Dante Alighieri and the Italian Language

Jul 15, 2015 by

Dante Alighieri and the Italian Language

My recent trip to Italy has taken me to several places associated with the country’s leading cultural hero—Dante Alighieri. I have visited Florence, where he was born and spent his early years, and Verona, where he stayed for some...

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Modern Hebrew: old or new? (Part 3)

May 20, 2011 by

In the previous posting, I discussed word order patterns in Modern Hebrew and suggested that while the influence of the revivalists’ native tongues — Russian, Yiddish, Polish — cannot be denied, Modern Hebrew seems...

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Modern Hebrew: old or new? (Part 2)

May 20, 2011 by

As mentioned in the previous posting, in Ben-Yehuda’s own time many perceived his “revived” form of Hebrew as a modernized version of the old language, Biblical Hebrew. Some liked the continuity and viewed the...

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Modern Hebrew: old or new?

May 19, 2011 by

According to the official story, Hebrew has been “revived” in the late 19th century and early 20th century until it once again became the national language of Israel. But some scholars — such as Paul Wexler and...

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