Thoughts on Hebrew Slang

So, as some of you may know, I've been spending the last several days on a killer intensive ulpan (= class for Hebrew study) for the sake of improving my conversational skills. It's been great; I'm feeling much more confident in my use of the language...the biggest problem I've had is really lack of confidence and a memory like a sieve, but this really seems to be helping.

At any rate, my instructor, Noa, and I have discussed on a couple of occasions Hebrew slang. Since I've been here, and especially since I've been watching the awesome Israeli drama Asfur (on Hot 3 at 1045 pm, Sunday-Thursday), I've really gotten obsessed with Hebrew slang. (By the way, Asfur is a pretty fun show...If your interested, here's the Hot 3 link with info about it...and here is an English Wikipedia article about the show.)

So, one very interesting thing about many popular Israeli slang words is that they are, in fact, not Hebrew but Arabic. Some examples:

Sababa = Probably the most well-known word, meaning "OK" or "B'seder" in Hebrew
Achla = meaning fantastic or really first-rate
Ala kefakh = meaning terrific
Yallah = actually, this might be more widely known than "sababa" -- "let's go" or "come on, let's get going" or, in some case, just sort of a general "ok, let's move on to the next thing"
Wallah = a more elusive term for me; I've seen it in a number of contexts, seems to mean something like "alright," "ok," "great," "whatever"
Mavsut = I just heard this one for the first time today; means "ok, I'm satisfied" with something.

Of course there are many other words that have entered common parlance.

Now, one of the more interesting discussions on the subject I had with Noa was the very obvious point of just how much the appearance of Arabic in commonly spoken Hebrew reflects a real paucity of engagement. One might think that these terms -- which, like most slang, are a kind of "cooler" vocabulary, the sort of thing that reflects a certain degree of hipness or with-it-ness on the part of the speaker, thus perhaps reflects a more open attitude towards Arabic and perhaps Arabs. And perhaps it does.

But, as Noa pointed out quite correctly, in fact there is a rather patronizing aspect to these words, in that they are for the most part the entire engagement of many Israelis with the Arabic language. This despite the fact that a significant proportion of the Israeli population speaks Arabic as its first language (primarily Palestinian and Israeli-Arab Muslims and Christians, but also the older generation of Jewish olim [=immigrants to Israel] from Arabic-speaking countries). In a way, what seems (and seemed to me, I admit) a kind of cool attempt at some kind of openness to Arabic culture, is in fact a sign of just how far we are from each other. Most Israelis, Noa pointed out, study Arabic not because of its incredible history and literature, but rather so that they can serve in Mossad. Arabs, for their part, are expected rather blithely (on the part of Israelis and Jews in Israel in general) to either be able to communicate with Israelis in Hebrew or English or not at all.

(And need I add, sourly, that the Hebrew of MOST Arabs living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean is far and away superior to the Hebrew of many, many American olim, especially of late?)

A big part of me can't help but think that we might be doing ourselves a big favor -- and not just from the Mossad-security perspective -- if we spent a little time understanding more Arabic than "Yallah."

(Pic is of Sholem Aleichem Street in Jerusalem. Significance to post: Sholem Aleichem, or Sholem Rabinovitsh [1859-1916], formerly of Kiev but buried in Queens, New York, spoke Russian in the home, is known as one of the great Yiddish stylists of all time (he wrote the stories Tevye der milkhiker, Tevye the Dairyman, upon which Fiddler on the Roof is based), and was not a bad Hebrew writer either. I doubt were he ever to have settled in Israel, he would have remained ignorant of Arabic. His nom de plume, meaning "Peace upon you," a traditional Yiddish and Hebrew greeting, is literally the same as "A salaam alekhem," the traditional Arabic greeting. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even know enough about Arabic letters to be able to say if the street sign's Arabic is a translation or transliteration!)