Modern Hebrew Language and the Words it Borrows

Recently in class we have started to learn about morphology – or how smaller pieces of meaningful language can be combined to make words. This has made me realize how lots of English morphemes can be combined to build words. The introduction to morphology has also prompted me to reflect on Hebrew (a language that I speak well) and its morphology. In particular, it has made me consider the way in which words in the language that are borrowed from other languages fit into the morphological rules of Hebrew.  

Many of the words in Modern Hebrew come from words that were originally from Biblical Hebrew and other Semitic languages. Interestingly, Hebrew also incorporate words from English, French, German, and other Latin based languages. I am curious about the way that Hebrew can accommodate all of these borrowed words in the context of a productive language that its speakers can still use and understand.

I noticed several qualities of these borrowed words. First, these words are pronounced very similarly to, but not exactly the same as, how they would be pronounced in their original languages. For example, the English word “university” is borrowed by Hebrew but pronounced differently in Hebrew than it is in English. In English, we would pronounce this word with the last sound [ti]. However, in Hebrew it is pronounced with the last sounds [ta]. This change is important, not just because it makes the word sound more like a Hebrew word, but also because ending with this final sound indicates that it is a feminine word. Knowing the gender of this word also means that anyone who knows the word also knows how to make it plural. Thus, when words are borrowed they are pronounced differently so that it is clearer to a native speaker which morphemes can be combined with the word. There is also a second function of changing the sounds of borrowed words. There are sounds in some words that Hebrew borrowed (sounds in the original language of the word) that do not occur in Hebrew. For example, the English [θ] sound does not exist in Hebrew. Thus, when Hebrew borrows a word with this sound it is replaced with the [t] sound. Words borrowed from other languages are modified so that they only use the sounds that Hebrew speakers use and so that they leave the word in a form that easily allows the speaker to combine the word with other morphemes in the language.

Once the Hebrew language borrows foreign words, these words can be combined with other Hebrew morphemes. For example, the word university is not made plural (as it would in English) by adding a [z] sound at the end, but rather by adding the Hebrew suffix for making something plural. Even though the word is originally English, the suffix added for making it plural is Hebrew. Additionally, if I wanted to say ‘her university’ or ‘in the university’ there are Hebrew affixes (that mean her’s and in) that I would add. Thus, once Hebrew borrows a word, it follows the same conventions as other Hebrew words. There is no need for a speaker of Hebrew to know the morphological rules of the other languages from which Hebrew borrowed the words initially.  

Finally, I have noticed that Hebrew borrows whole words (and not bound morphemes) from other languages. Hebrew does not borrow bound morphemes even when the words it borrows are made up of those morphemes. For example, Hebrew borrows the words mythology, biology, and cardiology from English. The suffix “ology” is still included in the word when it is borrowed. This suffix even has a Hebrew pronunciation [logIja]. However, this suffix cannot be used outside of the few words ending in “ology” that are borrowed from English. In English, this morpheme is meaningful (it means ‘the study of’). When it is used in Hebrew, it does not have this independent meaning. It cannot be separated from the other morphemes in the word and still mean anything. It cannot be combined with Hebrew word ‘X’ and produce the overall meaning of the ‘study of X’. Unlike in English, where the word ‘biology’ is a word with multiple morphemes, when the word is adopted by Hebrew it is essentially a mono-morphemic word. The fact that words that are initially composed of multiple morphemes are treated as if they are mono-morphemic when borrowed also helps explain how speakers of Hebrew who do not know any other languages can intelligibly use these words.

Although Hebrew incorporates a variety of words from other languages, it is not necessary for a Hebrew speaker to know or understand any of the morphological rules of those languages. Before adding a word to the language the borrowed word is adapted to Hebrew sounds and Hebrew word patterns (by pattern I mean things like appropriate gender endings). Not only can speakers pronounce these words, but they can also they recognize which morphemes can be combined with words of that form. Additionally, Hebrew speakers are not expected to use the morphemes of the language from which the language was borrowed in order to modify the word. Instead, the speaker can simply use Hebrew morphemes to modify the word. Finally, when Hebrew borrows words that have multiple morphemes, it treats the word as if it were mono-morphemic because the speaker of Hebrew can use the word without knowing the meaning of the components of the word or being able to make new words out of these components.