Hebraisms in the Speech of Georgian Jews Repatriated to Israel

Abstract

Georgian Jews, as a rule, speak the same language as their co-territorial non-Jews. However, sometimes they use Aramaic and Hebrew elements in their speech.  Hebraisms used by the Georgian Jews who emigrated to Israel in the 1970s can be divided into two groups: old/archaic Hebrew influences and modern Hebrew influences. Old/archaic Hebrew, also referred to as Biblical Hebrew, is rich in religious terminology the use of which has always been peculiar to the Jewish speech varieties. However, one some changes can be discerned in the usage of some terms. It means that Georgian Jews used different Hebraisms while living in Georgia (e. g. თეფილინის დადება tepilinis dadeba, ფესახე Pesach) that were replaced by other Hebraisms after the repatriation to Israel (ბარ მიცვა A bar mitzvah, პასექი Pesach). The source for the Hebraisms that were coined after the repatriation is Israeli Hebrew. In the 1970s, most of the Jews could not speak Hebrew but lexical units commonly used in everyday speech were replaced Hebrew words (e. g. სადგური station, სასურსათო მაღაზია grocery shop, etc.), especially in cases when there was no Georgian equivalent (იპოთეკა mortgage, ანაბარი deposit, etc.).