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The mirage of ‘Arabrew’: Ideologies for understanding Arabic-Hebrew contact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Nancy Hawker
Nancy Hawker*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford, UK
*
Address for correspondence:Faculty of ‘Oriental’Studies ‘Oriental’ Institute University of OxfordPusey LaneOxford OX21 2LE, UK, [email protected]
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Abstract

‘Arabrew’ denotes a mixture of the languages that index two nations known for their seemingly intractable conflict. It is supposedly spoken by Palestinians and other Arabs who are citizens of Israel. Evidence from the field gathered in 2015 shows some codeswitching, especially inter-sentential, and borrowing, mostly of nouns for specialist terminology, and of a few discourse markers. This does not support the claim that a new variety has emerged, yet the debate around it channels concerns about nonlinguistic issues relating to the political economy of Israel and to anxieties about Israeli-Palestinian relations. This debate invokes ideologies, including language ideologies, of nationalism, colonialism, liberalism, and more, that are identifiably linked to the historical and material contexts. The study uses critical discourse analysis and contact linguistics to outline the articulation between distinctions of national identity, socioeconomic class, the way people speak, and the way this speech is ideologically received. (Arabic, Hebrew, codeswitching, ideology)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 219 - 244
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Shir Hever, Deborah Cameron, and Clive Holes for reviewing drafts of this article. The Leverhulme Trust supported the research with Early Career Fellowship ECF-2013-624. All mistakes and debts are mine.

References

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