Ghil'ad Zuckermann (, ; ) is an Israeli language revivalistAlex Rawlings, 22 March 2019, BBC Future, The man bringing dead languages back to life ("Ghil'ad Zuckermann has found that resurrecting lost languages may bring many benefits to indigenous populations – with knock-on effects for their health and happiness"). Retrieved 5 May 2019. and linguist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity.
Zuckermann was awarded the Rubinlicht Prize (2023) "for his research on the profound influence of Yiddish on modern Hebrew",Rubinlicht Awards and Performance by Evgeny Kissin, Preservation of Yiddish Culture and Heritage.Linguist Ghil’ad Zuckermann and Leivik House volunteer Shoshana Kroitero win Rubinlicht Prize, The Forward and listed among Australia's top 30 "living legends of research" (2024) by The Australian.RESEARCH 2024: Australia's living legends of research, The Australian.
He is the Chair of the Jury for the Jeonju International Awards for Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage (since 2024).JIAPICH 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2025.Linguistics - Collaborations, UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN
Overview Zuckermann was born in Tel Aviv in 1971, was raised in Eilat, and attended the United World College (UWC) of the Adriatic in 1987–1989.Five outstandingly successful stories, UWC of the Adriatic, 2018. In 1997 he received an M.A. in Linguistics from the Adi Lautman Program at Tel Aviv University. In 1997–2000 he was Scatcherd European Scholar of the University of Oxford and Denise Skinner Graduate Scholar at St Hugh's College, receiving a D.Phil. (Oxon.) in 2000.p. 43 of St Hugh's College Chronicle, 2015-2016.p. 45 of St Hugh's College Chronicle, 2016-2017. While at Oxford, he served as president of the Jewish student group L'Chaim Society. As Gulbenkian research fellow at Churchill College (2000–2004), he was affiliated with the Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Studies, University of Cambridge. He received a titular Ph.D. (Cantab.) in 2003.
Zuckermann is a hyperpolyglot,Dr Anna Goldsworthy on the Barngarla language reclamation, The Monthly, September 2014 with his past professorships ranging across universities in England, China, Australia, Singapore, Slovakia, Israel, and the United States. In 2010–2015 he was China's Ivy League Project 211 "Distinguished Visiting Professor", and "Shanghai Oriental Scholar" professorial fellow, at Shanghai International Studies University.Sun Yat-sen University, 11 November 2014.
He was Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Fellow in 2007–2011, and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant holder in 2017–2021, studying the effects of Indigenous language reclamation on wellbeing.NITV/SBS News by Claudianna Blanco: Could language revival cure diabetes?, 21 February 2017.NHMRC Grants.Grant awarded for research into the link between language revival and well-being. He was awarded a British Academy Research Grant, Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harold Hyam Wingate Scholarship and Chevening Scholarship.The Weizmann International Magazine of Science and People 8, pp. 16-17
He is elected member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Foundation for Endangered Languages. He serves as editorial board member of the Journal of Language Contact (Brill), International Academic Board Advisor of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, board member of the Online Museum of Jewish Theatre, and expert witness in trademarks and forensic linguistics.Damning new evidence undermines BBC's Oxford Street racist slur claim, Jonathan Sacerdoti, The Jewish Chronicle, 30 December 2021Report of Prof G Zuckermann, Board of Deputies of British Jews
Since February 2017 Zuckermann has been President of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies (AAJS).AAJS. Retrieved 26 November 2020. In 2013–2015 he was President of the Australasian Association of Lexicography (AustraLex). In 2011–2024 he was Professor of Linguistics and Chair of Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide,Indigenous language and song projects awarded grants, by Poppy Nwosu, 3 August 2023.Sarah Robinson, 11 March 2019, The LINGUIST List, Featured Linguist and has since moved to Flinders University. He is also Adjunct Professor at the Australian Catholic University.Honorary titles, Australian Catholic University. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
Research Zuckermann applies insights from the Hebrew revival to the revitalization of Aboriginal languages in Australia. According to Yuval Rotem, the Israeli Ambassador to Australia, Zuckermann's "passion for the reclamation, maintenance and empowerment of Aboriginal languages and culture inspired [him] and was indeed the driving motivator of" the establishment of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre in Dubbo, New South Wales, Australia, on 2 September 2010.Ambassador Yuval Rotem - Address for the opening of the Allira Aboriginal Knowledge IT Centre, Dubbo, NSW, Australia, 2 September 2010. Retrieved 15 March 2025.
He proposes Native Tongue Title, compensation for language loss, because "linguicide"Zuckermann, Ghil'ad, "Stop, revive and survive", The Australian Higher Education, 6 June 2012."Australia's first chair of endangered languages, Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann from the University of Adelaide puts it bluntly: Those policies have resulted in 'linguicide'", Shyamla Eswaran, Aboriginal languages a source of strength, Green Left Weekly, 6 December 2013. results in "loss of cultural autonomy, loss of spiritual and intellectual sovereignty,"As put by Professor Ghil'ad Zuckermann, language is part of the 'Intellectual Sovereignty' of Indigenous people", p. 2 in Priest, Terry (2011) Submission to the Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Language Learning in Indigenous Communities, Research Unit, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, August 2011. loss of soul".Arnold, Lynn (2016), Lingua Nullius: A Retrospect and Prospect about Australia's First Languages (Transcript), Lowitja O'Donoghue Oration, 31 May 2016. He uses the term sleeping beauty to refer to a no-longer spoken languageSee pp. 57 & 60 in Zuckermann's A New Vision for "Israeli Hebrew": Theoretical and Practical Implications of Analysing Israel's Main Language as a Semi-Engineered Semito-European Hybrid Language, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 5: 57–71 (2006). and urges Australia "to define the 330 Aboriginal languages, most of them sleeping beauties, as the official languages of their region", and to introduce bilingual signs and thus change the linguistic landscape of the country. "So, for example, Port Lincoln should also be referred to as Galinyala, which is its original Barngarla name."Sophie Verass (NITV) Indigenous meanings of Australian town names, 10 August 2016.
