Israeli Hebrew as a Revised Language: The Case of Language Change.

Unlike most living languages, the historical development of Israeli Hebrew has not been continuous. This paper aims to raise debate around the analysis of grammatical variation in Israeli Hebrew in relation to the unique history of the language. I suggest two different models to describe language change in Israeli Hebrew: one presenting a true dynamic change (similar to language changes in other languages), and the second drawing a distinction between the common use of a contemporary form and the prescriptive grammatical rule or the Classical form as it appears in ancient strata of the language. This distinction does not reflect a dynamic change, but rather the lack of full acceptance of the desired planned grammar in the formative days of Israeli Hebrew. I will illustrate this model through a close examination of gendered numerals in Hebrew, demonstrating that the prescriptive numeral paradigm has never been fully accepted in Israeli Hebrew, and thus contemporary use does not reflect a dynamic change of the language.