Language ideology in American Jewish thought
This article establishes the existence of an American Jewish tradition of metalinguistic thought that stretches from the mid-twentieth century to our time. It demonstrates how American Jewish thinkers’ reflections on language implied a response to the claims made on their Jewish identity by their sy...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
2022
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| In: |
Religion
Year: 2022, Volume: 52, Issue: 3, Pages: 384-408 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
USA
/ Judaism
/ Metalanguage
/ Jewish languages
/ Ideology
/ Hebrew language
/ English language
/ History 1945-2022
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| RelBib Classification: | AG Religious life; material religion BH Judaism KBQ North America TK Recent history |
| Further subjects: | B
language ideology
B Jewish English B homeland-diaspora relations B American Judaism B Israeli Hebraism B metalinguistic thought |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This article establishes the existence of an American Jewish tradition of metalinguistic thought that stretches from the mid-twentieth century to our time. It demonstrates how American Jewish thinkers’ reflections on language implied a response to the claims made on their Jewish identity by their symbolic homeland, Israel. In particular, thinkers rejected the questioning approach of Israeli intellectuals towards English as a medium for Jewish cultivation, and Israel’s fundamentally secular conception of Hebrew as a language and culture. The earlier, postwar thinkers challenged Israeli Hebraist assumptions by framing language as a ‘communicative tool’ that conveys (rather than embodies) religious identity. More recent thinkers took a different approach by suggesting that English is at present already a Jewish language, as it incorporates features based on Hebrew or Yiddish. Earlier and later metalinguistic thought implies continuity, but also a shift of emphasis, in how Jewish particularism could and should be expressed in America. |
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| ISSN: | 1096-1151 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2021.1994481 |