Books by Bernard (Bar-Ilan University Spolsky

Jewish historical sociolinguistics is rich in unanswered questions: when does a language become 'Jewish'? What was the origin of Yiddish? This book presents a vivid commentary on Jewish survival and Jewish speech communities, investigating difficult questions about language varieties and choices in speech and writing.

This book develops a theory of language management based on research on the family, religion, the workplace, the media, schools, legal and health institutions, the military and government. A model is developed that makes sense of the various forces involved in managing language, and clarifies why it is such a difficult enterprise.

In this introduction, Bernard Spolsky explores many debates at the forefront of language policy. He develops a theory of modern national language policy and the major forces controlling it, and asks the central questions of how to recognize language policies, and whether language can actually be managed at all.