Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Encyclopedia
Ghil'ad Zuckermann (born June 1, 1971, in Tel Aviv
, Israel
) is an Israel
i-Italian
-British
-Australia
n linguist
, expert of language revival, contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity. Zuckermann is Professor of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide
and holds an Australian Research Council
(ARC) Discovery Fellowship, as well as a Project 211
Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Shanghai International Studies University
.
According to Zuckermann, "Israeli" (his term for Modern Hebrew
) is a Semito
–European
hybrid language
, simultaneously based on Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages such as Russian
and Polish
. His multi-parental hybridization
model is in contrast to both the traditional revival
view (i.e. that "Israeli" is Hebrew revived) and the relexification
position (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words). Zuckermann's approach to language revival weakens the family tree
tool in historical linguistics
.
His publications include the books Israelit Safa Yafa (Israeli – A Beautiful Language) (Am Oved
, 2008, ISBN 978-965-13-1963-1) and Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (Palgrave Macmillan
, 2003, ISBN 1-4039-1723-X), the latter establishing a socio
-philological
framework for the analysis of camouflaged borrowing such as phono-semantic matching
, and introducing a classification for "multisourced neologization". He has published academic articles in English, Hebrew, Italian
, Yiddish, Spanish
, German
, Russian and Chinese.
, Israel
on June 1, 1971, attended the United World College (UWC) of the Adriatic
in 1987–1989 and served in the Israel Defense Forces
in 1989–1993. In 1993–1997 he was a scholar at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Programme for Outstanding Students of Tel Aviv University
, receiving an M.A.
(summa cum laude) from the Department of Linguistics in 1997. In 1997–2000 he was Scatcherd European Scholar of the University of Oxford
and Denise Skinner Graduate Scholar at St Hugh's College, Oxford
, receiving a D.Phil.
(Oxon.) in 2000. As Gulbenkian
Research Fellow
at Churchill College, Cambridge
(2000–2004), he was affiliated with the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Studies, University of Cambridge
. He received a titular Ph.D.
(Cantab.) from the University of Cambridge in 2003.
He has taught at universities in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel, Singapore, China, Slovakia and Australia, for example University of Cambridge (Faculty of Oriental Studies, now known as Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies), National University of Singapore
, University of Miami
, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
, University of Queensland
, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik
and Shanghai International Studies University
. He has also taught preparatory courses for various psychometric examinations
and co-authored several books in this field.
He has been awarded competitive research fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation
's Bellagio Study and Conference Center (Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio
, Lake Como
, Italy
), Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
(University of Texas at Austin
), Research Centre for Linguistic Typology (Institute for Advanced Study, La Trobe University
, Melbourne
), and National Institute for Japanese Language (Tokyo
). He has won a British Academy
Research Grant, Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarship and Chevening Scholarship
.
Zuckermann is a full Professor of Linguistics and Endangered Languages, and Australian Research Council
(ARC) Discovery Fellow in linguistics
, at the University of Adelaide
, South Australia
, Australia
. He is also China's Ivy League Project 211
Distinguished Visiting Professor, and "Shanghai Oriental Scholar" professorial fellow, at Shanghai International Studies University
. He serves as Editorial Board member of the Journal of Language Contact
(Brill
), and consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary
(OED).
, the ambassador
of the State of Israel
to the Commonwealth of Australia
, Zuckermann's "passion for the reclamation, maintenance and empowerment of Aboriginal languages and culture inspired [him] and was indeed the driving motivator of" the establishment of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre in Dubbo, New South Wales
, Australia on September 2, 2010.
Zuckermann has been an invited speaker on various TV programmes in Israel (e.g. Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 10, Channel 23, YES, YES DOCO) and the United Kingdom (e.g. BBC), as well as different radio programmes in Australia (e.g. ABC
Lingua Franca programmes, an ABC Encounter programme with David Rutledge, an ABC Big Ideas panel broadcast (April 15, 2010), SBS
interviews in Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian and English), Israel (e.g. Galey Tzahal, Reshet Bet, Kol Israel), Spain (e.g. Radio Sefarad), New Zealand, South Africa and Germany.
He has featured in newspaper articles in the United Kingdom (e.g. Reuters), US (e.g. The Forward), Canada (e.g. Globe and Mail), Israel (e.g. Haaretz
, Maariv, Yediot Aharonot, Jerusalem Post, English Haaretz, Ynet, NRG, Time Out, Makor Rishon), the Netherlands (e.g. Trouw
), Spain (e.g. Terra), Sweden (e.g. Språktidningen), New Zealand (e.g. New Zealand Jewish Chronicle), Germany (e.g. Jüdische Zeitung), and Australia (e.g. The Australian, Courier Mail, Australian Jewish News, Rhapsody).
His hybridic theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew is controversial and well known among linguists, Israelis and the Jewish world. Some scholars, for example Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz
(who refers to Zuckermann as a "fresh-thinking Israeli scholar"), adopt Zuckermann's term "Israeli" and accept his notion of hybridity. Others, for example author and translator Hillel Halkin
, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published on December 24, 2004 in The Forward
under the pseudonym "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of political agenda. Zuckermann's response was published on December 28, 2004 in The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language.
As described by Reuters
in a 2006 article, "Zuckermann's lectures are packed, with the cream of Israeli academia invariably looking uncertain on whether to endorse his innovative streak or rise to the defense of the mother tongue." According to Omri Herzog (Haaretz), Zuckermann "is considered by his Israeli colleagues either a genius or a provocateur".
, and the study of language, culture and identity. According to Joshua Fishman
, Zuckermann is a "creative, innovative, scholarly force" and his linguistic approach "is so reminiscent of, and is the successor of, the pioneering work of Uriel Weinreich
". Throughout Zuckermann's work, whether it is the analysis of a lexical item
, a grammatical construction
, the genetic affiliation
of a language
, purism
, prescriptivism
, othering or globalization
, there are motifs such as syncretism
, hybridity
, multiple causation, reinforcement, subconscious influence
, survival and camouflage.
(Germanic
, Slavic
and Romance
) and Afro-Asiatic (Semitic
). He suggests that Israeli Hebrew is the continuation not only of literary Hebrew but also of Yiddish
, as well as Polish
, Russian
, German
, English
, Ladino, Arabic
and other languages spoken by Hebrew revivalists
. Zuckermann's hybridic
model is based on two main principles: the Congruence Principle and the Founder Principle.
According to the Congruence Principle, the more contributing languages a linguistic feature
exists in, the more likely it is to persist in the target language
. Based on feature pool statistics and recognizing simultaneous multiple sources, the Congruence Principle is in contrast to the family tree
tool in historical linguistics. The Congruence Principle challenges the relexification
model, according to which Israeli Hebrew is Indo-European: Yiddish with Hebrew words.
The Founder Principle underlines the impact of the founder population on the emerging language. Thus, "Yiddish is a primary contributor to Israeli Hebrew because it was the mother tongue of the vast majority of revivalists
and first pioneers in Eretz Yisrael at the crucial period of the beginning of Israeli Hebrew". According to Zuckermann, although the revivalists wished to speak Hebrew, with Semitic
grammar and pronunciation, they could not avoid the Ashkenazi mindset
arising from their European background. He argues that their attempt to deny their European roots, negate diasporism
and avoid hybridity
(as reflected in Yiddish) failed. "Had the revivalists been Arabic-speaking Jews (e.g. from Morocco
), Israeli Hebrew would have been a totally different language – both genetically
and typologically
, much more Semitic. The impact of the founder population on Israeli Hebrew is incomparable with that of later immigrants." The Founder Principle challenges the traditional revival view, according to which Israeli Hebrew is Hebrew revived and thus Afro-Asiatic (Semitic).
Zuckermann concludes that when one revives a no-longer spoken language, one should expect to end up with a hybrid.
's classic typology
of lexical borrowing. While Haugen
categorizes borrowing
into either substitution or importation, Zuckermann explores cases of "simultaneous substitution and importation" in the form of camouflaged borrowing. He proposes a new classification
of multisourced neologisms, words deriving from two or more sources at the same time. Examples of such mechanisms are phonetic matching, semanticized phonetic matching and phono-semantic matching
. Phono-semantic matching is distinct from calquing. While calquing includes (semantic) translation
, it does not consist of phonetic matching (i.e. retaining the approximate sound of the borrowed
word through matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existent word
/morpheme
in the target language
). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew compares phono-semantic matches
in Israeli Hebrew to those in Chinese
, Japanese
, Turkish
, Arabic
, Estonian
, Yiddish
and creole languages. The book received outstanding reviews at Linguist List, as well as by James Matisoff
("fascinating and multifaceted... a paean to linguistic creativity"), Jeffrey Heath
and Geoffrey Lewis.
