What Hebrew do we speak?

NURIT DEKEL

The Haggadah shel Pesach says, “Va-yare‘u otano ha-mitsrim va-ye‘anunu, va-yitnu ‘aleynu ‘avoda kasha.” (“The Egyptians treated us badly and they made us suffer, and they put hard work upon us.”) How would we say this in spoken Hebrew? It would probably be something like: “Ha-mitsrim asu lanu chaim kashim, inu otanu, ve-heevidu otanu kashe meod.” The content is the same, but some of the words are different, hey, alef and ayin (written as ‘ in transliteration) are not pronounced by most speakers, and all the language structures are different: verb forms, word order, personal pronouns, conjunctions – not even one structure is identical in both varieties. Does this mean that the Hebrew we speak is wrong? Not really.

Most Hebrew grammar classes worldwide are based on normative rules that have been defined by Hebrew scholars; spoken Hebrew is conceived as a poor language, with no consistent rules. As a result, Israelis in Israel and Hebrew learners outside Israel are trained to believe that they speak Hebrew with mistakes. Linguistically, this is unacceptable. The acquisition of a native language is a biological need; it is a natural universal process in which speakers acquire the grammar of their native language. By the age of 12, the acquisition of our native language is complete, and we have a perfect language system that is called “grammar,” which contains language rules and vocabulary.

This grammar is not defined by scholars: it is unconsciously defined and determined by the speakers themselves according to linguistic and environmental factors that are a part of the reality in which they live. All the native speakers of a language share a similar grammar that enables them to communicate with one another and to understand one another. Language “mistakes” are invented by language purists to explain why we do not speak Hebrew the way they want us to.

How did this approach arise? This is a political issue. At the end of the 19th century, Zionist Jews decided to revive Hebrew, using biblical Hebrew as the main model language for their community in Palestine. The committee established for this purpose evolved into today’s governmental authority, the Academy of the Hebrew Language (AHL), that promotes Hebrew as Israel’s “correct” national language. (See hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il.) This Hebrew consists of historical rules, and whatever is not approved by the AHL is considered a “mistake.” Hebrew scholars around the world have adopted the AHL’s approach, and teach Hebrew accordingly.

However, today’s spoken Hebrew is not “revived” old Hebrew, but rather a newly created language. The (AHL) rules that Israelis are taught in Israeli schools, and Jews are taught in Jewish day schools, are different from the rules of spoken Hebrew. Consequently, many of the language structures, patterns and linguistic strategies of spoken Hebrew do not correspond to those of Hebrew. (See Dekel, N. 2012. “Language Policy in Israel: Israeli vs. Hebrew.” Academic Exchange Quarterly 16 (1).) Furthermore, the so-called “mistakes” repeat themselves, i.e., all speakers make exactly the same ones. This suggests that these “mistakes” are in fact not mistakes, but rather rules of spoken Hebrew, rules not supported by the AHL and most Hebrew scholars. Some examples are presented hereafter.

Learners of Hebrew are taught that the Hebrew verb system contains seven verbal patterns: pa‘al, nif‘al, pi‘el, pu‘al hitpa‘el, hif‘il, huf‘al, out of which pu‘al and huf‘al express passive meanings. In spoken Hebrew, these two patterns are not used, and passive contents are expressed by reverse active contents. Hence, a sentence like “she was fed” would not be translated “hi huachla,” but rather “heechilu ota” (literally, “they fed her”). (See Dekel, N. 2010. A Matter of Time: Tense, Mood and Aspect in Spontaneous Spoken Israeli Hebrew. Utrecht: LOT.)

Hebrew learners are also taught that numerals have masculine and feminine forms. In spoken Hebrew, apart from the digit “one,” there is only one form: the feminine. Therefore, the numeral four in the Haggadah phrase “arba‘a banim” (“four sons”) in spoken Hebrew would most likely be “arb‘a banim.”

