The Standard Language Ideology of the Hebrew and Arabic Grammarians of the ʿAbbasid Period - cover image

Book Series

Copyright

Benjamin Paul Kantor

Published On

2023-11-29

ISBN

Paperback978-1-80511-182-5
Hardback978-1-80511-183-2
PDF978-1-80511-184-9

Language

  • English

Print Length

232 pages (xii+220)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 13 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.51" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 15 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.59" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback336g (11.85oz)
Hardback508g (17.92oz)

OCLC Number

1411183271

LCCN

2022361259

THEMA

  • CFF
  • QRMF1

BIC

  • CFF
  • CFP

BISAC

  • REL006020
  • LAN009010

LCC

  • PJ4527

Keywords

  • Biblical Hebrew Grammar
  • Arabic-speaking Jews
  • Language Ideology
  • ʿAbbasid Period
  • Standard Language Ideology
  • Medieval Hebrew Grammarians

The Standard Language Ideology of the Hebrew and Arabic Grammarians of the ʿAbbasid Period

  • Benjamin Paul Kantor (author)
As a discipline, the study of Biblical Hebrew grammar began largely among Arabic-speaking Jews of the Middle Ages, particularly in the ʿAbbasid period (750–1258 CE). Indeed, it has long been acknowledged by scholars that the Hebrew grammatical tradition, in many ways, grew up out of and alongside the Arabic grammatical tradition. Many concepts present in Hebrew grammar have their origins in the writings of Arabic grammarians of the ʿAbbasid period. And yet, as recent linguistic and anthropological work has shown, setting down ‘the grammar’ of a language can be as much an ideological or political activity as an academic one.

In addition to the language itself, speech communities also share beliefs and attitudes about that language—what linguistic anthropologists would term a ‘language ideology’. Language ideology can have a dramatic impact on what forms of the language one regards as acceptable and what sort of rules one imposes on and through their description of the language. Nevertheless, while much work has been done on the interface between Hebrew and Arabic grammar and literature in the Middle Ages, interface of their respective language ideologies has yet to be treated theoretically or systematically.

In the present book, then, we survey six specific characteristics of a ‘standard language ideology’ that appear in both the writings of the Hebrew grammarians who wrote in Judeo-Arabic and the Arabic grammarians during the ʿAbbasid period. Such striking lines of linguistic-ideological similarity suggest that it may not have been only grammatical concepts or literary genres that the medieval Hebrew grammarians inherited from the Arabic grammatical tradition, but a way of thinking about language as well.

Reviews

Kantor's writing is exceptionally clear and reader-friendly ... This is a very readable and well-researched book on an interesting topic.

Jeffrey Heath

Journal of Arabic Linguistics Tradition, vol. 21, 2023.

Full Review

Contents

Introduction

(pp. 1–4)
  • Benjamin Paul Kantor
  • Benjamin Paul Kantor

Conclusions

(pp. 177–186)
  • Benjamin Paul Kantor

Contributors

Benjamin Paul Kantor

(author)
Research Associate at University of Cambridge