THE LINGUISTIC INTRUSION OF HEBREW AMONG ARAB CITIZENS IN ISRAEL

Following the establishment of the State of Israel, Israeli Jewish society influenced the country’s Arab citizenry in several areas of life. This influence extended to the area of language. In particular, the spoken Arabic used by Arabs in Israel began to borrow elements of Hebrew regularly, especially in the case of vocabulary relating to everyday life. This paper explains the reasons for the marginalization of Arabic language within the current linguistic landscape and in school curricula, as well as the spreading of Jewish culture among Arab students and the undermining of Arabic’s official status. Itthen discusses the intrusion of Hebrew among Arab citizens of Israel and explains the reasons Arab citizens are oriented towards Hebrew. These reasons include: military rule the linguistic duality of the Arabic language and the fact that public services are provided in Hebrew, which forces the Arab citizen to master Hebrew. This paper also identifies the means by which Hebrew intrudes into spoken Arabic. These means include: subjecting the structure of Hebrew vocabulary to Arabic using Arabic letters to write Hebrew words directly combining Arabic with Hebrew in certain idioms applying grammatical rules and conjugations to the Hebrew language using words with Arabic roots as if they originated in Hebrew applying Hebrew grammar to Arabic and altering the pronunciation of Hebrew words to conform with Arabic. This paper shows that borrowing from Hebrew has become a steadily growing trend in most aspects of life and among all ages and social echelons. This is due to Arab-Jewish encounters in all walks of life, which has led to linguistic exchange and synthesis on both sides. This study deploys a descriptive, analytical methodology along with applied models to provide samples of the intrusion of Hebrew into spoken Arabic among Arab citizens of Israel.