Ghil'ad Zuckermann

Ghil'ad Zuckermann

Ghil'ad Zuckermann
Born (1971-06-01) June 1, 1971
Tel Aviv, Israel
Fields Linguistics
Revivalistics
Institutions The University of Adelaide
University of Cambridge
Churchill College, Cambridge
The University of Queensland
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
East China Normal University
Shanghai International Studies University
Alma mater University of Oxford
St Hugh's College, Oxford
Tel Aviv University
United World College of the Adriatic
Known for (1) Semito-European hybridic theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew.
(2) Classification of multisourced neologization and camouflaged borrowing.
(3) Analysis of phono-semantic matching.
(4) Revivalistics, revival linguistics.

Ghil'ad Zuckermann (Hebrew: גלעד צוקרמן‎ , pronounced [ɡi'lad ˈtsukeʁman], born June 1, 1971) is a linguist and revivalist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity.[1] Zuckermann is Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide.

Biography

Zuckermann was born in Tel Aviv (Israel) on June 1, 1971 and attended the United World College (UWC) of the Adriatic in 1987–1989. In 1997 he received an M.A. in Linguistics at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Programme for Outstanding Students of Tel Aviv University. In 1997–2000 he was Scatcherd European Scholar of the University of Oxford and Denise Skinner Graduate Scholar at St Hugh's College, Oxford, receiving a D.Phil. (Oxon.) in 2000.[2] As Gulbenkian Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge (2000–2004), he was affiliated with the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Studies, University of Cambridge. He received a titular Ph.D. (Cantab.) from the University of Cambridge in 2003.[2]

He taught at the University of Cambridge (Faculty of Oriental Studies, now known as Faculty of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies), University of Queensland, National University of Singapore, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, East China Normal University, University of Miami, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik.[2][3] In 2010-2015 he was China's Ivy League Project 211 Distinguished Visiting Professor, and "Shanghai Oriental Scholar" professorial fellow, at Shanghai International Studies University.[2]

He was Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Fellow in 2007–2011 and was awarded research fellowships at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center (Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, Lake Como, Italy); Braginsky Center, Weizmann Institute of Science;[4] Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (University of Texas at Austin); Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Tel Aviv University; Research Centre for Linguistic Typology (Institute for Advanced Study, La Trobe University, Melbourne); and National Institute for Japanese Language (Tokyo). He won a British Academy Research Grant, Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarship[5] and Chevening Scholarship. He was President of AustraLex in 2013-2015.[2]

Zuckermann is Professor of Linguistics and Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide. He is elected member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and the Foundation for Endangered Languages.[6] He serves as Editorial Board member of the Journal of Language Contact (Brill),[7] consultant for the Oxford English Dictionary (OED),[8] and Expert Witness in (corpus) lexicography and (forensic) linguistics.[2]

Public impact

Zuckermann applies insights from the Hebrew revival to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages in Australia.[9] According to Yuval Rotem, the ambassador of the State of Israel to the Commonwealth of Australia, Zuckermann's "passion for the reclamation, maintenance and empowerment of Aboriginal languages and culture inspired [him] and was indeed the driving motivator of" the establishment of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, on September 2, 2010.[10]

He proposes "Native Tongue Title", compensation for language loss, because "linguicide"[11][12] results in "loss of cultural autonomy, loss of spiritual and intellectual sovereignty,[13] loss of soul".[14] He uses the term "sleeping beauty" to refer to a no-longer spoken language[15][16] and urges Australia "to define the 330 Aboriginal languages, most of them sleeping beauties, as the official languages of their region", and to introduce bilingual signs and thus change the linguistic landscape of the country. "So, for example, Port Lincoln should also be referred to as Galinyala, which is its original Barngarla name."[17] His edX MOOC Language Revival: Securing the Future of Endangered Languages has attracted 6000 students from 150 countries.[18]

He was interviewed by Stephen Fry in Episode 2 (Identity) of Fry's Planet Word (2011, BBC Two)[19] and featured in other TV[20] and radio[21] programmes and newspaper articles.[22][23][24]

According to John-Paul Davidson, Zuckermann "is a controversial figure in Israel".[25] Zuckermann's hybridic theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew is well known among linguists, Israelis and the Jewish world. Some scholars, for example Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz (who refers to Zuckermann as a "fresh-thinking Israeli scholar"), adopt Zuckermann's term "Israeli" and accept his notion of hybridity.[26] Others, for example author and translator Hillel Halkin, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published December 24, 2004, in The Jewish Daily Forward under the pseudonym "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of political agenda.[27] Zuckermann's response was published December 28, 2004, in The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language.[28]

As described by Reuters in a 2006 article, "Zuckermann's lectures are packed,[29] with the cream of Israeli academia invariably looking uncertain on whether to endorse his innovative streak or rise to the defense of the mother tongue."[23] According to Omri Herzog (Haaretz), Zuckermann "is considered by his Israeli colleagues either a genius or a provocateur".[30]

Reclamation of the Barngarla language

"In 2011 [...] Zuckermann contacted the Barngarla community about helping to revive and reclaim the Barngarla language. This request was eagerly accepted by the Barngarla people and language reclamation workshops began in Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta in 2012" (Barngarla man Stephen Atkinson, 2013).[31] The reclamation is based on 170-year-old documents.[16][32]

Contributions to linguistics

Zuckermann's research focuses on contact linguistics, lexicology, revivalistics, Jewish languages, and the study of language, culture and identity.

