The third Nordic conference on Middle Eastern Studies:
Ethnic encounter and culture change
Joensuu, Finland, 19-22 June 1995

The Hebrew of Arabs in Israel

Haseeb Shehadeh
University of Helsinki

NB *This is the unedited paper as given at the Joensuu conference. An updated and edited version has been published in Sabour and Vikør, Ethnic encounter and culture change, Bergen/London 1997, 49-71. Please quote or refer only to the published article.*

In this study an attempt is made to describe and analyse the main features of the Hebrew language among secondary school Arab students in Western Galilee and the Triangle. To the best of our knowledge, this modern manifestation of Israeli Hebrew is still essentially terra incognita. [1] The number of Arabs in Israel [2] today is approximately eight hundred thousand citizens and they form about 18 per cent from the total population of Israel, about 5.3 million. The rate of their natural growth is considered among the highest rates in the world. They are divided into three religous communities as follows: Muslims 13 per cent, Christhans 3 per cent and Druze 2 per cent. In this respect the one hundred fifty thousand Jerusalemite Arabs are excluded. The number of Muslim Arabs in Israel is over six hundred thousand, the vast majority of which are Sunni Muslims (about 76 per cent of all Arabs), Christians are about one hundred forty thousand (42 per cent of which are Greek Catholics, 32 per cent Greek Orthodox, 16 per cent Roman Catholics and 10 per cent Protestants) and the Druze living in twenty two villages number about eighty thousand.

It is worthy of note that the estimated number of Hebrew speakers is 4,000,000 Jews living in Israel and over 2,000,000 Arabs living in Israel, the West Bank of the Jordan River, Gaza Strip, South Lebanon and the Golan Heights. [3] Hebrew is the second language for Arabs in Israel. In theory every Arab child in the state of Israel has to go to school for eight years because education in elementary school is compulsory. The Arab child starts acquiring the Hebrew language in the third grade when he is nine years old. Accordingly, a graduate of matriculation certificate (the so called ) learns Hebrew during ten school years in which he has 3-5 hours per week. Learning Hebrew includes grammar and reading various texts in prose and poetry from different periods such as the Old Testament, the Mishna (usually = the Chapters of the Fathers), Middle Ages and contemporary literature. It is safe to state that stress is laid on normative usage of Hebrew both in writing and in speaking. Subsequently, the guttural sounds- (`, h, .h and ') are articulated as in Arabic [4] but the same thing does not hold true concerning the pronunciation of the emphatic letters- (.t, .s and q). The teachers of Hebrew in Arab schools are, as a rule, Arabs. Arabic is very often used in Hebrew classes in the first stages and its use decreases gradually and it almost disappears towards the last year of the secondary school. Usually Arab pupils learn new Hebrew words and idioms through their literary Arabic equivalents, for example, (a bottle); (a nightingale); (a bed) (an ashtray); (to become obsolete, outmoded).

It is a rash to speak of one homogeneous entity of Hebrew used by all Arabs in Israel in spite of the existence of some general and common characteristics. These characteristics stem from, more or less, a common linguistic and cultural Arabic background of the Arabs in Israel. It goes without saying that a good command of Hebrew or, in general, any language does not betray easily the identity of the writer or the speaker. It would be interesting and important to investigate the Hebrew language as utilized by various Arab groups in Israel. In this connection we may refer to:

• Members of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament).
• Poets, writers and actors.
• Laborers without any formal education who work in Jewish localities.
• Soldiers, as a rule, Druze who have military compulsory service since 1957 but nowadays also Muslims and particularly Bedouins (10 per cent of the Muslims, nearly 70,000 belongimg to ten tribes mainly in the south) and Christians from Galilee.
• University graduates.
• University students. [5]
• Women without formal education.
• Inhabitants of mixed cities such as Haifa, Jaffa.

1. Four hundred Bagruth compositions of the years 1970 and 1972 from different Israeli Arab high schools.
2. Four hundred and one compositions written by 198 students of Yanni Yanni Secondary School in Kufir Yasif in Western Galilee in the years 1977 and 1978. Some of those students come from neighbouring villages such as Jdaida, Ilmakir, Sakhnin, Nahf, Julis, Yirka, Abu Snan etc. [6]
3. Two hundred and seven compositions written by 207 students of Ibrahim Qasim's Secondary School in al-Tira in the triangle in the years 1982 and 1991. A part of the students come from other villages such as Kufir Misr, Kufir Bara, Kusaifa (bedouin village in the Negev), Jatt al-Muthallath, Baqa al-Gharbiyya, Kufir Qasim, Qalansuwa, Jaljulya etc.[7]

• Reflections, Memories and Expectations in the Beginning of the Academic Year.
• A Story.
• I Missed an Opportunity.
• The Activities of the UN for the Sake of Peace.
• A Landscape in Galilee.
• If I Win in a Lottery.
• The Forbidden Fruit.
• A Trip in a River.
• The Position of the Arab Woman in Past and at Present.
• Description of a Fooball Match.
• What a Pity! I Did not Listen to my Father.
• Proposals for Establishing Peace in the Middle East.

