Non-Vernacular Language in Action: Ashkenazic Hebrew in 21st-Century Diglossic Hasidic Communities

Sonya Yampolskaya, Eli Benedikt, Izzy Posen, and Lily Kahn on the role of contemporary Ashkenazic Hebrew in Hasidic communities in English-speaking countries

Non-Vernacular Language in Action: Ashkenazic Hebrew in 21st-Century Diglossic Hasidic Communities

Authors

Sonya Yampolskaya, Eli Benedikt, Izzy Posen, Lily Kahn

Abstract

This article is devoted to the role of contemporary Ashkenazic Hebrew in Hasidic communities in English-speaking countries, presented within a theoretical framework that we refer to as internal diglossia and external bilingualism. It has typically been believed that Ashkenazic Hebrew, the historical variety of Hebrew used in Central and Eastern European Jewish communities in a diglossic situation alongside the vernacular Yiddish, fell out of use in the first half of the 20th century and was replaced by either the co-territorial majority languages, or by Israeli Hebrew as a language of both speech and writing. However, contrary to this widespread assumption, the traditional Eastern European form of Hebrew continues to thrive as a productive written language alongside Yiddish and English in Hasidic communities. This 21st-century Ashkenazic Hebrew has its own linguistic features that differ significantly from Israeli Hebrew (Kahn and Yampolskaya 2022). The article examines the acquisition and use of contemporary Ashkenazic Hebrew among men and women in Hasidic communities as well as user attitudes to the language in terms of gender, social status, and holiness.

Reference

Yampolskaya, Sonya; Benedikt, Eli; Posen, Izzy; Kahn, Lily; (2024) Non-Vernacular Language in Action: Ashkenazic Hebrew in 21st-Century Diglossic Hasidic Communities. The IOS Annual , 24 pp. 166-244. 10.1163/9789004687479_009. 

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