Languages of Israel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Israeli population is a linguistically and culturally diverse community. The 15th edition of Ethnologue lists 33 languages and dialects spoken in local communities, whether small or large [1]. The main language used for communication among Israeli citizens is Modern Hebrew, a language that emerged in the late 19th century, based on different dialects of ancient Hebrew and somewhat influenced by Slavic languages and German. Several laws determine the official status of languages and language policy in Israel. This confusing situation led to several appeals to the supreme court, whose rulings enforced the current policy of national and local authorities.
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[edit] Official status of languages
Currently, there are two official languages in Israel; Hebrew and Arabic. The status of English is semi-official. The main law that governs the language policy is the 82nd paragraph of the "Palestine order in council" issued on August 14, 1922[2], for the British Mandate for Palestine:
- All Ordinances, official notices and official forms of the Government and all official notices of local authorities and municipalities in areas to be prescribed by order of the High Commissioner, shall be published in English, Arabic and Hebrew.
This law, like most other British Mandate's laws, was adopted in the State of Israel, subject to certain amendments published by the provisional legislative branch on May 19, 1948.
[edit] Hebrew
The Palestine Mandate articles, issued by The Council of the League of Nations in 1922, and The 1922 Palestine order in council were the first in modern time to acknowledge Hebrew as an official language of a political entity. This was a significant achievement of the Zionist movement which sought to establish Hebrew as the national language of the Jewish people, and discouraged the use of other Jewish languages, particularly Yiddish.
The movement for the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language was particularly popular among new Jewish Zionist immigrants, who came to Palestine since the 1880s. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (Born in the Russian Empire) and his followers created the first Hebrew speaking schools, newspapers and other Hebrew speaking organizations. After his and the impetus of the Second Aliyah (1905-1914), Hebrew prevailed as the single official and spoken language of the Jewish community of Palestine. When the State of Israel was formed in 1948, the government saw Hebrew as its prime language as a matter-of-fact decision, and initiated a melting pot policy, where every immigrant was required to study Hebrew and often to adopt a Hebrew surname. Use of Yiddish, which was the prime competitor before World War II, was discouraged[1], and the number of Yiddish speakers subsided as the older generations died out, though it is still commonly used in Ashkenazi Ultra-orthodox communities.
Today, Hebrew is the language used in official correspondence, in Knesset debates, in court sessions and other official procedures. Hebrew lessons are provided in Arabic-speaking schools from the 3rd grade onwards, and a Hebrew exam is an essential part of the matriculation exams for students of these schools.
There is a state-owned institute, the Academy of the Hebrew Language, established in 1953 by a Knesset law, whose role is to research the Hebrew language and offer unified rules for the use of the language by the state. Although its decision are supposed to be mandatory, many state-owned organizations ignore them.
[edit] Arabic
Arabic is also an official language of Israel. Arabic is spoken mainly by Israeli Arabs, although some members within the Mizrahi and Yemenite Jewish communities also speak it. In 1949, 156,000[2] Arab Palestinians were left remaining within Israel's armistice line, most of whom did not speak Hebrew. Today there are more than a million Arab Israelis, and most of them speak Hebrew fluently.
For many years the Israeli authorities were reluctant to use Arabic, except when explicitly ordered by law (e.g. in warnings on dangerous chemicals), and when addressing the Arabic speaking population. This has changed following the November 2000 supreme court ruling, which determines that although second to Hebrew, the use of Arabic should be much more extensive[3]. Since then, all roadsigns, food labels and other legally required messages must be translated into Arabic, unless being issued by a local authority of an entirely Hebrew speaking community.
Arabic was always considered a legitimate language for use in the Knesset, but only rarely do Arabic speaking Knesset members make use of this privilege. This is because while all Arabic speaking MKs are fluent in Hebrew, only few Hebrew speaking MKs can understand Arabic.
Arabic lessons are widespread in Hebrew-speaking schools from the 7th grade to the 9th grade. Those who wish may opt to continue their Arabic studies up to 12th grade and take an Arabic matriculation exam.
In March 2007 the Knesset approved a new law calling for the establishment of an Arabic language academy similar to the one already exists for the Hebrew language. This institute is due to be established by January 1, 2008[4].
[edit] English
The amendments to the British Mandate's legal system, issued in May 1948 (paragraph 15-b) states:
- Any order in the law which requires the use of the English language is hereby abolished.
This does not exclude English from the list of official languages, but it abolishes the priority given to English under the British Mandate rule. In practice the use of English decreased dramatically during the state's first years. At first, Israel used French as a diplomatic language, even though most state officials and civil servants were more fluent in English. During the late 1960s, the Israeli-French alliance was undermined, giving way to a stronger Israeli-American alliance, and paving the way for the English language to regain some of its lost status. Today, English is the main language for foreign communication exchange, but it is not allowed in Knesset debates or in formulating laws. Some British Mandate laws are still formulated in English, and their translation into Hebrew is done gradually. English is mandatory as a second language in schools and universities, for both Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking students.
