If I got a research grant for a linguistic study of Hebrew, I would want to explore the “new” words in Modern Hebrew, the ones that didn’t exist in Biblical Hebrew and had to be created. Words like “car” or “newspaper” didn't exist thousands of years ago, so they had to be made up.
From the research I’ve done so far, much of this work goes back to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, known as the father of Modern Hebrew. He seems to have come up with many of these new words before the work was eventually based on by a group of linguistic scholars. A lot of the vocabulary still used today can be traced back to him. To create these words, he took from other Semitic languages, like Arabic and Aramaic, and combined their influences with Hebrew roots.
What I’m really curious about is how many of his original words are still used today. How much of his vocabulary stuck, and how much was changed or replaced later by scholars or everyday speakers? He did publish dictionaries, which give us a record of his contributions. For example, he coined the word for ice cream, “glida,” combining an Arabic word for ice with a Hebrew root meaning “to congeal.” It’s fascinating how he was able to build so many words in a way that still fit the structure of the language. With the grant, I would want to see if there is a pattern.
As part of this study, I’d want to look more closely at how these words were formed—especially the grammar, morphology, and syntax behind them—and see if there are patterns in what made certain words successful.
I’m also really interested in the cultural side of this. How did Eliezer Ben-Yehuda actually get people to adopt these new words, and the language more broadly? The historical context probably played a big role. The rise of nationalism and the need for community for the Jewish people, especially around and after World War II, probably helped. But I think it would be interesting to look more closely at how culture influences and how it actually catches on.
One example that stands out is the word for tomato, “agvaniya,” which comes from a root meaning “to seduce.” That feels a little random, and apparently Ben-Yehuda had other ideas for what to call a tomato that didn’t stick. So it makes me wonder what actually determines whether a word catches on. Is it the sound, the meaning, the cultural context, or just chance?
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