The Languages of Jerusalem (Oxford Studies in Language Contact) - Hardcover

Spolsky, Bernard; Cooper, Robert L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198239084 ISBN 13: 9780198239086

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1991

Synopsis

The Old City of Jerusalem, small and densely populated, is a complex microcosm of Israeli society. It is a multilingual community characterized by unequal power relations between the speakers of the two official languages of Israel--Arabs and Jews. The authors begin with a sociolinguistic sketch of the Old City in the present day. They then provide a historical background to their field study, discussing Jewish multilingualism from the period of the Second Temple until modern times, the sociolinguistics of revival and spread of Hebrew. They go on to develop a model of the rules of language choice which arises from their social context. The authors demonstrate that, because of the close association between language use and social structure, the study of language use in a multilingual society is at the same time both powerful and delicate method of studying the dynamics of group interactions.

About this title

About the Author

Bernard Spolsky is a Professor of English at Bar-Ilan University. Robert L. Cooper is a Professor, School of Education and Department of Sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Review

'Spolsky and Cooper weave a rich brocade ... this is a well written and engaging book. The historical chapters are richly written; the reports of modern studies are serviceably written without overreliance on jargon. The book is carefully produced ... the authors have skillfully woven together
the numerous interesting themes they have chosen into a handsome volume that I highly recommend.'
Loraine K. Obler, City University of New York and Emerson College

'The authors' imaginative and wide-ranging probe demonstrates how acute a profile of a society the sociolinguist can supply.'
Lewis Glinert, Bulletin of the SOAS

`providing a wealth of valuable and, at times, fascinating information ... most engaging and interesting book'
Journal of Semitic Studies

`Spolsky and Cooper's volume is ... the first monograph to deal with this topic ... The authors' imaginative and wide-ranging probe demonstrates how acute a profile of a society the sociolinguist can supply.'
SOAS

`This valuable sociolinguistic study of the "linguistic opulence" of contemporary Jerusalem, and of the historical background of languages used in Jerusalem throughout the ages, will be of interest not only to linguists but to scholars working in many other disciplines ... The book is written
in a clear, concise, and jargon-free style ... a model of clarity and concision ... major work of thorough, subtle, and important scholarship ... Oxford University Press is to be congratulated for bringing out such a fine book ... The Languages of Jerusalem is sure to win a wide readership.'
Anthropologica

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0198239084
• ISBN 13: 9780198239086
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 180