Evidence of a T/V distinction in European Hebrew
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Sonya Yampolskaya
Abstract
This article presents research on the system of T/V distinction in Hebrew from the 16th to the 20th century. As the article is the first attempt to describe the phenomenon, it aims to give a general overview of the T/V distinction in European Hebrew, introducing new language data, and posing new questions. One book served as terminus a quo for the whole article: Course of the Russian Language by Zalkind (Epstein, Zalkind. 1869. Учебная книга Русскаго Языка. מסלת הלמוד או ספר ללמד לשון רוסיא עם העתקה אל לשון עברי [Course of the Russian language. Path of learning or book to study the language of Russia with translation into Hebrew]. Warsaw: Schriftgisser), written in Hebrew, contains approximately 100 pages of everyday dialogues in both Hebrew and Russian. The question of whether the Hebrew language of the 19th century was a dead or living language is still a matter of debate. In that regard, the course book provides valuable material that does not fit into the framework of the general idea of the history of the Hebrew language. Basic elements of conversational politeness are the focus of the analysis. The system, in which V-forms of address are expressed by a third-person singular, is reconstructed from the conversations in the Epstein’s book and traced back to the 16th century in a wide range of various Hebrew sources. The T/V distinction in Hebrew is also compared to the similar phenomena in Polish and German. Originating before the 16th century, the T/V distinction disappeared in modern Israeli Hebrew. However, it is still in use in some specific communication situations, which can be regarded as residues of earlier forms of traditional speech practices.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Authors and languages in a sociohistorical context: Basque religious literature in seventeenth-century France
- “I am not that I play” – The use of hypercorrection in the performance of gender by Shakespeare’s ‘breeches’ parts
- Reviving the genitive. Prescription and practice in the Netherlands (1770–1840)
- Code-switching Llibre dels Fets: Language ideology in the 13th century Crown of Aragon
- Evidence of a T/V distinction in European Hebrew
- Book Reviews
- Nunnally, Thomas E: Speaking of Alabama. The History, Diversity, Function, and Change of Language
- Sandra Jansen & Lucia Siebers (eds.): Processes of Change. Studies in Late Modern and Present-Day English (Studies in Language Variation 21)
- Annick Paternoster and Susan Fitzmaurice: Politeness in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 299)
- Rautionaho Paula, Arja Nurmi and Juhani Klemola: Corpora and the changing society: Studies in the evolution of English
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Authors and languages in a sociohistorical context: Basque religious literature in seventeenth-century France
- “I am not that I play” – The use of hypercorrection in the performance of gender by Shakespeare’s ‘breeches’ parts
- Reviving the genitive. Prescription and practice in the Netherlands (1770–1840)
- Code-switching Llibre dels Fets: Language ideology in the 13th century Crown of Aragon
- Evidence of a T/V distinction in European Hebrew
- Book Reviews
- Nunnally, Thomas E: Speaking of Alabama. The History, Diversity, Function, and Change of Language
- Sandra Jansen & Lucia Siebers (eds.): Processes of Change. Studies in Late Modern and Present-Day English (Studies in Language Variation 21)
- Annick Paternoster and Susan Fitzmaurice: Politeness in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Pragmatics and Beyond New Series 299)
- Rautionaho Paula, Arja Nurmi and Juhani Klemola: Corpora and the changing society: Studies in the evolution of English
