העבודה כתובה באנגלית.
The Israeli Hebrew language and the Palestinian Arabic language coexisted side by side long before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Close contact between Palestinian Arabic speakers and Israeli Hebrew speakers, often accompanied by conflicts, ideological and social tension, created major mutual shifts in many aspects. One area of such influence is linguistics (Spolsky& Shohamy, 1999).
As for today, Hebrew is the main language of the Jewish population in Israel in all life domains, while Palestinian Arabic is somehow limited to stay vibrant in Arab towns, cities and villages and as a language of tuition in Arab schools (Gorter, 2011). Palestinian society in Israel is in close contact with the Jewish majority and strongly influenced by it.
In this paper, I would like to discuss the everyday life linguistic practices of Palestinian Arabic speaking society living in Israel. But first, a terminological note: Palestinian Arabs of Israel are a heterogeneous and diverse group. First, it is divided between Christian and Muslim Arabs, while Bedouin, Druze, and Circassians create other separate groups. In Hebrew, the word minorities (מיעוטים), is used for describing Arabic speaking non-Jews: Palestinian Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, and Circassians. This fact by itself marginalizes minority groups. In this paper, unless stated otherwise, I will use the term "Palestinians" when referring to Arab citizens of Israel, unlike the common usage of this term in the Hebrew language for residents of the West Bank, East Jerusalem or Gaza.
