Re: SWH (was Re: Linguistics journals)

["Mark E. Shoulson" <shoulson@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU>]

>Date:         Wed, 22 Oct 1997 22:01:09 -0700
>From: Edward Cherlin <cherlin@CAUCE.ORG>
>
>It would be interesting to compare this with the revival of spoken Hebrew
>in Palestine, which reportedly derived from the determination of one family
>to use Hebrew exclusively at home.

Er, "in Israel" might be more appropriate, even without political
considerations (the name of the country), since we are discussing features
that relate to the polity known as Israel (Hebrew is its official
language).

Presumably this would be Ben-Yehudah.  I've not studied the history
terribly much myself, but he is generally considered the father of modern
Hebrew.  But his Hebrew, which he did speak at home and which he did force
his family to speak, has some pretty drastic differences from what became
normative Modern Hebrew.  I've read an article here and there about talking
with his daughter, some of the usages she had.  It was sort of like finding
someone who spoke really stilted Shakespearean English (and not as well as
Shakespeare) as a vernacular.  "Please" was "ana" instead of "b'vaqashah":
sounded something like "prithee" or "I most humbly beg"; "Thank you" was
"chen chen" instead of "todah", etc.  If Modern Hebrew is descended from
Ben-Yehudah's home language, it isn't directly.

~mark