Hybridic theory of Israeli Hebrew, Classification of camouflaged borrowing, Phono-semantic matching, Revivalistics, Language reclamation and mental health
Zuckermann was awarded the Rubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his research on the profound influence of Yiddish on modern Hebrew",[11][12] and listed among Australia's top 30 "living legends of research" (2024) by The Australian.[13]
Since February 2011 Zuckermann has been Professor of Linguistics and Chair of Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide[14] and since February 2017 he has been President of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies (AAJS).[31] In 2013–2015 he was President of the Australasian Association of Lexicography (AustraLex).[32]
Researchedit
Zuckermann applies insights from the Hebrew revival to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages in Australia.[33][34][35] According to Yuval Rotem, the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Zuckermann's "passion for the reclamation, maintenance and empowerment of Aboriginal languages and culture inspired [him] and was indeed the driving motivator of" the establishment of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, on 2 September 2010.[36]
He proposes Native Tongue Title, compensation for language loss, because "linguicide"[37][38] results in "loss of cultural autonomy, loss of spiritual and intellectual sovereignty,[39] loss of soul".[40] He uses the term sleeping beauty to refer to a no-longer spoken language[19][41] and urges Australia "to define the 330 Aboriginal languages, most of them sleeping beauties, as the official languages of their region", and to introduce bilingual signs and thus change the linguistic landscape of the country. "So, for example, Port Lincoln should also be referred to as Galinyala, which is its original Barngarla name."[42]
Zuckermann proposes a controversial hybrid theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew according to which Hebrew and Yiddish "acted equally" as the "primary contributors" to Modern Hebrew.[43][44] Scholars including Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz (who refers to Zuckermann as a "fresh-thinking Israeli scholar"), adopt Zuckermann's term "Israeli" and accept his notion of hybridity.[45] Others, for example author and translator Hillel Halkin, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published on 24 December 2004 in The Jewish Daily Forward, pseudonymous column "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of a political agenda.[43] Zuckermann's response was published on 28 December 2004 in The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language.[46]
His hybridic synthesis is in contrast to both the traditional revival thesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Hebrew) and the relexification antithesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words). While both the thesis and the antithesis are mono-parental, Zuckermann's synthesis is multi-parental.[44][59]
Zuckermann introduces revivalistics as a new transdisciplinary field of enquiry surrounding language reclamation (e.g. Barngarla), revitalization (e.g. Adnyamathanha) and reinvigoration (e.g. Irish).
Complementing documentary linguistics, revivalistics aims to provide a systematic analysis especially of attempts to resurrect no-longer spoken languages (reclamation) but also of initiatives to reverse language shift (revitalization and reinvigoration).[35]
His analysis of multisourced neologization (the coinage of words deriving from two or more sources at the same time)[60] challenges Einar Haugen's classic typology of lexical borrowing.[61] Whereas Haugen categorizes borrowing into either substitution or importation, Zuckermann explores cases of "simultaneous substitution and importation" in the form of camouflaged borrowing. He proposes a new classification of multisourced neologisms such as phono-semantic matching.
Zuckermann's exploration of phono-semantic matching in Standard Mandarin and Meiji periodJapanese concludes that the Chinesewriting system is multifunctional: pleremic ("full" of meaning, e.g. logographic), cenemic ("empty" of meaning, e.g. phonographic – like a syllabary) and simultaneously cenemic and pleremic (phono-logographic). He argues that Leonard Bloomfield's assertion that "a language is the same no matter what system of writing may be used"[62] is inaccurate. "If Chinese had been written using roman letters, thousands of Chinese words would not have been coined, or would have been coined with completely different forms".[60]
Burning Issues in Afro-Asiatic Linguistics, 2012. ISBN 144384070X / ISBN 9781443840705.
Journal articles and book chaptersedit
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003). "Language Contact and Globalisation: The Camouflaged Influence of English on the World's Languages – with special attention to Israeli (sic) and Mandarin" (PDF). Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 16 (2): 287–307. doi:10.1080/09557570302045. S2CID 11791518.
"Cultural Hybridity: Multisourced Neologization in "Reinvented" Languages and in Languages with "Phono-Logographic" Script" (PDF). Languages in Contrast. 4: 281–318. 2004. doi:10.1075/lic.4.2.06zuc.
"A New Vision for "Israeli Hebrew": Theoretical and Practical Implications of Analysing Israel's Main Language as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language" (PDF). Journal of Modern Jewish Studies. 5: 57–71. 2006. doi:10.1080/14725880500511175. S2CID 14682166.
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2009). "Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns" (PDF). Journal of Language Contact. 2 (2): 40–67. doi:10.1163/000000009792497788.
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Walsh, Michael (2011). "Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures" (PDF). Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31: 111–127. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.532859. S2CID 145627187.
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Quer, Giovanni; Shakuto, Shiori (2014). "Native Tongue Title: Proposed Compensation for the Loss of Aboriginal Languages". Australian Aboriginal Studies. 2014/1: 55–71.
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Walsh, Michael (2014). ""Our Ancestors Are Happy!": Revivalistics in the Service of Indigenous Wellbeing". Foundation for Endangered Languages. XVIII: 113–119.
Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2006). ""Etymythological Othering" and the Power of "Lexical Engineering" in Judaism, Islam and Christianity. A Socio-Philo(sopho)logical Perspective" (PDF). In Tope Omoniyi; Joshua A Fishman (eds.). Explorations in the Sociology of Language and Religion. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 237–258.
