{"id":66801,"date":"2019-12-11T11:40:10","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T09:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=66801"},"modified":"2023-07-04T08:27:35","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T05:27:35","slug":"the-promise-and-perils-of-diglossia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-promise-and-perils-of-diglossia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Promise And Perils Of Diglossia"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[361,444],"acf":{"old_id":"66801","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34011,"related_cahpter":"370","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Aramaic vs. Hebrew on the ramparts of Jerusalem","content":"

A person who has a native language and learns a foreign one becomes bilingual. Bilingualism is a feature of an individual.<\/span><\/p>\n

Historically, multi-lingual Jews have been something else. Jews generally spoke a Jewish language (such as Yiddish or Ladino) in the home and street, while using Hebrew for prayer and study, making them a community that knew and used several languages in specific circumstances for specific purposes.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not bilingualism, but <\/span>diglossia<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Diglossia refers to national groups or communities who use more than one language (often connected or related) in very defined and structured ways. One language is considered “high” or formal, or sanctioned by authority, and is used in writing, formal contexts, literature, and education. The other variant, the “low” language, or vernacular, exists in opposition to political power, is used in the home and the marketplace, and is rarely written down.<\/span><\/p>\n

As opposed to bilingualism, which applies to individuals, diglossia describes the reality for an entire community, where people know which language to speak, where, when, and to whom.\u00a0<\/span>The idea of Jews speaking different languages at different times for different purposes is nothing new. Our chapter has an example of this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around 700 BCE, after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the Assyrian king Sennacherib marches against Judea and King Hezekiah. Upon reaching Jerusalem, the Assyrian general, known as the Rabshakeh, proceeds to deliver a torrent of abuse in Hebrew (verses 4-20). The barrage is clearly \u201cpsychological warfare\u201d consisting of terror, ridicule, and promises, accentuating the futility of resistance. The invaders want their propaganda to strike fear into the hearts of anyone who might resist them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fearing the abuse will demoralize the gawking public, who understand the Rabshakeh\u2019s message loud and clear, the leaders beg the Rabshakeh to speak in Aramaic, the (“high”) political language of Western Asia, which they (unlike the ordinary Jerusalemites) understand. But Rabshakeh’s precise aim is to undermine the confidence of Jerusalem’s population in their God, their king, and their own ability to resist, and so like a good demagogue \u2013 spoke to the people in a way they could understand.<\/span><\/p>\n

But \u2013 spoiler –\u00a0 there\u2019s a happy ending: despite this strategy of talking directly to the people and trying to sway them with braggadocio and threats, the Judeans are delivered from the Assyrians (Is. 37).<\/span><\/p>\n

But note the linguistic aspect of this story. The Assyrian delegation spoke Hebrew (a language they probably learned for the purpose of ruling over Israelite subjects), and the Judean officials spoke Aramaic\u2014which the Judean citizenry didn\u2019t. In our diglossic model, Aramaic was thus the Judeans\u2019 “high” language of political power and international relations, while Judean (Hebrew) was the \u201clow\u201d language, spoken and understood by the common people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later in Jewish history, Hebrew becomes the “high” language of prayer and study, with other Jewish languages filling the role of the “low” vernaculars. The modern ‘revival’ of spoken Hebrew represents a rare example of re-tooling a language of scholarship to become a vernacular used in all strata of society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpted from: <\/span>Hebrew Roots, Jewish Routes: A Tribal Language in a Global World, <\/span><\/i>Jeremy Benstein, Behrman House, 2019, p. 39.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":66802,"id":66802,"title":"is36-Benstein-HRJR","filename":"is36-Benstein-HRJR.png","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/is36-Benstein-HRJR.png","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-promise-and-perils-of-diglossia\/is36-benstein-hrjr\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is36-benstein-hrjr","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":66801,"date":"2019-12-11 09:39:04","modified":"2019-12-11 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