Zuckermann concludes that language planners
, for example members of the Academy of the Hebrew Language
, employ the very same techniques used in folk etymology by laymen, as well as by religious leaders. He urges lexicographers and etymologists to recognize the widespread phenomena of camouflaged borrowing and multisourced neologization and not to force one source on multi-parental lexical items.
and aiming to provide a systematic general linguistic analysis especially of attempts to resurrect no-longer spoken languages (language reclamation) but also of initiatives to reverse language shift
(language renewal or revitalization). "Zuckermann's term 'Revival Linguistics' is modelled upon 'Contact Linguistics' (
in Standard Mandarin
and Meiji period
Japanese
concludes that the Chinese writing system
is multifunctional: pleremic ("full" of meaning
, e.g. logographic), cenemic ("empty" of meaning, e.g. phonographic - like a syllabary
) and simultaneously cenemic and pleremic (phono-logographic). Zuckermann argues that Leonard Bloomfield
’s assertion that "a language is the same no matter what system of writing may be used" is inaccurate. “If Chinese
had been written using roman letters, thousands of Chinese words would not have been coined, or would have been coined with completely different forms”.
in Hebrew, a meaningful palindromic story, as well as the longest known Italo-Hebraic homophonous poem.
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
) is an Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i-Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
-British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n linguist
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, expert of language revival, contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity. Zuckermann is Professor of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
and holds an Australian Research Council
Australian Research Council
The Australian Research Council is the Australian Government’s main agency for allocating research funding to academics and researchers in Australian universities. Its mission is to advance Australia’s capacity to undertake research that brings economic, social and cultural benefit to the...
(ARC) Discovery Fellowship, as well as a Project 211
Project 211
Project 211 is a project of National Key Universities and colleges initiated in 1995 by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, with the intent of raising the research standards of high-level universities and cultivating strategies for socio-economic development...
Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai International Studies University is a research, teaching, and multidisciplinary university based in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Founded in December 1949 as the former Shanghai Russian School, SISU is one of the top two universities that specialise in studying foreign languages...
.
According to Zuckermann, "Israeli" (his term for Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew
Modern Hebrew , also known as Israeli Hebrew or Modern Israeli Hebrew, is the language spoken in Israel and in some Jewish communities worldwide, from the early 20th century to the present....
) is a Semito
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
–European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
hybrid language
Mixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
, simultaneously based on Hebrew, Yiddish and other languages such as Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
. His multi-parental hybridization
Mixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
model is in contrast to both the traditional revival
Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
view (i.e. that "Israeli" is Hebrew revived) and the relexification
Relexification
Relexification is a term in linguistics used to describe the mechanism of language change by which one language replaces much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with that of another language, without drastic change to its grammar. It is principally used to describe pidgins, creoles,...
position (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words). Zuckermann's approach to language revival weakens the family tree
Family tree
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...
tool in historical linguistics
Historical linguistics
Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...
.
His publications include the books Israelit Safa Yafa (Israeli – A Beautiful Language) (Am Oved
Am Oved
-History:Am Oved was founded in 1942 by Berl Katznelson, who was its first Editor in Chief.It was created as an organ of the Histadrut, Israel's federation of Labor, with a goal of publishing books that would "meet the spiritual needs of the working public." Its most well-known series is "Sifriyah...
, 2008, ISBN 978-965-13-1963-1) and Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan
Palgrave Macmillan is an international academic and trade publishing company, headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom and with offices in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi, Johannesburg. It was created in 2000 when St...
, 2003, ISBN 1-4039-1723-X), the latter establishing a socio
Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and the effects of language use on society...
-philological
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
framework for the analysis of camouflaged borrowing such as phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root....
, and introducing a classification for "multisourced neologization". He has published academic articles in English, Hebrew, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, Yiddish, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, Russian and Chinese.
