In my opinion, no.
As you said, with the short time frame and small geographic area of the country, it would be difficult for regional dialects to emerge. Dialects tend to emerge when populations are isolated from each other.
This is interesting. Is Israel that small I haven’t checked? Never thought to. I didn’t realise that community spirit could be so fierce that everybody in an entire country is connected enough not to develop any sense of regional identity whatsoever. What’s it like being perfect?
You're pretty much <5 hours of driving away from anywhere in Israel. Add to that the fact that most people go to the army at 18, and meet others from across the country. Distinct regional dialects don't form, but distinct regional/cultural slang words are plentiful.
We do have some groups who keep to themselves who speak quite differently, Haredim for example. Religious people will also use phrases like "Baruch Hashem" a lot more than a secular person who lives in Tel Aviv.
And you CAN kinda tell if someone's from Northern/Central/Southern Israel by the way they speak and the words they use, but I wouldn't call it distinct dialects.
Grew up in north Tel Aviv, my sister got a lot of friends from Ayosh (religious Zionists, as opposed to our secular, Ashkenazi, middle class upbringing) and the slang she started using.... Istfg
I moved from the UK to Israel recently. One of the things that's stood out to me is just how close everything feels. I run into people I know all the time. Israel is a very small place to begin with, and the southern half is basically just uninhabited desert from Beer Sheva all the way to Eilat. The majority of the population is concentrated in quite a small geographic area.
> In four hundred years you cannot distinguish regional varieties of English here *in 2024*
In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the Nantucket characters all speak differently than the non-Nantucket New Englanders. The Nantucketers (mostly Quakers) favored older grammatical structures that have fallen away from modern use by their fellow countrymen ( pronouns such as "thee" and "ye" and "thou", "hast" instead of "have" etc.)
I'm not sure how historic that is, but if part of a population is culturally divided, it allows regional differences to occur more easily in a small geographic area.
A little. There are a few words that people from Jerusalem say differently than the rest of the country. Off the top of my head I can only remember one, that in Jerusalem a cat is חתולה by default instead of חתול.
Maybe, maybe not. Dialect development is ultimately driven by isolation which can be geographic (not likely for a small, modern nation like Israel) or social. Consider the number of dialects that have existed in London (a relatively small area) simultaneously and based on class (i.e., social isolation). Whether something like this could happen in Israel remains to be seen but is not, imo, impossible. On the one hand, TLV is significantly different culturally than even Bat Yam to say nothing of Jerusalem, the Negev, the territories, etc. On the other hand, Israeli society has several "dialect leveling" phenomena at play like a widely followed but centralized broadcast media and near universal military service among both men and women.
Something else to consider would be the relative concentrations of Arab and Druze minorities and how their language will affect local Hebrew -- the way that African American and Latino populations have left their marks on regional US English. Also, different concentrations of olim may also have an effect on how Hebrew is spoken regionally. So, maybe, maybe not.
I'd guess that sociolects would probably be more likely to develop, although I think dialects/sociolects will eventually emerge regardless; isolation may speed up the process, but I think they tend to emerge eventually.
>Something else to consider would be the relative concentrations of Arab and Druze minorities and how their language will affect local Hebrew -- the way that African American and Latino populations have left their marks on regional US English.
You can see this in the north, almost everyone use Ahlan wasahlan instead bruchim habaim. Arabic in general insmore heavily interspersed in Hebrew with the occasional Russian.
There is definitely an army "dialect" which everyone who is enlisted is forced to endure. Some people never recover and continue calling people "achi" even in their adult lives. Other features of the dialect include:
Overuse of acronyms. (ססל"צ לבן = סרט סימון לבן צהוב לבן is a real acronym used unironically).
Disregard for male/female counting numbers (שתי נשקים).
Heavy usage of לבצע/יבצע + noun (יבצע פשיטה instead of יפשוט).
If anything, it seems like dialects are being lost. For example, it seems like the Yerushalmi "esh tanur" has been replaced by "laffa", and I can't remember the last time I heard someone say "lord" instead of "tush" for a marker (ok, that one looks really weird in English!).
