slang

[Victor Steinbok]

An interesting quotation from Rich Cohen's Israel is Real:

“Now the Jews have returned their holy idea to the street, where, as is
happening with the Hebrew language, it has been barbarized and filled
with slang.”

Not having read the book (I got the line from a review), I don't want to
deal with the underlying political issue, but the idea that "the Hebrew
language" has been somehow "barbarized and filled with slang" [because
of the formation of Israel] sounds silly, to put it mildly.

I suppose, a nation of Catholic priests and Classics professors might
have the same reaction should someone invent a modern form of Latin as
the primary language for a yet-to-be-founded new Italian state. I am
just having a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea. And all this
time I thought I was a purist!

VS-)

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