海角大神

Tucked into a leafy corner of a campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Academy of the Hebrew Language has the challenging job of trying to preserve and promote one of the world鈥檚 oldest living languages.

In an effort to counter the influx of foreign words, the institution develops and distributes some 2,000 new Hebrew words each year; the most recent batch includes words for biosphere, sustainable development, hacker, and blog.

For jetlag, it came up with ayefet 鈥� a newfangled Hebrew word created from the root for "tired" and rendered in such a way that it resembles words for various other infirmities.

鈥淚n the academy, we try to fight word by word. Instead of just making an exact translation from English, we try to find an original Hebrew word that captures the meaning,鈥� says Moshe Bar-Asher, the academy鈥檚 president.

The linguaphiles under his direction are not only interested in hearing Israelis talk about sending someone a quick misron instead of a text or an SMS, however, but also in stopping the general deterioration of the quality of Hebrew, especially in public life.

鈥淵ou hear people, kids especially, using the same 10 to 15 verbs,鈥� laments Mr. Bar-Asher. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want the language of the school, or of the Knesset [Israel鈥檚 parliament] to be the same as the language of the street. Any society should distinguish between the two.鈥�

National Hebrew Day

France has its venerable L鈥�Acad茅mie fran莽aise, and there are institutes and committees around the world dedicated to the preservation of at least 90 other languages.

Many of these have been ribbed at some point for their linguistic chauvinism, or for isolationist, reactionary, and ultimately wishful thinking that would keep foreign words out. But defenders of the Hebrew language 鈥� which was revived as a spoken tongue only about 150 years ago, after some 1,750 years in which it was almost exclusively a language of biblical and other religious texts 鈥� have their own unique challenges to face.

The man credited with single-handedly taking Hebrew out of the holy books and into the modern era is Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, though others of course played a key role in the overall project as part of the early Zionists鈥� nation-building.

Marking 152 years since Ben-Yehuda鈥檚 birth, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 cabinet held a special session earlier this month on the state of the Hebrew language, and voted that Ben-Yehuda鈥檚 birthday [Jan. 7] would from now on be marked as National Hebrew Day.

The cabinet agreed that the academy would provide lessons to improve Knesset members鈥� Hebrew and would form a committee to formulate ideas of how to strengthen the lingua franca in public life, all under Bar-Asher鈥檚 direction. They also agreed to a plan to have schoolteachers dedicate four hours a week to improving students鈥� Hebrew.

鈥淓very culture has some high standards that they expect to be used in the media and in the parliament,鈥� explains Bar-Asher. 鈥淭he Hebrew in such institutions should be normative and correct.鈥�

'A waste of my tax money'

Not every Hebrew aficionado agrees with this outlook. Ghilad Zuckermann, an Israeli professor at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, vehemently disagrees with what the academy is doing.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 ridiculous to tell teachers at Israeli schools to speak according to a certain grammar, because at any rate, what we speak today is only based on Hebrew,鈥� says Dr. Zuckermann, back in Israel on one of his occasional visits. He says the structure of sentences and turns of phrase grew more out of Yiddish 鈥� the German-offshoot language of European Jews. As such, he thinks it鈥檚 more appropriate to call today鈥檚 Hebrew 鈥淚sraeli,鈥� to show its distinction from classical Hebrew. In 2008 he published a controversial book called Israeli, a beautiful language.

鈥淲hat they鈥檙e trying to do by correcting Israelis and the way they speak today, as I see it, is a dangerous move,鈥� Zuckerman says. 鈥淪uch a thing can cause a kind of schizophrenia. Many Israelis grow up unsure of what is grammatical and what isn鈥檛.鈥�

Moreover, it bugs him when the academy takes a popular 鈥淚sraeli鈥� word like intuitzia for intuition (many words work like this, such as coalitzia for coalition) and tries to come up with a 鈥減roper鈥� Hebrew word instead. The academy suggested people use binat halev, which literally translates into 鈥渦nderstanding of the heart.鈥�

鈥淭here is no need to get rid of these words,鈥� Zuckerman says. 鈥淭hese words are integral parts of the Israeli language, but they鈥檙e treated as if they鈥檙e illegal foreign workers. The Academy of the Hebrew Language is a waste of my tax money.鈥�

Israeli children now have harder time reading Bible

Some go further. During the session earlier this month, one of Netanyahu鈥檚 ministers noted that the very word 鈥渁cademy鈥� is Greek. Couldn鈥檛 the institution dedicated to promoting the Hebrew language come up with something ... well, Semitic?

Bar-Asher laughs at this question. It was originally called a committee 鈥� for which there is a Hebrew word 鈥� but to denote research, he said, only academy would do. Even the Mishna - the precursor to the Talmud 鈥� which was redacted in the year 200 AD, has nearly 2,000 words in it that come from Greek or Latin, he notes, showing that the influence of neighboring cultures is nothing new.

鈥淚鈥檓 not terrified by foreign words,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e usually just a fashion. What is worrying is that 40 years ago, Israeli children were much better able to open the Bible and understand what they were reading.鈥