''Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond'' is a book written by

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

Ghil'ad Zuckermann Ghil'ad Zuckermann (, ; ) is an Israeli-born language revivalist and linguist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity. Zuckermann was awarded the Rubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his researc ...

. It was published in 2020 by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. The book introduces revivalistics, a trans-disciplinary field of enquiry exploring "the dynamics and problematics inherent in spoken language reclamation, revitalization, and reinvigoration". Lo Bianco, Joseph 2020
“Ideologies of sign language and their repercussions in language policy determination”
''Language & Communication'' 75: 83-93.

Summary

The book is divided into two main parts that match the book subtitle: ''From the Genesis of Israeli'' (Part One) ''to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond'' (Part Two). These parts reflect the author's "journey into language revival from the ‘

Promised Land In the Abrahamic religions, the "Promised Land" ( ) refers to a swath of territory in the Levant that was bestowed upon Abraham and his descendants by God in Abrahamic religions, God. In the context of the Bible, these descendants are originally ...

’ to the ‘ Lucky Country’," by drawing parallels between the

revival of the Hebrew language The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and the Levant region toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from purely the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and wr ...

and contemporary

language revitalization Language revitalization, also referred to as language revival or reversing language shift, is an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one. Those involved can include linguists, cultural or community group ...

. The first half of the book provides a summary of Zuckerman's previous work on Modern Israeli Hebrew, while the second half comments on language rights and includes a brief account of the author's work with the

Barngarla language Barngarla, formerly known as Parnkalla, is an Aboriginal language of Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. It was formerly extinct, but has undergone a process of revival since 2012. Language revival The last native speaker of the language die ...

and its community.

Reception

The volume has received a mixed reception from linguists, other academics and the public. The book has been summarized by linguist Bernard Spolsky as a "brilliant but at times irritating book" which provides "an original understanding of the use and history of ebrew and Yiddish but, at the same time, can be likened to "a teacher trying to keep a large undergraduate class amused rather than an academic work." Patrick Heinrich concludes his

Linguist List The LINGUIST List is an online resource for the academic field of linguistics. It was founded by Anthony Aristar in early 1990 at the University of Western Australia, and is used as a reference by the National Science Foundation in the United S ...

review by stating that "book does not ..suggest itself as a new textbook for teaching the subject at hand ecause itis too fragmented, does not give a state-of-the-art overview, is anecdotal over large parts, and does not introduce or define key concepts and research methodologies." Commentary from journalists and commentators from outside linguistics has been positive, with the book praised for its humor and described variously as a "

masterpiece A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

that is both scholarly and social‐minded," "an ambitious volume," "very important"Simms, Norman 2020
Review of Ghil‘ad Zuckermann, ‘‘Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond’’. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020
''Mentalities/Mentalités'' 34.1., "groundbreaking", "magnificent", "bold",Nash, Joshua 2021
Review article
Stop, revival(istics), (linguistic) survival(istics): Zuckermann's Revivalistics and Giacon's Yaluu. ''Language Documentation and Description'' 20, pp. 352-358. "exuberant" "milestone book", “which will be referred to for many years to come". The book was listed as No. 7 in ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

s ranking of "Australia’s top 10 academic books" for 2021, a list based on the number of citations that year: ''Revivalistics'' received 16 citations in 2021 including self-citations.See page 50 of "Research Magazine 2021", ''The Australian'', November 10, 2021. https://www.leagueofscholars.com/media/2021%20RESEARCH%20Magazine.pdf

References

Bibliography

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External links

Oxford University Press: Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and BeyondGoogle Books: Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and BeyondWorldCat: Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and BeyondWhy we should revive dead languages, OUPBlogThe Third Space: on the field of revivalistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond Oxford University Press books 2020 non-fiction books Linguistics books Language revival Modern Hebrew English-language non-fiction books Books about Jews and Judaism Anthropology books Australian Aboriginal languages