search
languages
A sample of the offerings at Meshuggah Bagels in Kansas City. (Victor Wishna/JTA)
December 7, 2018, 9:03 pm
PETA: ‘Bring home the bagel’ — not the bacon
Activist animal rights group suggests list of animal- and fauna-friendly alternatives to common idioms
By JTA
Illustrative: People hold up placards and Union flags as they gather for a demonstration organized by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism outside the head office of the British opposition Labour Party in central London on April 8, 2018. (AFP/Tolga Akmen)
August 23, 2018, 3:25 am
What’s in a hyphen? Why writing anti-Semitism with a dash distorts its meaning
Regularly spelled with a hyphen in American English but without in academia, some experts claim the punctuation mark slashes the word’s potency
By Matt Lebovic
Linguist and Arabic teacher Anwar Ben-Badis teaching and guiding in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood during one of his intensive courses (Courtesy Anwar Ben-Badis)
January 21, 2018, 11:32 am
Al-salam alaikum! Is it finally time for Israelis to learn Arabic?
Teachers and language schools are noticing a rise in the number of locals learning Arabic, although attitudes and angles depend on who’s teaching, and where
By Jessica Steinberg
Members of the native American Wampanoag tribe, the tribe which celebrated the first Thanksgiving with Pilgrims in 1621. (Screen capture: YouTube)
November 24, 2017, 9:41 am
Thanksgiving tribe reclaims language lost to colonization
The Wampanoag of Massachusetts, whose ancestors hosted famed harvest celebration with Pilgrims in 1621, rediscover tongue unspoken for six generations
By Philip Marcelo
Screenshot from a Google presentation on the new Google Earbuds for PIxel phones that can translate in real time in 40 languages. (Screenshot/YouTube)
October 6, 2017, 2:07 am
Google earbuds offer real-time translation; Hebrew not included
Pixel Buds, synched to new Pixel smartphones, promise translations of conversations in any of 40 languages
By AFP and TOI staff
Screenshot from a Google presentation on the new Google Earbuds for PIxel phones that can translate in real time in 40 languages. (Screenshot/YouTube)
October 5, 2017, 8:26 pm
New Google earbuds offer real-time translation feature
Pixel Buds, synched to new Pixel smartphones, promise translations of conversations in any of 40 languages
By AFP
The October 13, 2015 launch of the Knesset Caucus for the Reconnection with the Descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities. (Jeffrey P Worthington)
August 1, 2017, 1:17 pm
Spain announces bid to preserve the Judeo-Spanish language — in Israel
Spanish Royal Academy to found a special Israeli center for Ladino, still spoken by some 525 years after the expulsion of the country’s Jews
By Sue Surkes
Sofi and the Baladis, an ensemble making music with Samaritan, Arabic and Israeli roots, will perform Sunday, March 19, 2017 at Tel Aviv's Papaito (Courtesy Sofi and the Baladis)
March 16, 2017, 9:32 pm
A former Samaritan faces the music of her complicated roots
Israeli actress and musician Sofi Tsedaka takes to the stage to reckon with her upbringing, and her decision to decamp from the ancient sect
By Jessica Steinberg
Emma S. Jacobs
March 6, 2017, 6:14 am
Emma S. Jacobs
The politics of pastry
When a stroll through Jerusalem’s Arab shuk becomes crash course in prejudice and diplomacy
Haidy Wasef (left) with a student in her Arabic class at Gann Academy in Waltham, Massachusetts, 2016 (Courtesy)
February 3, 2017, 12:31 am
American Jewish day schools say ‘ahlan’ to Arabic
At request of pupils motivated by politics and peace, US high schools adding courses in Israel’s ‘other’ official language
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Fireworks exploding over the Rhine River during a New Year’s party in Cologne, Germany, January 1, 2014. (Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images)
December 31, 2016, 3:52 pm
Do Germans wish each other ‘Shanah tovah’ on New Year’s Eve?
There is a cornucopia of Jewish-influenced vernacular in the modern German lexicon
By Cnaan Liphshiz
The Harry Potter series will be read in Hebrew and Arabic, Greek and Latin in a new book club series at Polis, a Jerusalem institute dedicated to using language as a method to understand other cultures and heritage (Courtesy Getty Images iStock)
November 20, 2016, 5:35 pm
Spelling out Harry Potter in Arabic, Greek and Hebrew
The beloved adolescent wizard offers opportunities for language immersion at Polis, a Jerusalem language school
By Jessica Steinberg
Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath holding her 'Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary.' (The Jewish Standard)
November 1, 2016, 8:59 pm
New dictionary updates Yiddish for era of transgender, tablets and tweets
Need a new pair of ‘fingershikh’? Building on her Yiddish linguist father’s corpus, Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath publishes the first English-Yiddish resource guide in four decades
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Celeste Aronoff
March 13, 2016, 2:59 pm
Celeste Aronoff
Stranger in a strange language
Not understanding the Hebrew food labels is bad enough, but not being able to get the joke is heartbreaking
Knesset members are inducted in a ceremony in Jerusalem on March 31, 2015 (photo credit: Knesset spokesperson)
December 30, 2015, 7:42 am
Knesset holds first spoken Arabic course for lawmakers
MK Basel Ghattas hopes other parliamentarians will learn to pronounce their Arab colleagues’ names correctly
By TOI staff
Load More
Join us!
A message from the Editor of Times of Israel
David Horovitz

For as little as $6 a month, you can help support our independent journalism — and enjoy special benefits and status as a Times of Israel Community member!

The Times of Israel covers one of the most complicated, and contentious, parts of the world. Determined to keep readers fully informed and enable them to form and flesh out their own opinions, The Times of Israel has gradually established itself as the leading source of independent and fair-minded journalism on Israel, the region and the Jewish world.

We've achieved this by investing ever-greater resources in our journalism while keeping all of the content on our site free.

Unlike many other news sites, we have not put up a paywall. But we would like to invite readers who can afford to do so, and for whom The Times of Israel has become important, to help support our journalism by joining The Times of Israel Community. Join now and for as little as $6 a month you can both help ensure our ongoing investment in quality journalism, and enjoy special status and benefits as a Times of Israel Community member.

Join our community Sign in to stop seeing this