desired rules. Israelis, thus, do
not speak Hebrew with mistakes,
but rather speak a new language.
This language has a set of rules different from that of biblical and mishnaic Hebrew a new set of rules
based on various origins, many of
which are European languages, as
elaborated herein.
Phonological characteristics
Phonology deals with everything
that has to do with the sounds, syllables and intonation of a language.
The typical sounds of Israeli Hebrew
are very similar to the ones found
in European languages. Also, all the
typical sounds that are dominantly
detectable in many Semitic languages are absent. These are, for example, pharyngeal, glottal and
emphatic consonants. They are never noticed in Israeli Hebrew speech.

Syllables in Israeli Hebrew can

contain double and triple consonant
clusters. These clusters are absent
from ancient forms of Hebrew. Such
sequences are forbidden in traditional Hebrew. On the other hand,
syllables having double and triple
consonant clusters are typical in European languages. Such clusters
were very common in Yiddish,
which is the source of many characteristics of Israeli Hebrew.
Short and long vowels in spoken
Israeli Hebrew can distinguish between the meanings of words,
whereas in traditional Hebrew this
is impossible. Thus, a difference in
meaning is enabled between the
words ze (this) and ze: (identical) in
Israeli Hebrew speech. This difference is entailed by the short versus long vowels of the same quality.
Traditional Hebrew never allows
long vowels in syllable nuclei. Historically, the long vowels are explained as a result of a falling weak
consonant between two short vowels. Synchronically, it is evident that
vowel length makes a semantic difference between words.
Languages have music, that is
an extra-linguistic feature of speech.
This music varies between languages, and contains several features,
one of which is intonation. Israeli Hebrew intonation is very similar to that
of Yiddish, and very different from
that of Semitic languages.
Morphological characteristics
Morphology deals with the way
words are derived, and what is the
nature of their components. The basic morphological unit in a language
is called a morpheme; it is the smallest grammatical unit that represents
a meaning. In English, -ness is a
morpheme representing a state, as
in happiness. A morpheme is not
an independent component; it is always attached to another element.
Semitic languages employ a
unique strategy of word formation
that is based on roots and patterns.
Roots and patterns are abstract morphemes, which cannot be attached
one to the other. Instead, they are
integrated into one another to form
new words. The root contains a sequence of consonants, usually three
or four, carrying a general meaning;
the pattern is a linguistic structure,
also carrying a general meaning.
The pattern would usually contain
vowels, and also reserved locations
for the root consonants in between
these vowels. Roots and patterns
cannot be pronounced independently; their pronunciation is enabled only when being integrated
into one another.
Words in Semitic languages, including traditional Hebrew words,
are primarily formed by a combination of a root and a pattern. Yet,
words in Israeli Hebrew are derived
in many other ways, too. Indeed,
there are words in Israeli Hebrew

original phonological structure. This

means that the sequence of consonants and vowels in the foreign
word would govern the choice of
the pattern in which the final verb
is created. Stems can sometimes be
created from whole words, in particular nouns.
The Israeli Hebrew verbal system
also contains many concatenated
verbs. Concatenated verbs are combinations of at least two consequent
inflected verbal elements, each is inflected separately. And no separators are allowed between the two
elements; they must be consequently ordered. Concatenated
verbs are not observed in other Semitic languages, nor in traditional
Hebrew. They express a wide variety of more specific aspects and
moods than the basic aspectual and
modal notions of the single verbal
forms. Concatenation processes,
therefore, are a characteristic of Israeli Hebrew, in both the verbal and
the nominal systems. It is a linguistic process that is uncommon in Semitic languages, and is more typical
to European languages.