The Haggadah also says: “Va-yevarech Elohim et yom ha-shevi‘i va-yeqadesh oto ki bo shavat mi-kol melachto asher bara Elohim la‘asot.” (“And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.”) In the text, the verb forms yevarech and yeqadesh represent an imperfective aspect, which is an action observed internally as ongoing, and the forms shavat and bara represent a perfective aspect, which is an action observed externally as one whole. These forms are analyzed by Hebrew scholars today as future and past forms, respectively. The tenses in Hebrew are an analysis adopted by Hebrew “revivers” for an unknown reason. When looking into the spoken variety, the theory of tenses becomes very weak, because almost no verb in the spoken language expresses tense. Rather, time expressions are used with the verb to express the time of occurrence. The verb forms yevarech and yeqadesh represent mood in today’s spoken Hebrew, expressing the speaker’s attitudes and thoughts; shavat and bara represent a perfective aspect, just like in the Haggadah. (Ibid.)

In the same quote, note the word order of “Va-yevarech Elohim ... bara Elohim,” where the subject follows the verb. In spoken Hebrew, the order is reversed, the subject preceding the verb. So, these expressions would probably be uttered “Elohim berech” and “Elohim bara,” respectively.

Agglutination is a linguistic process by which an affix is attached to a stem or to a word to form a new meaning; agglutinated pronouns are pronouns that are attached to the noun as affixes, mostly as suffixes. The Haggadah shel Pesach contains many agglutinated pronouns, such as “va-ye‘anu-nu” (“they tortured us”) or “tashlichu-hu” (“you shall throw him” into the Nile).

In spoken Hebrew, accusative pronouns are never attached to verbs. In general, pronouns are rarely attached to any part of speech that is not a preposition. Accordingly, one would use independent pronouns to express the above contents in spoken Hebrew, and probably also a different word instead of tashlich, as follows: “yeanu otanu” and “tizrok oto.” In these expressions, as well as in others, note the lack of ayin and hey. Another verbal expression in the Haggadah, “tse u-lemad” (consider; literally “go out and see”), is different in both conjunction and verb form in spoken Hebrew, speakers preferring the expression “lech ve-tilmad.”

Most Hebrew scholars claim that spoken Hebrew has been influenced too much by foreign languages, mainly English, and that speakers should use Hebrew terms for words from other languages. This claim is debatable: words like Google, discuss, fax and click (a mouse) indeed originated in English, but the verbs gigel, diskes, fikses and hiklik have become completely Hebrew. Why is that? Because Israelis extract the consonantal skeletons from the English words, use them as roots and integrate them into Hebrew verbal patterns. The root-pattern combination is a Semitic characteristic and, although the origins of today’s Hebrew are under debate in this regard – (See Zuckermann, G. 2006. “A New Vision for ‘Israeli Hebrew’: Theoretical and Practical Implications of Analyzing Israel’s Main Language as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language.” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 5 (1): 57-71) – this part of the language is definitely Semitic. This is apparent in the strategies that speakers use to form new words, in particular new verbs. It is easier for them to keep the original consonants than to start using a whole new Hebrew word. Furthermore, the Haggadah itself, as well as many other older Hebrew writings, contain myriad foreign elements originating in Aramaic, Persian, Greek. In the Haggadah and the Bible, for example, whole chapters are written in Aramaic.

Have you ever tried to use the Hebrew you learn to communicate with Israelis? How useful was it? Did it sound a bit strange to them? When analyzing spoken Hebrew deeply, all its language systems are different from normative Hebrew. Some of the differences are minor, but many of them are major and critical. The gap is definitely large enough to define two separate languages. Hence, do not accept as an axiom the claim that the Hebrew you use contains mistakes; these “mistakes” are probably contemporary Hebrew rules. And, do not fear to use your Hebrew in public. Spoken Hebrew is a living language and, like all living languages, it is continuously changing; it contains original and new systems and characteristics, and these features are what make it so special.

Nurit Dekel, PhD, is a senior researcher at University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and principal linguist at Natural Speech Communication, Israel.

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