Kurzbeschreibung
This book observes and critiques controversies on the genesis and the character of Israeli Hebrew. Did it emerge through revival? Did Ben-Yehuda play a role in it? Is Hebrew a normal language now? The hegemonic ideology of the revival of Hebrew is shown to have been harmonious with various Zionist streams, as well as with its rival, Canaanism. The effects of revivalism are evaluated, and an argument is made in favor of non-revivalist alternatives in linguistics and in language education.
Synopsis
This book observes and critiques controversies on the genesis and the character of Israeli Hebrew. Did it emerge through revival? Did Ben-Yehuda play a role in it? Is Hebrew a normal language now? The hegemonic ideology of the revival of Hebrew is shown to have been harmonious with various Zionist streams, as well as with its rival, Canaanism. The effects of revivalism are evaluated, and argument is made in favour of non-revivalist alternatives in linguistics and in language education.
Der Autor über sein Buch
Hebrew and Zionism - what is the book about
This book observes and critiques controversies on the genesis and the character of Israeli Hebrew. Was its emergence a process of language revival? What conceptual framework should be used to assess Ben-Yehuda's role in it? Is the language genesis completed, and is Hebrew now a normal language? How can language normalcy be defined? How is the nation speaking this language discursively constructed? Revivalism, the hegemonic linguistic ideology in Israel, views contemporary Hebrew as a revived form of Classical Hebrew, and claims that this singular condition defies ordinary sociolinguistic analysis. General schools of linguistics - philology, structuralism, generativism - are shown to have been applied to Hebrew in accord with various national discourses. Points of convergence and tension between linguistic, sociological, historiographic and political discourses are presented. Various Zionist positions are extensively reviewed. The scope of nationalist options is examined through Canaanism, a small challenger to Zionism, which reconceptualized the linguistic and national processes, but remained revivalist and nationalist in its fundamental assumptions.
This book observes and critiques controversies on the genesis and the character of Israeli Hebrew. Was its emergence a process of language revival? What conceptual framework should be used to assess Ben-Yehuda's role in it? Is the language genesis completed, and is Hebrew now a normal language? How can language normalcy be defined? How is the nation speaking this language discursively constructed? Revivalism, the hegemonic linguistic ideology in Israel, views contemporary Hebrew as a revived form of Classical Hebrew, and claims that this singular condition defies ordinary sociolinguistic analysis. General schools of linguistics - philology, structuralism, generativism - are shown to have been applied to Hebrew in accord with various national discourses. Points of convergence and tension between linguistic, sociological, historiographic and political discourses are presented. Various Zionist positions are extensively reviewed. The scope of nationalist options is examined through Canaanism, a small challenger to Zionism, which reconceptualized the linguistic and national processes, but remained revivalist and nationalist in its fundamental assumptions.
