Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 April

[Cynthia Groff]

Excuse the mistakingly send email
:-)
cdg


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From: "Francis Hult" <francis.hult at utsa.edu>
Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 12:52 AM
To: <edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu>
Subject: [Edling] Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 April

> BBC News
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>
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> Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 April
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>
> Bernard Spolsky has a wonderful roof terrace. Squeezing past the potted 
> lemon trees and up the small cobbled dome that covers the ceiling below, 
> your gaze can sweep from the Dome of the Rock to the grand Hurva 
> Synagogue.
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> Prof Spolsky has lived in the Old City for almost 30 years.
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> For him, the pleasure lies not just in the sights, but the sounds. He is a 
> linguist.
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> When he and a colleague started to document the languages used by 
> residents of the Old City, they began by using letter-coding.
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> The alphabet, though, was not enough.
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> "We suddenly realised we were running out of letters," Prof Spolsky 
> recalls. "We had to use a double-letter system. here were 40-50 languages 
> being spoken."
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> The Old City may be a tiny space of one sq km but it has long exerted a 
> tremendous pull on religious communities across the world.
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> In his book, The Languages of Jerusalem, Prof Spolsky quotes James Finn, 
> the British Consul in Jerusalem in 1853: "Jerusalem [has] an unequalled 
> field for languages. Venice and Constantinople might produce as great a 
> diversity of tongues... but certainly not the depth of tone and historical 
> value attached to those in Jerusalem."
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> Full story:
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> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7358736.stm
>
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