Historical linguistics – characterization of Israeli Hebrew

Zuckermann argues that Israeli Hebrew, which he calls "Israeli", is a hybrid language that is genetically both Indo-European (Germanic, Slavic and Romance) and Afro-Asiatic (Semitic). He suggests that "Israeli" is the continuation not only of literary Hebrew(s) but also of Yiddish, as well as Polish, Russian, German, English, Ladino, Arabic and other languages spoken by Hebrew revivalists.

Zuckermann's hybridic synthesis is in contrast to both the traditional revival thesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Hebrew revived) and the relexification antithesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words). While his synthesis is multi-parental, both the thesis and the antithesis are mono-parental.[33][34]

Revivalistics, Revival Linguistics – exploration of universal constraints and mechanisms in language reclamation

Zuckermann introduces revivalistics as a new transdisciplinary field of enquiry surrounding language reclamation (e.g. Barngarla), revitalization (e.g. Adnyamathanha) and reinvigoration (e.g. Irish).[2] Complementing documentary linguistics, revivalistics aims to provide a systematic analysis especially of attempts to resurrect no-longer spoken languages (reclamation) but also of initiatives to reverse language shift (revitalization and reinvigoration).[35]

Lexicology – analysis of camouflaged borrowing

His analysis of multisourced neologization (the coinage of words deriving from two or more sources at the same time)[36] challenges Einar Haugen's classic typology of lexical borrowing.[37] Whereas Haugen categorizes borrowing into either substitution or importation, Zuckermann explores cases of "simultaneous substitution and importation" in the form of camouflaged borrowing. He proposes a new classification of multisourced neologisms such as phono-semantic matching.

Writing systems – characterization of Chinese orthography

Zuckermann's exploration of phono-semantic matching in Standard Mandarin and Meiji period Japanese concludes that the Chinese writing system is multifunctional: pleremic ("full" of meaning, e.g. logographic), cenemic ("empty" of meaning, e.g. phonographic – like a syllabary) and simultaneously cenemic and pleremic (phono-logographic). He argues that Leonard Bloomfield's assertion that "a language is the same no matter what system of writing may be used"[38] is inaccurate. "If Chinese had been written using roman letters, thousands of Chinese words would not have been coined, or would have been coined with completely different forms".[36]

Publications

Zuckermann published in English, Hebrew, Italian, Yiddish, Spanish, German, Russian, Arabic and Chinese.

