Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 April

[Francis Hult]

BBC News

 

Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 April

 

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. 

 

Prof Spolsky has lived in the Old City for almost 30 years. 

 

For him, the pleasure lies not just in the sights, but the sounds. He is a linguist. 

When he and a colleague started to document the languages used by residents of the Old City, they began by using letter-coding. 

 

The alphabet, though, was not enough. 

 

"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." 

 

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. 

 

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." 

 

Full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7358736.stm

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