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Hybridic theory of Israeli Hebrew, Classification of camouflaged borrowing, Phono-semantic matching, Revivalistics, Language reclamation and mental health
Zuckermann was awarded the Rubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his research on the profound influence of Yiddish on modern Hebrew",[9][10] and listed among Australia's top 30 "living legends of research" (2024) by The Australian.[11]
He is the Chair of the Jury for the Jeonju International Awards for Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage (since 2024).[12][13]
Zuckermann is a hyperpolyglot,[19] with his past professorships ranging across universities in England, China, Australia, Singapore, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States.[14] 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.[20]
Zuckermann applies insights from the Hebrew revival to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages in Australia.[37][38][39] According to Yuval Rotem, the Israeli Ambassador to 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 2 September 2010.[40]
He proposes Native Tongue Title, compensation for language loss, because "linguicide"[41][42] results in "loss of cultural autonomy, loss of spiritual and intellectual sovereignty,[43] loss of soul".[44] He uses the term sleeping beauty to refer to a no-longer spoken language[19][45] 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."[46]
Zuckermann proposes a controversial hybrid theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew according to which Hebrew and Yiddish "acted equally" as the "primary contributors" to Modern Hebrew.[47][48] Scholars including 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.[49] Others, for example author and translator Hillel Halkin, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published on 24 December 2004 in The Jewish Daily Forward, pseudonymous column "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of a political agenda.[47] Zuckermann's response was published on 28 December 2004 in The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language.[50]
His hybridic synthesis is in contrast to both the traditional revival thesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Hebrew) and the relexification antithesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words).[48][64]
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).[39]
His analysis of multisourced neologization (the coinage of words deriving from two or more sources at the same time)[65] challenges Einar Haugen's classic typology of lexical borrowing.[66] 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.[citation needed]
Zuckermann's exploration of phono-semantic matching in Standard Mandarin and Meiji periodJapanese concludes that the Chinesewriting 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"[67] 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".[65]
^Hideous Spectre of Censorship, Times Higher Education, 15 August 2003: "Ghil'ad Zuckermann is Gulbenkian Research Fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge. He is currently in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy."
^
Alex Rawlings, 22 March 2019, BBC Future, The man bringing dead languages back to life ("Ghil'ad Zuckermann has found that resurrecting lost languages may bring many benefits to indigenous populations – with knock-on effects for their health and happiness"). Retrieved 5 May 2019.
^"edX". Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
^"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.
^Bloomfield, Leonard (1933), Language, New York: Henry Holt, p. 21.
^Dead Languages and the Man Trying to Revive Them, By Nuno Marques, 21 February 2018: "Prof. Ghil’ad Zuckermann is a renowned linguist and scholar originally from Israel and currently based in Australia. He talked to Babbel about strategies for linguistic revitalization and the political issues surrounding linguistic change and preservation."