Zuckermann proposes a controversial hybrid theory of the emergence of Israeli Hebrew according to which Hebrew and Yiddish "acted equally" as the "primary contributors" to Modern Hebrew.John-Paul Davidson (2011), Planet Word, Penguin. pp. 125-126. Scholars including Yiddish linguist Dovid Katz (who refers to Zuckermann as a "fresh-thinking Israeli scholar") adopt Zuckermann's term "Israeli" and accept his notion of hybridity. Others, for example author and translator Hillel Halkin, oppose Zuckermann's model. In an article published on 24 December 2004 in The Jewish Daily Forward, pseudonymous column "Philologos", Halkin accused Zuckermann of a political agenda. Zuckermann's response was published on 28 December 2004 in The Mendele Review: Yiddish Literature and Language.
Reclamation of Barngarla On 14 September 2011 Working to reclaim language, Charlotte Martin, PORT LINCOLN TIMES, 18 July 2024. Retrieved 15 March 2025. Zuckermann started working with the Barngarla community to reclaim the Barngarla language,John Power, 29 June 2018, Al Jazeera: Starting from scratch: Aboriginal group reclaims lost language, "With the help of a linguistics professor, Barngarla, which has not been spoken for 60 years, is being pieced together". Retrieved 5 May 2019.See Section 282 in FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA: Croft on behalf of the Barngarla Native Title Claim Group v State of South Australia (2015, FCA 9), File number: SAD 6011 of 1998; John Mansfield (judge). based on the documentation of German Lutheran pastor Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann, who had worked at a mission in 1844 and created a Barngarla dictionary. This led to ongoing language revival workshops being held in Port Augusta, Whyalla, and Port Lincoln several times each year, with funding from the federal government's Indigenous Languages Support program.The Dictionary I Read for Fun, John McWhorter, New York Times, 2 March 2023.Bringing dead languages back to life, BBC
Zuckermann co-developed a Barngarla Dictionary app and co-authored a Barngarla trilogy:Zuckermann continues to rebuild Barngarla, Shane Desiatnik, The Australian Jewish News, 9 August 2023 Barngarlidhi Manoo ("Speaking Barngarla Together": Barngarla Alphabet & Picture Book; with the Barngarla community, 2019); Mangiri Yarda ("Healthy Country": Barngarla Wellbeing and Nature; with Barngarla woman Emmalene Richards, 2021); and Wardlada Mardinidhi ("Bush Healing": Barngarla Plant Medicines; with Barngarla woman Evelyn Walker, 2023).
He has been involved in the revival of other Aboriginal languages such as Bayoongoo, Western Australia,Inspired by Hebrew, scholar helps revive dying aboriginal Australian languages, Avi Kumar, JNS and has been the founder and convener of the Adelaide Language Festival.
Contributions to linguistics Zuckermann's research focuses on contact linguistics, lexicology, revivalistics, Jewish languages, and the study of language, culture and identity.
He argues that Israeli Hebrew, which he calls "Israeli", is a hybrid language that is genetically both Indo-European (Germanic, Slavic and Romance) and Afro-Asiatic (Semitic). He suggests that "Israeli" is the continuation not only of literary Hebrew(s) but also of Yiddish, as well as Polish, Russian, German, English, Ladino, Arabic and other languages spoken by Hebrew revivalists.Israeli Hebrew didn't kill Yiddish. As a new exhibit in NYC shows, it gave it a new nest to live in., Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6 September 2023. His hybridic synthesis is in contrast to both the traditional revival thesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Hebrew) and the relexification antithesis (i.e. that "Israeli" is Yiddish with Hebrew words).
Zuckermann introduces revivalistics as a new transdisciplinary field of enquiry surrounding language reclamation (e.g. Barngarla), revitalization (e.g. Adnyamathanha) and reinvigoration (e.g. Irish).
His analysis of multisourced neologization (the coinage of words deriving from two or more sources at the same time) challenges Einar Haugen's classic typology of lexical borrowing. Whereas Haugen categorizes borrowing into either substitution or importation, Zuckermann explores cases of "simultaneous substitution and importation" in the form of camouflaged borrowing. He proposes a new classification of multisourced neologisms such as phono-semantic matching.
Zuckermann's exploration of phono-semantic matching in Standard Mandarin and Meiji period Japanese concludes that the Chinese writing system is multifunctional: pleremic ("full" of meaning, e.g. logographic), cenemic ("empty" of meaning, e.g. phonographic – like a syllabary) and simultaneously cenemic and pleremic (phono-logographic). He argues that Leonard Bloomfield's assertion that "a language is the same no matter what system of writing may be used"Bloomfield, Leonard (1933), Language, New York: Henry Holt, p. 21. is inaccurate. "If Chinese had been written using roman letters, thousands of Chinese words would not have been coined, or would have been coined with completely different forms".
Selected publications Books authored