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Language crossing divides: Loan words between Arabic and modern Hebrew

Seminar by Sarit Pisson, University of Haifa

Info about event

Time

Friday 20 April 2018,  at 12:15 - 13:00

Location

Building 1451, room 331

Organizer

AIS

Arabic has had a great influence on many languages, including modern spoken Hebrew. Jews and Arabs met in the Arabian Peninsula in the pre-Islamic period, then in medieval Spain, and then again in Israel from the 19th century until today, but it is only in the third period that we can see a particularly dramatic influence in absorbing so many Arabic words into the spoken daily language of Hebrew. This increasing phenomenon of adopting words from Arabic into Hebrew includes almost every aspect of life. It seems that linguistic and cultural similarities have crossed borders and made Arabic loan words an inseparable part of today's Hebrew.


Sarit Pisson was born and raised in Haifa. She completed her Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees at the University of Haifa in the Arabic Language and Literature Department. She worked as a Teaching and Research Assistant in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the University of Haifa from 1999-2004, and started teaching Modern Standard Arabic in the International School in 2009, where she is now the director of the Arabic Language Program.