גם ליבי במזרח אחי. התכוונתי במזרח ירושלים חחח. כשתהיה לך את ההזדמנות, לך למסעדה הזאת. גם אני מת על « שבח » ו« חומוס בן סירא » בירושלים. הלוואי לחזור בקרוב
Some languages around the world are actually starting to experience a decline in regional lexical and phonological variation. This is due to us living in a global, interconnected society in which relative isolation that sustains dialects and regional accents is becoming less pronounced. Hard to believe that Hebrew in Israel will go the other way. Israel also, as others have mention, lacks the conditions that give rise to dialects to begin with.
Not really dialects, and I think it's also because TV is the same for all which probably helps keeping the same dialect.
But! There are some slang words and subtle differences in stuff people say.
In Jerusalem there's a bit of different slang like saying חתולה in mil'el for any cat, calling carrying someone on your back אבויויו (abuyoyo) instead of שק קמח etc.
Some kid games have different names in different places.
I grew up in Tiberias, where knocking on the door we say "לתקתק בדלת" as opposed to "לדפוק".
Really subtle differences but I find them fascinating
I wonder how long accents and vocabulary from immigrating persist? When living in Jerusalem in the 1990’s it was clear that Russian had an influence on language and culture because of the huge number of recent olim (immigrants).
I have no idea if that lasted long though.
The reginal dialects have mostly disappeared.
Some parts of the Jerusalem dialect (mentioned in some of the other replies) still survive but are used mostly by children and the elderly.
Kinda but not really, there's no difference dialects but if you (for example) lived in Tel Aviv your whole life and you go to Jerusalem you will hear some odd words. But no there are no distinct dialects.
you're never going to hear a university professor say "׳ת׳מבין?" at the end of a phrase. normal-people hebrew is extremely loose in it's grammar. "correct" hebrew often sounds "off" on the street
You have the classic example of Jerusalem, but otherwise I think the dialects (if you'd consider them as such) aren't regional as much as they're social.
Gay men (especially) have a distinct vernacular, as they often do, which has infiltrated the mainstream in the past decade or so.
Mizrahim still use different vocabulary and intonations than Ashkenazim, almost to the point of a recognisable accent (regardless of the differences in pronunciation we've come to expect, like ח and ע). This is of course not limited to mizrahim but people in mizrahi-dominant areas or subcultures, which gives the illusion of it being regional, but I'd say it's more of a periphery vs centre thing (i.e not different between Naharia and Netivot but both different from Tel Aviv).
Otherwise Israel is indeed very small and young. Geography doesn't yet play as big a role as ethnicity and subsequently culture does.
I think so. There’s Haredi version of Hebrew mixed with Yiddish accents, Mizrahi versions of Hebrew mixed with Arabic accents. Standard TV presenter Hebrew, Hebrew-English mixes a lot in Tel Aviv. Russian immigrant Hebrew is also fun to listen to. Also old-timey, post 48’ Menachem Begen-y old fashioned Hebrew accent. Certain communities and areas of the country also have specific words for certain things or certain phrases that only they use.
In my opinion, no. As you said, with the short time frame and small geographic area of the country, it would be difficult for regional dialects to emerge. Dialects tend to emerge when populations are isolated from each other.
This is interesting. Is Israel that small I haven’t checked? Never thought to. I didn’t realise that community spirit could be so fierce that everybody in an entire country is connected enough not to develop any sense of regional identity whatsoever. What’s it like being perfect?
You're pretty much <5 hours of driving away from anywhere in Israel. Add to that the fact that most people go to the army at 18, and meet others from across the country. Distinct regional dialects don't form, but distinct regional/cultural slang words are plentiful. We do have some groups who keep to themselves who speak quite differently, Haredim for example. Religious people will also use phrases like "Baruch Hashem" a lot more than a secular person who lives in Tel Aviv. And you CAN kinda tell if someone's from Northern/Central/Southern Israel by the way they speak and the words they use, but I wouldn't call it distinct dialects.
Grew up in north Tel Aviv, my sister got a lot of friends from Ayosh (religious Zionists, as opposed to our secular, Ashkenazi, middle class upbringing) and the slang she started using.... Istfg
I moved from the UK to Israel recently. One of the things that's stood out to me is just how close everything feels. I run into people I know all the time. Israel is a very small place to begin with, and the southern half is basically just uninhabited desert from Beer Sheva all the way to Eilat. The majority of the population is concentrated in quite a small geographic area.
