Arabic 360 - Arabic & Hebrew/SocialSettings

The seminar-style course will start with a brief history of Arabic and Hebrew from their origins in the Semitic language family to the present, an outline of the interaction between the two languages, and similarities and differences in their structures. We will then explore the roles of Arabic and Hebrew in their respective national narratives and in the religions they represent, and continue with description and analysis of attitudes and ideologies towards normative vs. colloquial manifestations of language variation in Arabic as well as in Hebrew, with implications to teaching them as additional languages. We will also consider the role of language in issues of nationalism, media, popular culture, power and identity in the Middle Eastern context.