Books

Journal articles

Book chapters

References

  1. ↑ , accessed August 18, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Researcher Profile: Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann". The University of Adelaide. Retrieved August 20, 2016.
  3. ↑ United World Colleges (UWC) - Impact: Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Australasia, accessed September 2, 2016
  4. ↑ The Weizmann International Magazine of Science and People 8, pp. 16-17
  5. ↑ "Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann". Wingate Scholarships. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  6. ↑ Linguistics News
  7. ↑ "Journal of Language Contact: Evolution of Languages, Contact and Discourse". Brill. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Consultants, Advisers and Contributors". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Aboriginal languages deserve revival". The Australian. August 26, 2009.; as well as Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Walsh, Michael (2011). "Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures". Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31 (1): 111–127. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.532859. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  10. ↑ Ambassador Yuval Rotem - Address for the opening of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre, Dubbo, NSW, Australia, September 2, 2010, accessed August 24, 2016.
  11. ↑ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad, "Stop, revive and survive", The Australian Higher Education, June 6, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Australia’s first chair of endangered languages, Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann from the University of Adelaide puts it bluntly: Those policies have resulted in 'linguicide'", Shyamla Eswaran, Aboriginal languages a source of strength, Green Left Weekly, 6 December 2013.
  13. ↑ "As put by Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, language is part of the ‘Intellectual Sovereignty’ of Indigenous people", p. 2 in Priest, Terry (2011) Submission to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Language Learning in Indigenous Communities, Research Unit, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, August 2011.
  14. ↑ Arnold, Lynn (2016), Lingua Nullius: A Retrospect and Prospect about Australia's First Languages (Transcript), Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration, May 31, 2016.
  15. ↑ See pp. 57 & 60 in Zuckermann's A New Vision for "Israeli Hebrew": Theoretical and Practical Implications of Analysing Israel's Main Language as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 5: 57–71 (2006).
  16. 1 2 Dr Anna Goldsworthy on the Barngarla language reclamation, The Monthly, September 2014
  17. ↑ Sophie Verass (NITV) Indigenous meanings of Australian town names, 10 August 2016.
  18. ↑ Multilingualism Conference Keynote 1, May 16, 2015
  19. ↑ Fry's Planet Word: https://vimeo.com/channels/357807/44019045
  20. ↑ E.g. in Israel Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 10, Channel 23, YES, YES DOCO) and the United Kingdom: BBC
  21. ↑ E.g. "Reawakening Language", The Forum, interviewed by BBC's Diplomatic correspondent Bridget Kendall, BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4; ABC Lingua Franca programmes such as Why The Language Of Israelis Should Not Be Called Modern Hebrew (July 23, 2005); an ABC Encounter programme with David Rutledge, an ABC Big Ideas panel broadcast (April 15, 2010); Prof. Ghil'ad Zuckermann on Gordon Ramsay's language, July 9, 2008 Archived August 14, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.; Hebrew? Israeli? Israeli Hebrew? - Interview with Linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann (Part I) (February 9, 2011); and The Politics of Language Archived July 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. - Interview with Linguist Ghil’ad Zuckermann (Part II) (February 16, 2011); Radio Sefarad.
  22. ↑ Omri Herzog (July 27, 2010). עברית בשתי שקל [Hebrew for two Shekels]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Retrieved August 19, 2016. (original publication date: September 26, 2008)
  23. 1 2 "Hebrew or Israeli? Linguist stirs Zionist debate: Ghil'ad Zuckermann argues that modern Hebrew should be renamed 'Israeli'". Reuters. November 29, 2006. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  24. ↑ Hebreeuws / De mythe van de bijbelse taal (December 17, 2006).
  25. ↑ John-Paul Davidson (2011), Planet Word, Penguin. pp. 125-126.
  26. ↑ Katz, Dovid (2004). Words on Fire. The Unfinished Story of Yiddish. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0465037285.
  27. ↑ Hillel Halkin ("Philologos") (December 24, 2004). "Hebrew vs. Israeli". The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  28. ↑ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (December 28, 2004). "The Genesis of the Israeli Language: A Brief Response to 'Philologos'". The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language. 8 (13). Retrieved September 19, 2014.
  29. ↑ See, for example, YouTube - השפה הישראלית: רצח יידיש או יידיש רעדט זיך? פרופ' גלעד צוקרמן The Israeli Language: Hebrew Revived or Yiddish Survived? - PART 1, PART 2, PART 3
  30. ↑ Omri Herzog (September 26, 2008). עברית בשתי שקל [Hebrew for two Shekels]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Retrieved September 19, 2014. הוא נחשב על ידי עמיתיו הישראלים גאון, או פרובוקטור
  31. ↑ Language lost and regained / Barngarla man Stephen Atkinson, The Australian, 20 September 2013
  32. ↑ Section 282 in John Mansfield (judge)'s Federal Court of Australia: Croft on behalf of the Barngarla Native Title Claim Group v State of South Australia (2015, FCA 9), File number: SAD 6011 of 1998; Australia’s unspeakable indigenous tragedy, Lainie Anderson, 6 May 2012]; Barngarla: People, Language & Land; Barngarla language reclamation, Port Augusta; Barngarla language reclamation, Port Lincoln; Waking up Australia's sleeping beauty languages; Hope for revival of dormant indigenous languages; Reclaiming their language, Port Lincoln; Awakening the "sleeping beauties" of Aboriginal languages; Cultural historical event begins, Whyalla; Group moves to preserve Barngarla language, Port Augusta; An interview with Stolen Generation Barngarla man Howard Richards and his wife Isabel, Port Lincoln; Calls for compensation over 'stolen' Indigenous languages;Language revival could have mental health benefits for Aboriginal communities; Language More Important than Land.
  33. ↑ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2006). "Complement Clause Types in Israeli". In R. M. W. Dixon; Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald. Complementation: A Cross-Linguistic Typology (PDF). Oxford University Press. pp. 72–92. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  34. ↑ John-Paul Davidson (2011), Planet Word, Penguin. pp. 125-126.
  35. ↑ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad; Walsh, Michael (2011). "Stop, Revive, Survive: Lessons from the Hebrew Revival Applicable to the Reclamation, Maintenance and Empowerment of Aboriginal Languages and Cultures" (PDF). Australian Journal of Linguistics. 31 (1): 111–127. doi:10.1080/07268602.2011.532859. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  36. 1 2 Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403917232.
  37. ↑ Haugen, Einar (1950). "The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing". Language. 26: 210–231. doi:10.2307/410058.
  38. ↑ Bloomfield, Leonard (1933), Language, New York: Henry Holt, p. 21.
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