The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History PDF
Preview The Languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History
The Languages of the Jews Historicalsociolinguisticsisacomparativelynewareaofresearch,investigat- ing difficult questions about language varieties and choices in speech and writing. Jewish historical sociolinguistics is rich in unanswered questions: when does a language become “Jewish”? What was the origin of Yiddish? HowmuchHebrewdidtheaverageJewknowoverthecenturies?Howwas Hebrewre-establishedasavernacularandadominantlanguage?Thisbook explorestheseandotherquestions,andshowstheextentofscholarlydisagree- mentovertheanswers.Itshowsthevalueofaddingasociolinguisticperspec- tive to issues commonly ignored in standard histories. This is a vivid commentary on Jewish survival and Jewish speech communities, and is essential reading for students and researchers interested in the study of MiddleEasternlanguages,JewishStudies,andsociolinguistics. bernard spolsky is Professor Emeritus of the English Department at Bar-Ilan University and editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Language Policy(2012). The Languages of the Jews A Sociolinguistic History Bernard Spolsky UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107699953 ©BernardSpolsky2014 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2014 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyClays,StIvesplc AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationdata Spolsky,Bernard. ThelanguagesoftheJews:asociolinguistichistory/BernardSpolsky. pages cm Includesbibliographicalreferences. ISBN978-1-107-05544-5 1. Jews–Languages–History. 2. Sociolinguistics. 3. Jews–History. I. Title. PJ5061.S66 2014 408.9924–dc23 2013043052 ISBN978-1-107-05544-5Hardback ISBN978-1-107-69995-3Paperback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. ForEllen Contents Listofmaps pagex Prefaceandacknowledgments xi Glossary xiv 1 IsHebrewanendangeredlanguage? 1 Twoquestions 1 Sociolinguisticecology 2 Domains 7 Hebrewisnotendangered 13 2 TheemergenceofHebrew 17 Historicalsociolinguisticsandthepuzzleoforigins 17 EarlyHebrewandlanguageinthetwokingdoms 22 Babylonianexile 28 Languageshift 32 3 Hebrew–Aramaicbilingualismandcompetition 35 Whatistheevidence? 35 DidHebrewsurvivethereturn? 38 4 ThreelanguagesinHellenisticandRomanPalestine 46 LinguisticeffectsofAlexander’sconquests 46 ThesurvivalofHebrew 53 ThelanguagesituationinRomanPalestine 55 WhataboutLatin? 59 Thethreelanguagevarieties 61 5 FromstatehoodtoDiaspora 63 Thelossofstatehood 63 TheroleofGreekandthegrowthoftheDiaspora 69 WhatisaJewishlanguagevariety? 72 BabyloniaandJudeo-Aramaic 75 6 TheArabianandAfricanconnections 80 Addinganothermajorlanguage 80 YemenandYemanic 88 BetaIsrael:JudaisminEthiopia 90 BlackJewsandtheirlanguages 92 vii viii Contents 7 ThespreadofIslam 95 TheMuslimconquestofSyriaPalestina 95 TheKaraites:aJewishcounter-movement 100 TheIslamicconquestofBabyloniaandTalmudicHebrew–Aramaic 101 TheconquestofEgypt 102 TheIslamicconquestofSpain 105 ThedevelopmentoflocalvarietiesofArabic 110 8 TheJewsofFrance 117 ThelanguagesoftheJewsofTsarfat 117 Jewsasothers:thebasisforanti-Semitism 121 JewishcommunitiesinnorthernFrance 122 9 TheJewsofSpainandtheirlanguages 129 JewsinSpain 129 Al-AndalusunderMuslimrule 132 JewishlanguagesandJudeo-Spanish 140 10 Loter-AshkenazandthecreationofYiddish 146 JewsinAshkenaz 146 Jewishmultilingualismatthemillennium 155 ThebirthofYiddish 156 11 TheYavanicarea:GreeceandItaly 159 GreeceandItaly 159 Jewishpublishing 168 Yavan 169 12 JewsinSlaviclands 171 Wheredidtheycomefrom? 171 ThemurkyoriginsofYiddish 178 InSlaviclands 186 13 LinguisticemancipationandassimilationinEurope 190 Intothemodernworld 190 TheEnlightenmentinwesternEurope 194 EastEuropeandtheadditionofco-territorialvernaculars 201 Yiddishunderattackinwestandeast 206 Solet’smakealanguage:Esperanto 214 14 Britain,itsformercolonies,andtheNewWorld 216 Apersonalhistory 216 Westernization:BritainandtheBritishCommonwealth 217 LanguageloyaltiesintheUnitedStates 221 OtherEnglish-speakingcountries 226 Spanish:asecondNewWorldlanguage 230 Summingup:emancipatedBritainandtheNewWorld 233 15 IslamandtheOrient 234 Jewsinpost-medievalIslam 234 TheIslamicOrient 241 Contents ix JewsinAsia 243 TheOrient:asummary 248 16 ThereturntoZionandHebrew 249 BackgroundtotheemergenceofspokenHebrew 249 TheYiddish–Hebrewstruggle 251 Hebrewbecomesofficial 259 HebrewasthehegemoniclanguageofIsrael 262 Historyorsociolinguistics? 266 Appendix EstimatedcurrentstatusofJewishlanguages 269 Notes 273 References 311 Index 342
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