Biography
Zuckermann was born in Tel AvivTel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
on June 1, 1971, attended the United World College (UWC) of the Adriatic
United World College of the Adriatic
United World College of the Adriatic is a part of the United World Colleges, a global educational movement that brings together students from all over the world – selected on personal merit, irrespective of race, religion, politics and the ability to pay – with the explicit aim of fostering peace...
in 1987–1989 and served in the Israel Defense Forces
Israel Defense Forces
The Israel Defense Forces , commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal , are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the ground forces, air force and navy. It is the sole military wing of the Israeli security forces, and has no civilian jurisdiction within Israel...
in 1989–1993. In 1993–1997 he was a scholar at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Programme for Outstanding Students of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, receiving an M.A.
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
(summa cum laude) from the Department of Linguistics in 1997. In 1997–2000 he was Scatcherd European Scholar of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
and Denise Skinner Graduate Scholar at St Hugh's College, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, receiving a D.Phil.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
(Oxon.) in 2000. As Gulbenkian
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private foundation of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education, and science...
Research Fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
at Churchill College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
(2000–2004), he was affiliated with the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Studies, University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
. He received a titular Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
(Cantab.) from the University of Cambridge in 2003.
He has taught at universities in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel, Singapore, China, Slovakia and Australia, for example University of Cambridge (Faculty of Oriental Studies, now known as Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies), National University of Singapore
National University of Singapore
The National University of Singapore is Singapore's oldest university. It is the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered....
, University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev is a university in Beersheba, Israel, established in 1969. Ben-Gurion University of the Negev has a current enrollment of 17,400 students, and is one of Israel's fastest growing universities....
, University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
, University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik
University of Pavol Jozef Safarik
The Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice is a university located in Košice, Slovakia. It was founded in 1959 and is organized in 5 faculties...
and Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai International Studies University is a research, teaching, and multidisciplinary university based in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Founded in December 1949 as the former Shanghai Russian School, SISU is one of the top two universities that specialise in studying foreign languages...
. He has also taught preparatory courses for various psychometric examinations
Psychometrics
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...
and co-authored several books in this field.
He has been awarded competitive research fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
's Bellagio Study and Conference Center (Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio
Bellagio
Bellagio is a comune in the Province of Como in the Italian region Lombardy, located on Lake Como. It has long been famous for its setting at the intersection of the three branches of the Y-shaped lake, which is also known as Lario....
, Lake Como
Lake Como
Lake Como is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of 146 km², making it the third largest lake in Italy, after Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
), Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
(University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
), Research Centre for Linguistic Typology (Institute for Advanced Study, La Trobe University
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
), and National Institute for Japanese Language (Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
). He has won a British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
Research Grant, Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarship and Chevening Scholarship
Chevening Scholarship
Chevening Scholarship is a prestigious and highly competitive scholarship scheme for international students who demonstrated leadership potential and a commitment to public service. The Chevening Scholarships are named after Chevening House in Kent, the official country residence of the Foreign...
.
Zuckermann is a full Professor of Linguistics and Endangered Languages, and Australian Research Council
Australian Research Council
The Australian Research Council is the Australian Government’s main agency for allocating research funding to academics and researchers in Australian universities. Its mission is to advance Australia’s capacity to undertake research that brings economic, social and cultural benefit to the...
(ARC) Discovery Fellow in linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, at the University of Adelaide
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third oldest university in Australia...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. He is also China's Ivy League Project 211
Project 211
Project 211 is a project of National Key Universities and colleges initiated in 1995 by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, with the intent of raising the research standards of high-level universities and cultivating strategies for socio-economic development...
Distinguished Visiting Professor, and "Shanghai Oriental Scholar" professorial fellow, at Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai International Studies University
Shanghai International Studies University is a research, teaching, and multidisciplinary university based in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Founded in December 1949 as the former Shanghai Russian School, SISU is one of the top two universities that specialise in studying foreign languages...
. He serves as Editorial Board member of the Journal of Language Contact
Journal of Language Contact
The Journal of Language Contact is a peer-reviewed academic journal published in English and French. It covers research on language contact, use, and change. This includes linguistic, anthropological, historical, and cognitive factors. The journal was established in 2007...
(Brill
Brill Publishers
Brill is an international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands. With offices in Leiden and Boston, Brill today publishes more than 134 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year...
), and consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
(OED).