• I Would Like to Become but...
• If I Were the Chairman of the Local Council in my Village.
• My Dwelling-Place as I Would Like to See.
• It is Hard to be a Teacher but this is a First-Rate Mission.
• There is no Bitter than Being in Need to Human Being and there is no Sweeter than Health
• Thoughts on my Secondary School.
• Indifference.
• How to Solve the Problem of Free Time Today.
• Reflections Towards the End of the School Year.
• My Village in Evening Hours.
• The Students of the Twelveth Grade are Standing on Crossroads.
• My Home.
• The Prophet Said "Say Always the Truth even if it were Bitter"!
• Proposals fo the Solution of the Middle East Problem.

I. Phonetics:

1. P > B: = look (pl. m.); for a place; = a cultural problem; = once; = because; = to solve; = face;
2. B > P: = sure;
3. K > Q: = village; = talented, capable; = to argue, debate; = immediately; = strength; = to forgive;
4. Q > K: instead of = depression, gloom;
5. ` > H: = no contact except through letters; = jealous;
6. H > `: = and this story happened to me and to my female neighbour;
7. .H > k : = chess;
8. F > V: = you (pl. m.) meet;
9. V > F: = friendly, cordially; = It developes in a very rapid pace; = in order to waste time;
10. The bi-labial voiced sound [v] is expressed by two letters in Hebrew, namely, and therefore a confusion emerges. Examples: = one must; = state, situation;
11. * > S: = exalted, grand; = in the Arabic language; = to seek;
12. S > * : = to try;
13. .T > T: = metres, = chess;
14. Long [a] is reflected by such as: = the situation; = to you (m. sg.), your soul, your heart; = ouside;
15. S > Z near a voiced sound such as: = to explain;

II. Morphology:

1. The usage of rare forms in modern Hebrew because their etymological and morphological Arabic (written and spoken) equivalents are common. Examples: = to delay, instead of the usual form in pi''el; [8] = to mention;
2. Confusion in the utilization of verbal forms () as pi''el instead of hif'il: = Some persons in the government have suggested to establish cultural institutes for the residents of the area;
3. New forms as a result of hypercorrection: used in spoken Hebrew before an adjective in order to express superlatives;
4. Coining new forms on the basis of Arabic: ) = a degree, rank, position, for example: = and they place it (a proverb) in a high and respected position; the past tense of the third person feminine plural end with the suffix - which is in fact a strange combination of the so-called nun an-niswa and the he of the future for second person feminine plural and the third person feminine plural: = that the great disasters occured to him;
5. Ungrammatical forms taken from spoken Hebrew: = to say.

III. Syntax:

2. Grammatical gender: very often the gender is in accordance with the Arabic word. The following words occur as feminine because their Arabic equivalents are so: = this night; = and the garden was; = then our life will be full of thorn and thistle: = the hearafter; = my village stepped; = enough water in feminine singular as in spoken Arabic; = the three from which; = the sky looked clear. The following words appear as masculine since their equivalent Arabic words are so: = If the manners of the neighbours are good or not ( = eight grade/class; = the door was opened by force.

3. Disagreement between subject and predicate or if you wish this structure reflects the rules in Arabic in which the predicate of an intimate plural subject is in feminine singular. Such a plural is considered as feminine singular: = life and days taught us () the need...; = from the experiences that we had; = some ways in which (fem. sg.) it is possible to prepare; = many activities will be (fem. sg.); = there are some incidents that took place between neighbours which emphasize this saying; = also the souls will be far away; = and they dont have relations which connect them with the people; = days and years passed and my friend does not return; = when troubles happened to him; = these were the habits;. On the other hand when the subject is a human being ('aqil) then the verb which precedes it comes in singular and follows the gender of the subject: Examples: = sons of kings came to ask her hand.

4. Disagreement between subject and predicate neither in Arabic nor in Hebrew because of partial adherence to the rules of these languages. In other words the predicate of an irrational plural subject is in feminine plural despite the fact that the subject is masculine. = his deeds bring him hatred and enmity; = the daily life represent to us; = because these good deeds of his come and witness for him in the other world.

