The parts-of-speech classification of borrowings from Hebrew in the speech of Ukrainians living in Israel

Abstract

The present article is dedicated to lexical borrowings from Hebrew and, in particular, to their parts-of-speech classification. To this end, the concept of the borrowability hierarchy is utilized. The research broadens the existing literature on language contact through the analysis of a language pair that has not yet been studied. The paper aims to construct and analyze a borrowability hierarchy specifically for elements of Hebrew origin that are present in the speech of Ukrainians currently residing in Israel. For this purpose, we have analyzed and summarized previous findings regarding borrowability hierarchies and the reasons that motivate them. Similarities and differences between hierarchies proposed in scientific literature have been identified, and a hypothesis about the expected look of the hierarchy in the case of Ukrainians living in Israel has been brought forward. A parts-of-speech classification of the borrowed elements in the speech of Ukrainians has been conducted, and a corresponding hierarchy of borrowability has been formulated. It has been discovered that the overwhelming majority of borrowed items belong to the category of nouns, while interjections are the second category in terms of the frequency of borrowing. We have highlighted a limited number of borrowed adjectives and adverbs, an almost total absence of borrowed verbs and pronouns, and a total absence of borrowings, which belong to other parts-of-speech. The abundance of borrowed nouns in conjunction with a very limited number of borrowed adjectives and verbs has been identified as the main distinctive feature of the hierarchy. We have concluded that the peculiarities of the borrowing hierarchy in the case of Ukrainians living in Israel are due to three major factors. These include the unique cultural landscape of Israel, the typological distance between Hebrew and Ukrainian, and the relatively short history of the Ukrainian-speaking community in Israel. While the first point explains the large number of nouns in our sample, the latter two shed light on the near-absence of borrowed elements belonging to other parts-of-speech.