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Hebrew Components in the Arabic of the People of 'Isfiya
Abstract
The Druze are a unique religious community with four main concentrations in the Middle East: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. There are over 100,000 Druze in Israel and about 10% of them reside in 'Isfiya on Mount Carmel, not far from Haifa. The Arabic spoken in the village is classified as Palestinian Arabic spoken by Israeli citizens (separate from the Palestinian Arabic spoken in the West bank and Gaza strip). Their Arabic is in close contact with Hebrew, the majority language in Israel, and as is usual with languages in close contact, they influence each other to a large degree. In this paper we would like to investigate the Hebrew components in the speech of the people of 'Isfiya. This research is part of a larger project where we investigate the influence of Hebrew on the Arabic spoken in Israel and the influence of Arabic on the Hebrew spoken there. Our research is based on theories of languages in contact and interference and draws its data from several recordings and interviews conducted by us in 'Isfiya. The interference can be examined from two directions. In what we term "Direction A" Hebrew is the recipient language and Arabic is the source or primary language. Hebrew components experience interference from Arabic but are incorporated fully into the Arabic, taking on the Arabic structure. For example, when the Hebrew verbal root sh-m-r 'guard' takes Arabic verbal pattern to result in /byushmur/ 'he guards.' Furthermore, Hebrew /tsimer/ 'Bed and Breakfast,' which itself comes into Hebrew from German, takes in Palestinian Arabic a plural Arabic morpheme to arrive at /tsimeraat/. In "Direction B," on the other hand, Arabic is the recipient language and Hebrew is the source languages. In this direction Arabic experiences interference from Hebrew, thus in this direction the components may appear in Arabic "as is" without taking on the Arabic structure. For example, the Hebrew term /yi'uts/ 'academic advising' is transferred into the Arabic "as is" in /biddi a'mal yi'uts/ 'I would like to ask for academic advising.' In such a case Arabic experiences interference from Hebrew, and therefore leaves the Hebrew noun untouched. Sometimes, Arabic in this direction even adopts the Hebrew structure as in the proper name /maxmud/ 'Mahmoud.' Arabic /mahmuud/ underwent phonological changes influenced by the Hebrew phonological system: the stress on the first syllable and the shift of /h/ > /x/ in Modern Hebrew.
Discipline
Linguistics
Geographic Area
Israel
Sub Area
Arabic