The languages of Diaspora and return
By: by Bernard Spolsky
Series: Brill Research Perspectives; Brill research perspectives
Publisher: Brill
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Leiden
Language: eng
Number of pages: 119
ISBN-13: 9789004338388; 9789004340244
Subjects: Sociolinguistics; Emigration and immigration; Social aspects
Description: Until quite recently, the term Diaspora (usually with the capital) meant the dispersion of the Jews in many parts of the world. Now, it is recognized that many other groups have built communities distant from their homeland, such as Overseas Chinese, South Asians, Romani, Armenians, Syrian and Palestinian Arabs. To explore the effect of exile of language repertoires, the article traces the sociolinguistic development of the many Jewish Diasporas, starting with the community exiled to Babylon, and following through exiles in Muslim and Christian countries in the Middle Ages and later. It presents the changes that occurred linguistically after Jews were granted full citizenship. It then goes into details about the phenomenon and problem of the Jewish return to the homeland, the revitalization and revernacularization of the Hebrew that had been a sacred and literary language, and the rediasporization that accounts for the cases of maintenance of Diaspora varieties.
Notes: "Originally published as Volume 1(2-3) 2016, in Multilingualism and Second Language Acquisitions"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Diaspora and diasporas; title: Non-Jewish diasporas - some dimensions of diaspora languages; title: Babylon - the first Jewish diaspora; title: The diaspora in Greek cities; title: Jews in the Arab world; title: The Shtetl: the mythic classic Jewish diaspora; title: The Ottoman Sephardic diaspora; title: The emancipated, secularizing, assimilating diaspora of modern times; title: "Bring us back"; title: Diaspora and diasporas.