Public impact
Zuckermann applies insights from the Hebrew revival to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages in Australia. According to Yuval RotemYuval Rotem
Yuval Rotem is currently the ambassador of the State of Israel to the Commonwealth of Australia.-Biography:Yuval Rotem was born on March 21, 1959 in Tel Aviv to Rachel and Israel Frenkel. They lived in a suburb called Giv'atayim. Rotem attended his first years of school in a local school. He moved...
, the ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
of the State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
to the Commonwealth of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Zuckermann's "passion for the reclamation, maintenance and empowerment of Aboriginal languages and culture inspired [him] and was indeed the driving motivator of" the establishment of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre in Dubbo, New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia on September 2, 2010.
Zuckermann has been an invited speaker on various TV programmes in Israel (e.g. Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 10, Channel 23, YES, YES DOCO) and the United Kingdom (e.g. BBC), as well as different radio programmes in Australia (e.g. ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Lingua Franca programmes, an ABC Encounter programme with David Rutledge, an ABC Big Ideas panel broadcast (April 15, 2010), SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
interviews in Hebrew, Yiddish, Italian and English), Israel (e.g. Galey Tzahal, Reshet Bet, Kol Israel), Spain (e.g. Radio Sefarad), New Zealand, South Africa and Germany.
He has featured in newspaper articles in the United Kingdom (e.g. Reuters), US (e.g. The Forward), Canada (e.g. Globe and Mail), Israel (e.g. Haaretz
Haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's oldest daily newspaper. It was founded in 1918 and is now published in both Hebrew and English in Berliner format. The English edition is published and sold together with the International Herald Tribune. Both Hebrew and English editions can be read on the Internet...
, Maariv, Yediot Aharonot, Jerusalem Post, English Haaretz, Ynet, NRG, Time Out, Makor Rishon), the Netherlands (e.g. Trouw
Trouw
Trouw is a Dutch daily newspaper. "Trouw" is a Dutch word meaning "fidelity", "loyalty", or "allegiance", and is cognate with the English adjective "true"...
), Spain (e.g. Terra), Sweden (e.g. Språktidningen), New Zealand (e.g. New Zealand Jewish Chronicle), Germany (e.g. Jüdische Zeitung), and Australia (e.g. The Australian, Courier Mail, Australian Jewish News, Rhapsody).
His hybridic theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew is controversial and well known among linguists, Israelis and the Jewish world. Some scholars, for example Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz
Dovid Katz
Dovid Katz is an American-born, Vilnius-based Judaic studies professor, Yiddish specialist, and political activist, currently living in Lithuania.-Biography:...
(who refers to Zuckermann as a "fresh-thinking Israeli scholar"), adopt Zuckermann's term "Israeli" and accept his notion of hybridity. Others, for example author and translator Hillel Halkin
Hillel Halkin
Hillel Halkin is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestselling Letters to an American-Jewish Friend: A Zionist Polemic and Across the Sabbath River: In Search of a Lost Tribe of Israel. He is a prominent translator of Hebrew and Yiddish Literature into English, including...
, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published on December 24, 2004 in The Forward
The Forward
The Forward , commonly known as The Jewish Daily Forward, is a Jewish-American newspaper published in New York City. The publication began in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily issued by dissidents from the Socialist Labor Party of Daniel DeLeon...
under the pseudonym "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of political agenda. Zuckermann's response was published on December 28, 2004 in The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language.
As described by Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
in a 2006 article, "Zuckermann's lectures are packed, with the cream of Israeli academia invariably looking uncertain on whether to endorse his innovative streak or rise to the defense of the mother tongue." According to Omri Herzog (Haaretz), Zuckermann "is considered by his Israeli colleagues either a genius or a provocateur".
Contributions to linguistics
Zuckermann’s research focuses on contact linguistics, lexicology, revival linguistics, Jewish languagesJewish languages
Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities around the world.Although Hebrew was the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries, by the fifth century BCE, the closely related Aramaic joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea and by the third...
, and the study of language, culture and identity. According to Joshua Fishman
Joshua Fishman
Joshua Aaron Fishman, is an American linguist who specializes in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.-Life:...
, Zuckermann is a "creative, innovative, scholarly force" and his linguistic approach "is so reminiscent of, and is the successor of, the pioneering work of Uriel Weinreich
Uriel Weinreich
Uriel Weinreich was a linguist at Columbia University. Born in Vilnius , he earned his Ph.D. from Columbia, and went on to teach there, specializing in Yiddish studies, sociolinguistics, and dialectology...