[edit] Other languages
[edit] Policy towards immigrants' languages
The melting pot policy, which governed the Israeli language policy in its early days, was gradually neglected during the late 1970s. While in the 1950s the Israeli law banned Yiddish theatres and forced civil servants to adopt Hebrew surnames, the new policy allowed immigrants to communicate with the authorities in their language of origin and encouraged them to keep their original language and culture. This new practice has become evident since the early 1990s, due to the massive immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union, and the additional large immigration from Ethiopia. The Israeli authorities started to use Russian and Amharic extensively when communicating with the new immigrants. During the 1991 Gulf War, warnings and instructions were issued in at least 7 languages.
[edit] Non-official languages widely spoken in Israel
Because Israel is a multi-cultural society, many other languages are known by large sectors of the population. The main ones are as follows:
- Russian - Russian is by far the most widely spoken non-official language in Israel, not taking English into account. As many as 16% of Israelis are fluent in Russian after mass immigration from the USSR and its successor states in the 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. The government and businesses often provide information in Russian, and it is semi-official in some areas.
- Amharic is spoken by most of Israel's 100,000 Ethiopian Jews, most of whom arrived in two massive operations transporting tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews from Ethiopia to Israel (1984 and 1991). Amharic is often used in government announcements and publications.
- Romanian - it is estimated that there are several hundred thousand immigrants from Romania and their descendants in Israel. As such, Romanian is often encountered among this group.
- Yiddish - the Ashkenazi Jewish language and the second most widely spoken Jewish language, is a variant of German, mixed with Hebrew. It was banned in Israel's early statehood days, but is making a cultural revival in the 21st century. It is still regularly used in some ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi communities. However, critics say that it is dying with the old generations of Ashkenazi Jews. Today there is a state-supported authority for preserving the Yiddish culture.
- Ladino - the Sephardi Jewish language and the third most widely spoken Jewish language, it is a variant of medieval Spanish, intermixed with Hebrew. It is spoken by many Sephardi Jews. Today there is a state-supported authority for preserving the Ladino culture.
- Polish - no longer very common, this language was spoken by the large aliyah from Poland. Today, it is somewhat common in Polish moshavei ovdim, created during the 1940s and 1950s.
- Ukrainian - while most Ukrainian Jews prefer to speak Russian, there is a notable segment of Ukrainian speakers.
- Spanish - spoken by Jews from Argentina and other olim from other Spanish-speaking countries, and some Sephardi groups. It is not restricted to Sephardim, as most Argentinian Jews are actually Ashkenazim. Spanish has been recently introduced to several schools' curricula instead of French.
- French - spoken by many Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian Jews, either as native or second language of the francised Maghreb Jews, and by the increasing number of new immigrants from France and other French speaking countries. Also spoken by foreign workers from western Africa. For many years it used to be the diplomatic language of Israel, and it is still taught in many Israeli schools. The French embassy's Institut français supports French studies in Israeli schools.
- Italian - spoken mainly by many Italian Jews. Also, many Jews from Libya (a former Italian colony) speak Italian as primary or second language.
- Persian - spoken by many former Jewish immigrants from Iran and their children.
- Kayla and Qwara - the languages of the Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewry). Also spoken by some Beta Israel is Amharic.
- Chinese, Tagalog and Thai - while spoken by a negligible amount of Israeli Jews, Chinese, Tagalog and Thai are making a headway in Israeli society in the 21st century, due to an influx of legal and illegal non-Jewish immigrants from China, The Philippines and Thailand. It is estimated that there are 180,000 such illegal immigrants.[citation needed] Many (though mostly Vietnamese) legally entered the country when Israel opened their doors to "boat people" from war-torn Southeast Asia in the 1970s.[citation needed]
- Marathi - Because many Jews from the west coast of India, who were Marathi-speaking, left for Israel after its formation.
- Bukhori - spoken by the Bukharian Jews who left Central Asia for Israel
[edit] References and footnotes
- ^ As described by the Yiddish-speaking actor Nathan Wolfowicz in the Israeli Yiddish newspaper Letzte Naies on 20 July 1951. A Hebrew translation of his article by Rachel Rozhenski appeared in Haaretz on 31 March 2004.
- ^ Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar, Relations between Jews and Arabs during Israel's first decade (in Hebrew).
- ^ The official text of the Israeli supreme court ruling (in Hebrew).
- ^ The law in Hebrew in the Israeli official gazette (publication no. 2092 from March 28, 2007).
[edit] See also
- Languages of Israel Ethnologue (population for each)
- Demographics of Israel
[edit] External links
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