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The Department of Hebrew Language and Sociolinguistics
The Department of Hebrew Language and Sociolinguistics

About the Department of Hebrew Language and Sociolinguistics

About

The Department of Hebrew Language and Sociolinguistics addresses a wide range of individual interests in its field. It seeks to present different perspectives on Hebrew’s diverse forms, functions, registers, and styles.

The department​ offers instruction on the systematic aspects of language, as well as its heterogeneous and incidental characteristics. Studies include such topics as early Hebrew and its affinity to other Semitic languages, such as Akkadian, Aramaic, and Arabic, along with Hebrew’s historical development to the present.

Departmental studies and research touch upon numerous academic fields, including sociology, psychology, neurology, anthropology, philosophy, literature, and art. Fields such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics reflect and develop this interdisciplinary nature.

Mission

The Department has aimed (and succeeded) to become an international center for research on the Hebrew and Aramaic of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and on lexicography and philology of biblical language in light of the early Semitic languages, as well as on documentation of contemporary Bedouin Arabic in the Negev. The academic achievements of faculty members are known in the field worldwide.

Learn

The Department teaches ancient Semitic languages, modern linguistics, Hebrew pragmatics, and psycholinguistics.

Courses are offered at the BA, MA, and PhD levels, and are intended for Hebrew speakers only.

Participate

​The Department’s unique MA program in copyediting addresses a growing need in Israel for editors in areas of literature, television, cinema, and journalism. The program trains editors and language consultants through practical and theoretical instruction.