". Throughout Zuckermann's work, whether it is the analysis of a lexical item
Lexical item
A Lexical item is a single word or chain of words that forms the basic elements of a language's lexicon . Examples are "cat", "traffic light", "take care of", "by-the-way", and "it's raining cats and dogs"...
, a grammatical construction
Grammatical construction
In linguistics, a grammatical construction is any syntactic string of words ranging from sentences over phrasal structures to certain complex lexemes, such as phrasal verbs....
, the genetic affiliation
Genetic relationship
In linguistics, genetic relationship is the usual term for the relationship which exists between languages that are members of the same language family. The term genealogical relationship is sometimes used to avoid confusion with the unrelated use of the term in biological genetics...
of a language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
, purism
Purism
Purism was a form of Cubism advocated by the French painter Amédée Ozenfant and the architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret . Purism rejected the decorative trend of cubism and advocated a return to clear, ordered forms that were expressive of the modern machine age as documented in their 1918 book...
, prescriptivism
Prescriptivism
Prescriptivism may refer to:* Linguistic prescription, the prescribing of rules for language* Universal prescriptivism, a meta-ethical theory of the meaning of moral statements...
, othering or globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, there are motifs such as syncretism
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
, hybridity
Hybridity
Hybridity refers in its most basic sense to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture...
, multiple causation, reinforcement, subconscious influence
Subconscious
The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings....
, survival and camouflage.
Historical linguistics - characterization of Israeli Hebrew
Zuckermann argues that Israeli Hebrew, which he calls "Israeli", is genetically both Indo-EuropeanIndo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
(Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
and Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
) and Afro-Asiatic (Semitic
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
). He suggests that Israeli Hebrew is the continuation not only of literary Hebrew but also of Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
, as well as Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Ladino, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and other languages spoken by Hebrew revivalists
Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
. Zuckermann's hybridic
Mixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
model is based on two main principles: the Congruence Principle and the Founder Principle.
According to the Congruence Principle, the more contributing languages a linguistic feature
Feature (linguistics)
A feature is a concept applied to several fields of linguistics, typically involving the assignment of binary or unary conditions which act as constraints.-In phonology:...
exists in, the more likely it is to persist in the target language
Target language
Target language may refer to:*Target language, in applied linguistics and language education, the language which a person is learning, also called second language*Target language, in translation, the language to which a source text is translated...
. Based on feature pool statistics and recognizing simultaneous multiple sources, the Congruence Principle is in contrast to the family tree
Family tree
A family tree, or pedigree chart, is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...
tool in historical linguistics. The Congruence Principle challenges the relexification
Relexification
Relexification is a term in linguistics used to describe the mechanism of language change by which one language replaces much or all of its lexicon, including basic vocabulary, with that of another language, without drastic change to its grammar. It is principally used to describe pidgins, creoles,...
model, according to which Israeli Hebrew is Indo-European: Yiddish with Hebrew words.
The Founder Principle underlines the impact of the founder population on the emerging language. Thus, "Yiddish is a primary contributor to Israeli Hebrew because it was the mother tongue of the vast majority of revivalists
Language revival
Language revitalization, language revival or reversing language shift is the attempt by interested parties, including individuals, cultural or community groups, governments, or political authorities, to reverse the decline of a language. If the decline is severe, the language may be endangered,...
and first pioneers in Eretz Yisrael at the crucial period of the beginning of Israeli Hebrew". According to Zuckermann, although the revivalists wished to speak Hebrew, with Semitic
Semitic languages
The Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
grammar and pronunciation, they could not avoid the Ashkenazi mindset
Mindset
In decision theory and general systems theory, a mindset is a set of assumptions, methods or notations held by one or more people or groups of people which is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within these people or groups to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviors, choices,...
arising from their European background. He argues that their attempt to deny their European roots, negate diasporism
Diaspora
A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...
and avoid hybridity
Hybridity
Hybridity refers in its most basic sense to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture...
(as reflected in Yiddish) failed. "Had the revivalists been Arabic-speaking Jews (e.g. from Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
), Israeli Hebrew would have been a totally different language – both genetically
Genetics
Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....
and typologically
Typology
Typology is the study of types. More specifically, it may refer to:*Typology , division of culture by races*Typology , classification of things according to their characteristics...