Other publicationsedit
Online Dictionary of the Barngarla Aboriginal Language, 2018.
Engaging – A Guide to Interacting Respectfully and Reciprocally with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, and their Arts Practices and Intellectual Property, 2015.
Filmographyedit
Fry's Planet Word, Stephen Fry interviews Zuckermann about the revival of Hebrew
The Politics of Language, Stephen Fry interviews Zuckermann about language
SBS: Living Black: S18 Ep9 - Linguicide
Babbel: Why Revive A Dead Language? - Interview with Ghil'ad Zuckermann[63]
edX MOOC: Language Revival: Securing the Future of Endangered Languages
The Israeli Language: Hebrew Revived or Yiddish Survived? PART 1
The Israeli Language: Hebrew Revived or Yiddish Survived? PART 2
The Israeli Language: Hebrew Revived or Yiddish Survived? PART 3
Referencesedit
^Hideous Spectre of Censorship, Times Higher Education, August 15, 2003: "Ghil'ad Zuckermann is Gulbenkian Research Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge. He is currently in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy."
^Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, Volume 3, Issue 2, 2004.
^
Alex Rawlings, March 22, 2019, BBC Future, The man bringing dead languages back to life ("Ghil'ad Zuckermann has found that resurrecting lost languages may bring many benefits to indigenous populations – with knock-on effects for their health and happiness"), accessed May 5, 2019.
^"edX". Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
^Rubinlicht Awards and Performance by Evgeny Kissin, Preservation of Yiddish Culture and Heritage.
^Linguist Ghil’ad Zuckermann and Leivik House volunteer Shoshana Kroitero win Rubinlicht Prize, The Forward
^RESEARCH 2024: Australia’s living legends of research, The Australian.
^ abZuckermann, Ghil'ad; Walsh, Michael (2011). "Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31 (1): 111–127. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.532859. S2CID 145627187. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
^Ambassador Yuval Rotem - Address for the opening of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre, Dubbo, NSW, Australia, September 2, 2010, accessed August 24, 2016.
^Zuckermann, Ghil'ad, "Stop, revive and survive", The Australian Higher Education, June 6, 2012.
^"Australia's first chair of endangered languages, Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann from the University of Adelaide puts it bluntly: Those policies have resulted in 'linguicide'", Shyamla Eswaran, Aboriginal languages a source of strength, Green Left Weekly, 6 December 2013.
^"As put by Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, language is part of the 'Intellectual Sovereignty' of Indigenous people", p. 2 in Priest, Terry (2011) Submission to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Language Learning in Indigenous Communities, Research Unit, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, August 2011.
^Arnold, Lynn (2016), Lingua Nullius: A Retrospect and Prospect about Australia's First Languages (Transcript), Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration, May 31, 2016.
^See pp. 57 & 60 in Zuckermann's A New Vision for "Israeli Hebrew": Theoretical and Practical Implications of Analysing Israel's Main Language as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 5: 57–71 (2006).
^Sophie Verass (NITV) Indigenous meanings of Australian town names, 10 August 2016.
^ abHillel Halkin ("Philologos") (24 December 2004). "Hebrew vs. Israeli". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved 19 September 2014.
^Katz, Dovid (2004). Words on Fire. The Unfinished Story of Yiddish. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465037285.
^Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (28 December 2004). "The Genesis of the Israeli Language: A Brief Response to 'Philologos'". The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language. 8 (13). Retrieved 4 May 2020.
^John Power, June 29, 2018, Al Jazeera: Starting from scratch: Aboriginal group reclaims lost language, "With the help of a linguistics professor, Barngarla, which has not been spoken for 60 years, is being pieced together", accessed May 5, 2019.
^See Section 282 in FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA: Croft on behalf of the Barngarla Native Title Claim Group v State of South Australia (2015, FCA 9), File number: SAD 6011 of 1998; John Mansfield (judge).
^Hamilton, Jodie (26 June 2021). "Kindy kids learning Barngarla Indigenous language, spread joy as they talk". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
^Hamilton, Jodie (24 July 2023). "Barngarla bush medicine book healing hearts and helping stolen children reconnect with country". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 22 January 2024.
^Inspired by Hebrew, scholar helps revive dying aboriginal Australian languages, Avi Kumar, JNS
^Ellis, David (1 May 2014). "Adelaide Language Festival celebrates diversity".
^Savage, Crispin (22 November 2017). "One-Day Festival Offers taste of 26 Languages". Retrieved 24 May 2018.
^Israeli Hebrew didn’t kill Yiddish. As a new exhibit in NYC shows, it gave it a new nest to live in., Jewish Telegraphic Agency, September 6, 2023.
^Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2006). "Complement Clause Types in Israeli" (PDF). In R. M. W. Dixon; Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.). Complementation: A Cross-Linguistic Typology. Oxford University Press. pp. 72–92. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
^ abZuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403917232.
^Haugen, Einar (1950). "The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing". Language. 26 (2): 210–231. doi:10.2307/410058. JSTOR 410058.
^Bloomfield, Leonard (1933), Language, New York: Henry Holt, p. 21.
^Dead Languages and the Man Trying to Revive Them, By Nuno Marques, February 21, 2018: "Prof. Ghil’ad Zuckermann is a renowned linguist and scholar originally from Israel and currently based in Australia. He talked to Babbel about strategies for linguistic revitalization and the political issues surrounding linguistic change and preservation."