Jerusalem Diary: Monday 21 April

[Cynthia Groff]

Hurrah! Spolsky in BBC news!
I had dinner with him at Penn - and edited his article in WPEL - and talked 
with him at the New Zealand conference.
:-)

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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
>
>
>
> 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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