, much more Semitic. The impact of the founder population on Israeli Hebrew is incomparable with that of later immigrants." The Founder Principle challenges the traditional revival view, according to which Israeli Hebrew is Hebrew revived and thus Afro-Asiatic (Semitic).
Zuckermann concludes that when one revives a no-longer spoken language, one should expect to end up with a hybrid.
Lexicology - analysis of camouflaged borrowing
Zuckermann's analysis of multisourced neologization challenges Einar HaugenEinar Haugen
Einar Ingvald Haugen was an American linguist, author and Professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard University.-Biography:Haugen was born in Sioux City, Iowa to Norwegians from the town of Oppdal in Norway. When he was a young child, the family moved back to Oppdal for a few years,...
's classic typology
Typology
Typology is the study of types. More specifically, it may refer to:*Typology , division of culture by races*Typology , classification of things according to their characteristics...
of lexical borrowing. While Haugen
Einar Haugen
Einar Ingvald Haugen was an American linguist, author and Professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard University.-Biography:Haugen was born in Sioux City, Iowa to Norwegians from the town of Oppdal in Norway. When he was a young child, the family moved back to Oppdal for a few years,...
categorizes borrowing
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
into either substitution or importation, Zuckermann explores cases of "simultaneous substitution and importation" in the form of camouflaged borrowing. He proposes a new classification
Classification
Classification may refer to:* Library classification and classification in general* Taxonomic classification * Biological classification of organisms* Medical classification* Scientific classification...
of multisourced neologisms, words deriving from two or more sources at the same time. Examples of such mechanisms are phonetic matching, semanticized phonetic matching and phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root....
. Phono-semantic matching is distinct from calquing. While calquing includes (semantic) translation
Translation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of...
, it does not consist of phonetic matching (i.e. retaining the approximate sound of the borrowed
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
word through matching it with a similar-sounding pre-existent word
Word
In language, a word is the smallest free form that may be uttered in isolation with semantic or pragmatic content . This contrasts with a morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning but will not necessarily stand on its own...
/morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
in the target language
Target language
Target language may refer to:*Target language, in applied linguistics and language education, the language which a person is learning, also called second language*Target language, in translation, the language to which a source text is translated...
). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew compares phono-semantic matches
Phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root....
in Israeli Hebrew to those in Chinese
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
, Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Estonian
Estonian language
Estonian is the official language of Estonia, spoken by about 1.1 million people in Estonia and tens of thousands in various émigré communities...
, Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
and creole languages. The book received outstanding reviews at Linguist List, as well as by James Matisoff
James Matisoff
James A. Matisoff is a professor emeritus of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley and noted authority on Tibeto-Burman languages and other languages of mainland Southeast Asia....
("fascinating and multifaceted... a paean to linguistic creativity"), Jeffrey Heath
Jeffrey Heath (linguist)
Jeffrey Heath is Professor of Historical Linguistics, Morphology, Arabic and Linguistic Anthropology at the University of Michigan, USA. He is known particularly for his work in historical linguistics and for his extensive fieldwork....
and Geoffrey Lewis.
Zuckermann concludes that language planners
Language planning
Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, such as grass-roots...
, for example members of the Academy of the Hebrew Language
Academy of the Hebrew Language
The Academy of the Hebrew Language was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language."-History:...
, employ the very same techniques used in folk etymology by laymen, as well as by religious leaders. He urges lexicographers and etymologists to recognize the widespread phenomena of camouflaged borrowing and multisourced neologization and not to force one source on multi-parental lexical items.
Revival linguistics - exploration of universal constraints and mechanisms in language reclamation
Zuckermann introduces Revival Linguistics as a new subdiscipline of linguistics, complementing documentary linguisticsLanguage documentation
Language documentation is the process by which a language is documented from a documentary linguistics perspective. It aims to “to provide a comprehensive record of the linguistic practices characteristic of a given speech community”...
and aiming to provide a systematic general linguistic analysis especially of attempts to resurrect no-longer spoken languages (language reclamation) but also of initiatives to reverse language shift
Language shift
Language shift, sometimes referred to as language transfer or language replacement or assimilation, is the progressive process whereby a speech community of a language shifts to speaking another language. The rate of assimilation is the percentage of individuals with a given mother tongue who speak...
