OF HEBREW USED

The language presented here as a model for students to imitate is the ordinary informal speech of educated native Israelis. This is different from the Hebrew usually taught outside of Israel, and students who have already learned some Hebrew may have to make some adjustments.

Modern Hebrew is a living language and as such it is changing daily. Slang expression, coinages, variant pronunciations, and grammatical innovations are characteristic of any living Furthermore, Hebrew is spoken and written in a variety of styles. These vary from highly formal to highly informal.

Formal spoken style is'very similar to the literary style and is more like the Hebrew that is taught traditionally. Formal style is used, as the name implies, for public speaking, official meetings, radio news broadcasts, or other occasions where the speaker would use deferential or deliberate speech.

Informal spoken style is that used by native speakers in ordinary, relaxed conversation. It is often more rapid than the formal style and is the speech which seems most "natural" to native Israelis.

There is a highly informal style which contains much slang, contractions and dropping of sounds, and is fairly rapid. The student should not attempt to learn it until he is fairly fluent in the ordinary informal style.

The informal speech used in this text is tempered with features of more formal speech. These are included because the non·native speaker will be expected to have learned them, and their use will not seem affected.

It is interesting to note that the speakers who provided the material for this book often insisted that one should not use forms or expressions which they, in fact, did. This occasionally led to long discussions about what to include in the book, and sometimes no final decision was reached. Thus, for a example, the forms /birer/ and /otxem/ "you"are included in the material as well as the 'correct' forms/berariand /etxem/. In such cases the student will find that either choice will be acceptable in conversation.

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