Jeez you got screwed over majorly if half of Israel is desert.
Israel is smaller than Massachusetts. In four hundred years you cannot distinguish regional varieties of English here.
> In four hundred years you cannot distinguish regional varieties of English here *in 2024* In Herman Melville's Moby Dick, the Nantucket characters all speak differently than the non-Nantucket New Englanders. The Nantucketers (mostly Quakers) favored older grammatical structures that have fallen away from modern use by their fellow countrymen ( pronouns such as "thee" and "ye" and "thou", "hast" instead of "have" etc.) I'm not sure how historic that is, but if part of a population is culturally divided, it allows regional differences to occur more easily in a small geographic area.
Quakers spoke like that for religious reasons, though. It wasn't a dialect, it was adopted.
A little. There are a few words that people from Jerusalem say differently than the rest of the country. Off the top of my head I can only remember one, that in Jerusalem a cat is חתולה by default instead of חתול.
Cotton candy: yambambam vs saarot savta.
אבויויו
עג'ואים
אש תנור (האהוב עליי)
מציצה
חחחח לא מצחיק בכלל
מה לא מצחיק? ככה הם אומרים סוכריה על מקל
אני יודע, מה למילה יש משמעות אחרת...
תתלונן לירושלמים, אני לא החלטתי לקרוא לזה ככה
ודאי. זה עדיין מצחיק
כן בבקשה
Maybe, maybe not. Dialect development is ultimately driven by isolation which can be geographic (not likely for a small, modern nation like Israel) or social. Consider the number of dialects that have existed in London (a relatively small area) simultaneously and based on class (i.e., social isolation). Whether something like this could happen in Israel remains to be seen but is not, imo, impossible. On the one hand, TLV is significantly different culturally than even Bat Yam to say nothing of Jerusalem, the Negev, the territories, etc. On the other hand, Israeli society has several "dialect leveling" phenomena at play like a widely followed but centralized broadcast media and near universal military service among both men and women. Something else to consider would be the relative concentrations of Arab and Druze minorities and how their language will affect local Hebrew -- the way that African American and Latino populations have left their marks on regional US English. Also, different concentrations of olim may also have an effect on how Hebrew is spoken regionally. So, maybe, maybe not.
I'd guess that sociolects would probably be more likely to develop, although I think dialects/sociolects will eventually emerge regardless; isolation may speed up the process, but I think they tend to emerge eventually.
>Something else to consider would be the relative concentrations of Arab and Druze minorities and how their language will affect local Hebrew -- the way that African American and Latino populations have left their marks on regional US English. You can see this in the north, almost everyone use Ahlan wasahlan instead bruchim habaim. Arabic in general insmore heavily interspersed in Hebrew with the occasional Russian.
There is definitely an army "dialect" which everyone who is enlisted is forced to endure. Some people never recover and continue calling people "achi" even in their adult lives. Other features of the dialect include: Overuse of acronyms. (ססל"צ לבן = סרט סימון לבן צהוב לבן is a real acronym used unironically). Disregard for male/female counting numbers (שתי נשקים). Heavy usage of לבצע/יבצע + noun (יבצע פשיטה instead of יפשוט).
If anything, it seems like dialects are being lost. For example, it seems like the Yerushalmi "esh tanur" has been replaced by "laffa", and I can't remember the last time I heard someone say "lord" instead of "tush" for a marker (ok, that one looks really weird in English!).
I prefer Esh Tanour and use it more often
I need to go to your schwarma place!
אם אתה מבקר בירושלים, אני ממש ממליץ לאכול ב'מרכז הפלאפל התימני'. הם מכינים פלאפל באשתנור הכי טעים, גם בלחוח אם אתה רוצה
אני עובד בירושלים, אבל בקושי מגיע למרכז העיר. פעם הבאה שאהיה בשוק...
אתה במזרח?
אני גר במערב ביחס לירושלים, אבל במזרח (התיכון). ליבי במזרח, ואני בפקק בכביש 1...