(language renewal or revitalization). "Zuckermann's term 'Revival Linguistics' is modelled upon 'Contact Linguistics' (
Writing systems - characterization of Chinese orthography
Zuckermann’s exploration of phono-semantic matchingPhono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching is a linguistic term referring to camouflaged borrowing in which a foreign word is matched with a phonetically and semantically similar pre-existent native word/root....
in Standard Mandarin
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
and Meiji period
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
concludes that the Chinese writing system
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
is multifunctional: pleremic ("full" of meaning
Meaning (linguistics)
In linguistics, meaning is what is expressed by the writer or speaker, and what is conveyed to the reader or listener, provided that they talk about the same thing . In other words if the object and the name of the object and the concepts in their head are the same...
, e.g. logographic), cenemic ("empty" of meaning, e.g. phonographic - like a syllabary
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
) and simultaneously cenemic and pleremic (phono-logographic). Zuckermann argues that Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield
Leonard Bloomfield was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. His influential textbook Language, published in 1933, presented a comprehensive description of American structural linguistics...
’s assertion that "a language is the same no matter what system of writing may be used" is inaccurate. “If Chinese
Standard Mandarin
Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
had been written using roman letters, thousands of Chinese words would not have been coined, or would have been coined with completely different forms”.
Recreational linguistics - constrained literature
Zuckermann wrote the longest known palindromePalindrome
A palindrome is a word, phrase, number, or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction, with general allowances for adjustments to punctuation and word dividers....
in Hebrew, a meaningful palindromic story, as well as the longest known Italo-Hebraic homophonous poem.
Publications (selection)
- Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew, Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, 2003. (ISBN 1-4039-1723-X)
- Israelit Safa Yafa (Israeli – A Beautiful Language), Am Oved, Tel Aviv, 2008. (ISBN 978-965-13-1963-1)
- Language Contact and Globalisation: The Camouflaged Influence of English on the World’s Languages – with special attention to Israeli (sic) and Mandarin, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 16 (2), pp. 287–307, 2003.
- Cultural Hybridity: Multisourced Neologization in 'Reinvented' Languages and in Languages with 'Phono-Logographic' Script, Languages in Contrast 4 (2), pp. 281–318, 2004.
- "Phono-Semantische Abgleichung", Semantik im Lexikon, Stefan Langer & Daniel Schnorbusch (eds), Gunter Narr, Tübingen, pp. 223–267, 2005.
- A New Vision for 'Israeli Hebrew': Theoretical and Practical Implications of Analysing Israel's Main Language as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 5 (1), pp. 57–71, 2006.
- Complement Clause Types in Israeli", Complementation: A Cross-Linguistic Typology, R. M. W. Dixon & A. Y. Aikhenvald (eds), Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 72–92, 2006.
- 'Etymythological Othering' and the Power of 'Lexical Engineering' in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. A Socio-Philo(sopho)logical Perspective, Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion, Tope Omoniyi & Joshua A. Fishman (eds), Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 237–258, 2006.
- 《混合还是复苏：以色列语的起源——多来源，形式和模式》, 南开语言学刊 (Nankai Linguistics) 2008-2, pp. 23–35, 2008.
- 'Realistic Prescriptivism': The Academy of the Hebrew Language, its Campaign of 'Good Grammar' and Lexpionage, and the Native Israeli Speakers, Israel Studies in Language and Society 1, pp. 135–154, 2008.
- Icelandic: Phonosemantic Matching, Globally Speaking: Motives for Adopting English Vocabulary in Other Languages, Judith Rosenhouse & Rotem Kowner (eds), Multilingual Matters Clevedon-Buffalo-Toronto, pp. 19–43, 2008. (Sapir, Yair & Zuckermann, Ghil'ad)
- Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns, Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2, pp. 40–67, 2009.
- Blorít: Pagans’ Mohawk or Sabras’ Forelock?: Ideological Secularization of Hebrew Terms in Socialist Zionist Israeli, The Sociology of Language and Religion: Change, Conflict and Accommodation, Tope Omoniyi (ed.), Palgrave Macmillan, Houndmills, pp. 84–125, 2010. (Yadin, Azzan & Zuckermann, Ghil'ad)
- Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures, Australian Journal of Linguistics 31 (1), pp. 111–127, 2011. (Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Walsh, Michael)