Hybridic theory of Israeli Hebrew, Classification of camouflaged borrowing, Phono-semantic matching, Revivalistics, Language reclamation and mental health
Zuckermann was awarded theRubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his research on the profound influence ofYiddish on modern Hebrew",[9][10] and listed among Australia's top 30 "living legends of research" (2024) byThe Australian.[11]
He is the Chair of the Jury for theJeonju International Awards for Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage (since 2024).[12][13]
Zuckermann is ahyperpolyglot,[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 LeagueProject 211 "Distinguished Visiting Professor", and "Shanghai Oriental Scholar" professorial fellow, atShanghai International Studies University.[20]
Zuckermann applies insights from the Hebrew revival to the revitalization ofAboriginal languages in Australia.[37][38][39] According toYuval Rotem, the IsraeliAmbassador 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 inDubbo,New South Wales, Australia, on 2 September 2010.[40]
He proposesNative Tongue Title, compensation forlanguage 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 termsleeping 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 originalBarngarla name."[46]
Zuckermann proposes a controversial hybrid theory of the emergence ofIsraeli Hebrew according to which Hebrew and Yiddish "acted equally" as the "primary contributors" toModern Hebrew.[47][48] Scholars including Yiddish linguistDovid 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 translatorHillel Halkin, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published on 24 December 2004 inThe Jewish Daily Forward, pseudonymous column "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of a political agenda.[47] Zuckermann's response was published on 28 December 2004 inThe 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 therelexification antithesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words).[48][64]
Zuckermann introduces revivalistics as a newtransdisciplinary 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] challengesEinar Haugen's classictypology oflexical 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 asphono-semantic matching.[citation needed]
Zuckermann's exploration of phono-semantic matching inStandard Mandarin andMeiji periodJapanese concludes that theChinesewriting system is multifunctional: pleremic ("full" ofmeaning, e.g.logographic), cenemic ("empty" of meaning, e.g. phonographic – like asyllabary) and simultaneously cenemic and pleremic (phono-logographic). He argues thatLeonard 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 usingroman 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. Retrieved5 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."
