Sociolinguistics of modern Hebrew

The chapter characterizes Modern Hebrew as having developed in a highly multilingual setting. This evolved, initially, from a century of Jewish immigrations starting in the 1880s, bringing languages from Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, and North Africa. Subsequently, late 20th-century immigrations from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia and an influx of global languages further increased multilingualism in the small area of what was known formerly as Palestine (or Eretz Yisrael 'the Land of Israel') and, since 1948, as Israel. The impact of these incoming languages on Modern Hebrew is described as depending on varying sociolinguistic factors of languages-in-contact, including an asymmetric interaction pattern that evolved between Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic which, together with more general socio-historical factors, created a multitude of communal varieties, and different registers, genres, styles, and codes of usage. The chapter also briefly considers issues of language, gender, and power as well as language policy and planning in this complex sociolinguistic setting, concluding with general comments on the current linguistic landscape of Modern Hebrew.