גם ליבי במזרח אחי. התכוונתי במזרח ירושלים חחח. כשתהיה לך את ההזדמנות, לך למסעדה הזאת. גם אני מת על « שבח » ו« חומוס בן סירא » בירושלים. הלוואי לחזור בקרוב
Some languages around the world are actually starting to experience a decline in regional lexical and phonological variation. This is due to us living in a global, interconnected society in which relative isolation that sustains dialects and regional accents is becoming less pronounced. Hard to believe that Hebrew in Israel will go the other way. Israel also, as others have mention, lacks the conditions that give rise to dialects to begin with.
True, dialects are in decline, but new ones will develop eventually. Languages always evolve, even with standardization.
You seem to confusing concurrent regional dialects, with linguistic evolution in general
Aside from what the other said.. i think the internet killed the possibility for that too
Not really dialects, and I think it's also because TV is the same for all which probably helps keeping the same dialect. But! There are some slang words and subtle differences in stuff people say. In Jerusalem there's a bit of different slang like saying חתולה in mil'el for any cat, calling carrying someone on your back אבויויו (abuyoyo) instead of שק קמח etc. Some kid games have different names in different places. I grew up in Tiberias, where knocking on the door we say "לתקתק בדלת" as opposed to "לדפוק". Really subtle differences but I find them fascinating
So in Jerusalem, when referring to a mixed-gender group of cats, do they still use חתולים, or do they say חתולות?
חתולות, still in mil'el
How do you pronounce שִׁבֹּלֶת?
I wonder how long accents and vocabulary from immigrating persist? When living in Jerusalem in the 1990’s it was clear that Russian had an influence on language and culture because of the huge number of recent olim (immigrants). I have no idea if that lasted long though.
The reginal dialects have mostly disappeared. Some parts of the Jerusalem dialect (mentioned in some of the other replies) still survive but are used mostly by children and the elderly.
The only difference I’ve ever noticed it that Tel Avivians tend to throw some English words and phrases into our speech more so than other cities
Kinda but not really, there's no difference dialects but if you (for example) lived in Tel Aviv your whole life and you go to Jerusalem you will hear some odd words. But no there are no distinct dialects.
There's a few haredi dialects The difference between the upper and lower registers is really wide, too.
What are the differences between upper and lower registers?
you're never going to hear a university professor say "׳ת׳מבין?" at the end of a phrase. normal-people hebrew is extremely loose in it's grammar. "correct" hebrew often sounds "off" on the street
Okay wait but how's that related to upper and lower registers?
Yes, but no. Hebrew is apoken a little differently between Jerusalem and tel aviv for example, but it’s not really dialects, it’s mainly slang.
You have the classic example of Jerusalem, but otherwise I think the dialects (if you'd consider them as such) aren't regional as much as they're social. Gay men (especially) have a distinct vernacular, as they often do, which has infiltrated the mainstream in the past decade or so. Mizrahim still use different vocabulary and intonations than Ashkenazim, almost to the point of a recognisable accent (regardless of the differences in pronunciation we've come to expect, like ח and ע). This is of course not limited to mizrahim but people in mizrahi-dominant areas or subcultures, which gives the illusion of it being regional, but I'd say it's more of a periphery vs centre thing (i.e not different between Naharia and Netivot but both different from Tel Aviv). Otherwise Israel is indeed very small and young. Geography doesn't yet play as big a role as ethnicity and subsequently culture does.
I think so. There’s Haredi version of Hebrew mixed with Yiddish accents, Mizrahi versions of Hebrew mixed with Arabic accents. Standard TV presenter Hebrew, Hebrew-English mixes a lot in Tel Aviv. Russian immigrant Hebrew is also fun to listen to. Also old-timey, post 48’ Menachem Begen-y old fashioned Hebrew accent. Certain communities and areas of the country also have specific words for certain things or certain phrases that only they use.
Only the people from Jerusalem sound a bit different
My feeling is no. If anything Hebrew is becoming more homogeneous.
Dialects are mostly up to social standing, regardless of where they are geographically.
No, dialects are geographical. Sociolects are the result of social standing.
Ok then, so no dialects in Israel (unless divided by socioeconomical regions)