Etymology of Hebrew nouns : Re-examining the origins of the language of Israel

Sammanfattning: Which sources most influence the language spoken in Israel? Is it the same language as the Hebrew of its ancestral heritage? Which periods in history brought about the changes of contemporary lexicon? These are the questions addressed in the current essay, which presents the inspection of nouns appearing in a recent newspaper, and their categorization according to the different periods in the history of the Hebrew language. The current thesis proposes the division into fourteen sets which account for each of the classical periods of the Hebrew language, as well as seven other stages, which are shown to have contributed to the Hebrew lexis in providing new meanings to existing words. Thus, a native Hebrew word which originated in an early period might appear at a later period bearing a different semantic value. Also, the current study acknowledges the vast foreign influence to which Modern Hebrew had been subjected in the course of history, and still is, in today’s globalized world. Utilizing the proposed fourteen sets by which the 617-word corpus has been analyzed, this essay aims to improve the etymological research of Hebrew which is not extensively and thoroughly studied, as well as promote the compiling of an etymological dictionary which is currently lacking in the shelves of Hebrew lexicography.