Hostname: page-component-6898cfcb55-cbk24 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-11T23:45:29.994Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Jewish Interlinguistics: Facts and Conceptual Framework

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Paul Wexler*
Affiliation:
Tel-Aviv University

Abstract

Since the 6th century B.C., Jews have created unique variants of many coterritorial non-Jewish languages with which they came in contact; Aramaic, Greek, Arabic, Spanish, Persian, and German are just a few examples. Widespread shifts to non-Jewish languages throughout the world and to revived spoken Hebrew in Israel are now resulting in the obsolescence of contemporary Jewish languages and putting an end to 2600 years of Jewish language creation. The present paper proposes a typology of Jewish language phenomena, explores the common linguistic components and processes attending their genesis and development, formulates urgent research tasks in comparative Jewish in-terlinguistics, and assesses the contribution of Jewish language study to general linguistics.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable