When does a language of the Jews become a Jewish language? A lecture held at the Language Education Research Seminar, Tel Aviv University, 18 April, 2013. Prof. Emeritus Bernard Spolsky from Bar-Ilan University, presented by Prof. Elana Shohamy from Tel Aviv University.
Abstract: In Spolsky & Benor (2006), it was noted that the recognition of Jewish language varieties began with Mieses (1915) but is better dated from the 1970s with such publications as Birnbaum (1972), Weinreich (1980) and collections like Fishman (1985). These studies have involved an acceptance of the fact that around the world and throughout history, Jews have spoken and written somewhat differently from the non-Jews around them. The definition of these varieties has been controversial, with the largest question remaining how to classify Modern Israeli Hebrew. In this paper, I will discuss the issue by attempting to distinguish languages of the Jews (languages that Jews have spoken in the course of their history) from Jewish varieties, starting with Judeo-Aramaic and concluding with the current version of Hebrew.
