Full Description
Engages directly with the delicate intersections between homogenizing state policies and the extraordinary linguistic diversity on the ground.
This book provides the most comprehensive overview to date of multilingualism in Israel, spanning Hebrew-only ideologies, immigrant and heritage languages, and grassroots community initiatives. The first section ('Ideologies') examines the persistence of monolingual Hebrew language ideologies and state efforts to regulate Yiddish, Arabic and other languages, and how such efforts have been contested in domains such as cinema, theatre, the printed press and digital media.
The second section ('Realities') explores the resilience of community languages, from Amharic and Russian to Chinese, Ladino and local sign languages, and demonstrates how community resilience and linguistic practices often prove stronger than official ideologies or state policy.
By situating multilingual practices within current political tensions, migration debates and language ideologies, the book offers essential insights for scholars, students and those interested in sociolinguistics, language policy and the complexities of Israeli society.
Contents
Chapter 1. Iair G. Or, Elana Shohamy and Bernard Spolsky: Israel: A Multilingual Space Shaped by People, Media Technology, Policies, Ideologies and Needs
PART 1: IDEOLOGIES
Chapter 2. Dafna Yitzhaki: 'This Clause Does Not Harm the Status Given to the Arabic Language...' - The Nation State Law and the Status of the Arabic Language - A Language Ideology Perspective
Chapter 3. Yuval Rubovitch: The War of Languages and German-Speaking Jewry
Chapter 4. Rachel Rojanski: Was Yiddish Really Persecuted in Early Israel? The Case of the Yiddish Press
Chapter 5. Abed al-Rahman Mar'i: Ideological Dilemmas in the Use of Arabizi by Young Arab Citizens in Israel
Chapter 6. Oren Livio: 'Israeli Arabic': The Story of New Varieties in the State of Israel
Chapter 7. Sarit Cofman-Simhon: Jewish Languages and Inclusivity-Exclusivity Dialectics in Israeli Theatre
Chapter 8. Sigal Yona: The Presence of Arabic in Israeli Cinema
PART 2: REALITIES
Chapter 9. Dolly Eliyahu-Levi: Abugida: Keeping the Tigrinya Language and Culture Alive
Chapter 10. Yael Gaulan and Yuli Hatzofe: Humanizing Through Language Instruction: Hebrew Classes for Asylum Seekers in Israel
Chapter 11. Adam Ahmed and Lisa Richlen: Language Reclamation: A Response to the Oppressive Sudanese State and a Coping Strategy for Darfurian Asylum Seekers in Israel
Chapter 12. Belaynesh Mekonen, Monica Broido and Michal Tannenbaum: Keepers of the Flame: Mitigating Language Shift in the Ethiopian Jewish Community in Israel
Chapter 13. Wendy Sandler: The Sign Language Mosaic in Israel
Chapter 14. Marina Niznik: The Russian Israeli Community: A Language-Based Phenomenon
Chapter 15 Ivonne Lerner and Rosalie Sitman: Spanish and the Spanish-Speaking Community in Israel Today
Chapter 16 Ora (Rodrigue) Schwarzwald: Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) in Israel in a Multilingual Society
Chapter 17. Tamar Cohen-Kehat: Patterns of Maintenance, Use and Teaching of Chinese as a Heritage Language in Chinese Communities in Israel
Chapter 18. Haitam Shehadeh: The Presence of Hebrew in the Arabic Discourse of Staff Meetings in an Arab School