The verbal system

When looking thoroughly into the
verbal system of spoken Israeli Hebrew, many questions arise. Traditional Hebrew, like other Semitic
languages, has a rich verbal system
based on roots and patterns. There
are seven verbal patterns in traditional Hebrew, standing for role-taking and tenses. Two of them
Language syntax
represent passive meanings, yet IsSyntax deals with the composiraeli Hebrew employs only five ver- tion of phrases and clauses from sinbal patterns, and no passives. Passive gle elements, and the relations
forms in Israeli Hebrew are very rare, between these elements within the
uncommon and unnatural. Native phrase or clause. The syntactic feaspeakers of the language would tures of Israeli Hebrew reflect almost
comprehend passive forms, but nev- exclusively European languages,
er produce them naturally.
whereas Semitic features can be
The verbal patterns of traditional hardly detected.
Hebrew represent tenses: past, preEach human language has a typsent and future. They also include ical word order of elements in the
unique imperatives, one for each clause. The elements in the clause
non-passive pattern. However, the are commonly represented by the
five verbal patterns of Israeli Hebrew letters S, V and O, standing for subdo not stand for tenses. They rather ject, verb and object, respectively.
reflect aspects and moods, similarly Semitic languages are characterized
to Slavic languages. Also, they have by a word order of VSO, which
no unique imperative forms; the lat- means that the verb is typically the
ter are derived from prefixed forms first element in the clause, followed
that represent mood. The Israeli He- by the subject. Israeli Hebrew, howbrew verbal system, in its overall ever, is characterized by a word orstructure, is not similar to any Semit- der of SVO, in which the subject
ic verbal system. Conversely, it is precedes the verb. This word order
identical to the structure of the Russ- is the default order in European lanian verbal system; the same aspec- guages. This is how the elements in
tual forms stand for the same times the clause are ordered in Germanin the two systems.
ic, Roman and Slavic languages. On
Basic verbal stems in Israeli He- the other hand, nominal clauses
brew are mostly created in the Se- with no verbs are allowed in Israeli
mitic way, by the combination of Hebrew, which is a Semitic characroots and patterns. However, newer teristic, and does not exist in Europrocesses of verb formation employ pean languages. This is one of very
the combinations of stems and af- few Semitic features in Israeli Hefixes, as well as nouns and affixes, brew syntax.
on the account of the traditional rootNoun compounds in Israeli Hepattern formation. The use of nom- brew are combinations of two coninals to form verbs is typical to sequent nominals that form a phrase
European languages, where a noun having one meaning. The compoor an adjective can easily function as nents of a noun compound in Israeli
a verb, with or without an affix.
Hebrew can be either a sequence
The formation of a verb in Israeli of two nouns, or a sequence of a
Hebrew is a complicated process, noun and an adjective. Definiteness
which involves several semantic of these compounds is similar to Euand morphological processes. Ini- ropean languages: noun comtially, a stem is formed, either by a pounds in Israeli Hebrew take a
root-pattern combination, or other- definite article at the beginning of
wise. Then, additional suffixes the phrase, on the first component,
and/or prefixes are attached to it to referring to the whole phrase as one
denote person, gender and num- unit of meaning. This is parallel to
ber. Many verbal stems are created making, for example, the English
from foreign words. These stems term go-between definite by
are governed by the foreign words adding the definite article before the

first component, as in the go-between. Semitic languages, including normative Hebrew, typically
take the definite article on the second component of the term.
Nouns and adjectives in Semitic
languages have gender. During
speech, Semitic languages require
a gender and number agreement
between elements in the speech sequence. Israeli Hebrew has gender
distinction in nouns and adjectives.
However, gender and number
agreement in Israeli Hebrew speech
works only one way: backwards. It
exists only when referring to a previously mentioned element. When
an element is expected to agree in
gender and/or number with a following element, it never does. It appears in its unmarked form, usually
the masculine singular. This oneway agreement rule is apparent in
all the language systems verbs,
nouns, adjectives, etc. Standing out
are the numerals that in Semitic languages have two forms: masculine
and feminine. Israeli Hebrew, apart
from the numeral one, employs only
one form for both genders. The use
of neutral numbers and the distinction in the numeral one is also employed in Roman languages.
Summary
Israeli Hebrew has not evolved
directly from earlier Hebrew forms.
It was created artificially, employing, although unconsciously, mixed
rules from many languages, including earlier forms of Hebrew.
This way, some of the original Hebrew characteristics, which are Semitic, could be preserved, whereas
at least as many were imported
from other, European, languages.
(See G. Zuckermann, A New Vision for Israeli Hebrew: Theoretical and Practical Implications of
Analyzing Israels Main Language
as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language, Journal
of Modern Jewish Studies 5, no. 1
(2006): 57-71.)
So, has the revival of Hebrew
ever occurred?
We are nearing Chanukah, and
Chanukah is about miracles. Perhaps the miracle of Hebrew revival
never happened, but another miracle has certainly taken place: the
emergence of a new language. A
language whose number of speakers has been increasing, and which
is alive and evolving. It has a short
history of 130 years it does not go
back thousands of years but its
emergence is at least as miraculous
as the revival of a language, and as
impressive.
Nurit Dekel is principal linguist at
NSC-Natural Speech Communication, an academic researcher of Colloquial Israeli Hebrew teaching at
the Levinsky College of Education,
Tel Aviv, and the author of Colloquial Israeli Hebrew: A Corpusbased Survey (Walter de Gruyter
& Co., 2014). She thanks David
J. Swykert (magicmasterminds.com/
djswykert) for reviewing this essay
and providing very insightful
comments.

Wishing all our clients and friends

a Happy Chanukah!

2094 West 43rd

at East Boulevard

1399 Homer Street

Vancouver

3731 Main Street

Vancouver

604-263-1144

604-689-8226

604-336-3539

www.dexterrealty.com

Best wishes to all for a

Happy Chanukah!

IMPOUND LOT
435 Industrial Ave., Vancouver

JEW SH INDEPENDENT DECEMBER 12, 2014

that are formed by a root-pattern

derivation, such as many verbal
forms. However, Israeli Hebrew
speakers clearly prefer a more European-like formation of words. European-like word formation
employs various concatenation
processes of elements. Concatenation is typically being attached in a
chain. There is a higher priority
among Israelis to form new words
in their language this way. By
adding a suffix to a stem, or by
blending two words into one, they
keep the meaning of the new word
more transparent. The new words
represent one concept while, at the
same time, they reflect the original
components. Therefore, this kind
of derivation has gained priority
over the root-pattern strategy.

45