Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2008
Secularization has played a significant role in the revival of Hebrew. Use of words and phrases from the religious domain in secular contexts, so natural to the native Israeli, may at times shock students who have studied Hebrew outside Israel, especially those trained in Jewish day schools. The growing secularization of Israeli life-style and the increasing influence of foreign languages, as manifested in the local media, indeed have given rise to new forms of language secularization. These have split modern Hebrew into two varieties: on the one hand, a language clinging to its historical roots, spoken and understood by observant Jews in Israel and studied abroad in religious day schools, and on the other hand, a secularized variety, separated from its ancient culture, adopted by many circles of Israeli Hebrew speakers. (Semantic change, language varieties, Hebrew)