5. Formal agreement of gender: = nice face.

6. The omission of , the sign of accusative, because there is no especial particle in Arabic for this case. Examples: = to solve the deeds of the house; = we see not only the Arabs using...; = if I want to explain this proverb.

7. is added before indefinite direct object such as: = one has first of all to look for a faithful and good neighbour.

8. Compound tenses which reflect Arabic usages : (ma kanus yiruhu) = but our neighbours did not use to go their work....

9. Relative clauses: the appearance of asyndetic clauses as in Arabic is very common in our corpus. Examples: = I forgot to say that there is also a proverb in Arabic [which] is similar to this proverb.

10. Confusion in the usage of verbal forms (binyanim) especially the usage of hif'il instead of Pi''el. Examples: = this proverb can bring the close persons nearer to each other and to live in peace;

IV. Semantics:

2. Using a word in modern Hebrew in a sense found in other periods of the language because the equivalent Arabic word has that meaning, for example, = a city (as in Mishnaic Hebrew but in Modern Hebrew the meaning is a state, country); = knowledge (as in Biblical and medieaval Hebrew but in modern Hebrew the usual meaning is science); = a generation, age; [11] = there is not.

3. Loan-translation from Arabic: [12] = and he does not extend help to them () = must, have to: = therefore you (m. sg.) must protect your neighbour because he is close to you; (biruhu rihle) = to go to a trip: [13] = to extend help: = the devil did many evil deeds; = to brig, = and the examples that we brought prove to us...; = to fit, = and I understand him and his mind fits my mind ('a'lo bigi 'ala 'a'li); = to ask the hand of (yihki fi).

Notes

2. There are many terms, names and nicknames which refer to this national Arab minority such as: Israeli Arabs; Israel's Arabs (Arab population / Arab citizens / Arab residents); the Israeli Palestinians; the Minorities in Israel; Muslims, Christians and Druzes; the Non-Jews; Arabic Speaking Non-Jews in Israel; Arabs in spite of being Israelies; the Goyim (the Gentiles, Non-Jews); the Palestinians in Israel; the Arab minority in Israel; the Palestinian Community in Israel; the national Palestinian minority in Israel; Palestinians in the State of Israel; the Palestinian Arab people in Israel; the Non-Jewish citizens; the Arabs of Inside (); the Arabs of 1948; the Arab Section (); the Present People who are Absent (); the most silent minority in the world; the Arabs of the Land of Israel etc. See for instance: Israel Shahak (ed.), The Non-Jew in the Jewish State, a Collection of Documents. 2 Bartenura Str., Jerusalem, Israel 1975; R. Israeli, ''Arabs in Israel­The Surge of New Identity'', SPS 11 no. 4 (1980) pp. 21-2
[*]

3. Cf. Paul Wexler, The Schizoid Nature of Modern Hebrew: A Slavic Language in Search of a Semitic Past. Otto Harrasowitz, Wiesbaden 1990, p. 2. [*]

4. The Ashkenazic manner of pronunciation among some Arabs living in mixed cities such as Acre, Haifa, Ramla and Jaffa is not rare. Cf. P. Wexler in the preceding note, p. 24 note 78 ''Many speakers of Arabic speak Hebrew in the Ashkenazic-manner, without .h, ', in spite of the norms of their native Arabic''. [*]

5. It is a well known fact that university Arab students use very opften among themselves Hebrew words and expressions. Suffice it here to mention: -O.K., exercise, just like that, don't mention it. [*]

6. In this occasion I would like to thank Mr. Naseeb Shehadeh, a teacher of mathematics and physics in Yani Yanni School for his contribution in making the material available for me. [*]

7. Thanks to Mr. 'Ali Khalid Watad, a teacher of Hebrew in the secondary school of al-Tira, who willingly supplied me with the needed material. [*]

8. Very common in mediaeval Hebrew influenced by Arabic; cf.
[*]

9. The entire example reads: = Look for a neighbour before you build a house. Accordingly it is most likely that the common spoken saying hdawwir 'ala l-gar 'abli ddar" is behind the Hebrew usage. It is to be noticed that one example of is found in our corpus (Bagrouth examination, 1972)- = Look for a good neighbour before you (m. sg.) seek a house. [*]

10. Cf. Sh. Ibn Tibbon's preface to Moreh Ne'bukhim. [*]

11. Cf. for example Job 9:33 but this usage among Arabs stems from [*]

12. The student intended to write .[*]

13. In fact one expects a form in pi''el which is in parallel to fa''ala in Arabic. [*]