Hebrew Purists Lament Loss of Language : Linguistics: Traditionalists deplore mixture with English, a sort of “Heblish,” as a danger to Zionism. But others contend the Hebrew alternatives, coined by a special panel, often sound artificial.

JERUSALEM — Moses would hardly recognize Hebrew these days: It’s “cool” to be “een.” No one wants to be a “loozehr.” Even “shalom,” the traditional greeting, is being replaced by “hi” and “bye.”

As the world becomes smaller through cable television, movies and easy travel, modern Hebrew acquires more English words and adaptations.

Some linguists consider it inevitable, but nationalists and Hebrew purists see danger to Zionism’s goal of a society in which Jews, after a 2,000-year diaspora, no longer need to assimilate the cultures of others.

Traditionalists deplore the mixing of Hebrew and English into a sort of Heblish. For example, a new TV series is called “Straight Ve-la’inian” (Straight and to the Point). Some business names drop Hebrew altogether: Body Hobby exercise parlors, the Chicken Baguette snack stand, Anglo-Saxon Real Estate.

“There’s no doubt that this is one of the worst things to happen to us,” said Shoshana Bahat, a Polish-born member of the Academy of Hebrew Language.

“It betrays a lack of culture tinged with snobbery. Why should I have to use English words like ‘celebrity’ or ‘item’ when there are perfectly acceptable Hebrew alternatives?”

One reason, argues Netiva Ben Yehuda, a linguistic gadfly, is that the Hebrew alternatives are often artificial-sounding creations of the “stuffy minds at the academy.” She noted that the academy’s very name in Hebrew includes the not-so-pure “academia.”

Ben Yehuda became famous for compiling a dictionary of what was outrageous slang in the 1960s. Words that shocked then, such as “ziun,” a non-clinical word for sex, are fairly standard now.

She said modern Hebrew borrows from English in the same way ancient Hebrew borrowed from the major languages of its day, such as Aramaic and Acadian.

Gabriel Birnbaum, senior scholar at the academy, said the organization has gradually become more liberal and now accepts that “in principle, every linguistic development must come from what might be seen as a mistake or a theft.”

Modern Hebrew developed haphazardly during a century of Jewish immigration to Israel by Jews from more than 100 countries.

Consider curses. There were none in the synagogue-based Hebrew that survived the diaspora. Most of those now in use come from Arabic or Russian, reflecting the national origins of most Israelis.

Speaking for his fellow scholars, Birnbaum said, “What makes our blood boil is gratuitous use of English, like in ‘Dizengoff Center,’ ” a large Tel Aviv shopping mall. “Why use ‘center’ when the Hebrew ‘merkaz’ is perfectly fine and otherwise in use?”

Birnbaum, who was born in Hungary and teaches Hebrew at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said the language is especially vulnerable to foreign intrusions because it has no words for many aspects of the modern world.

Every two months, therefore, the 43 academy members meet in their tranquil Hebrew University campus building, struggling to devise new words that will keep the language pure. Their production is only several words a month, many of them based on existing ones.

In January, they debated whether to bless the growing inclination among Israelis to call a downtown area the “city.” No final decision was reached, but the scholars lean toward making a new word, “Ma’ar,” the Hebrew acronym for “central business district.”

The academy and the Language Commission, which did the work before Israel existed, have invented about one-quarter of modern spoken Hebrew’s 40,000 words. In addition, tens of thousands of professional terms have been created or adopted from other languages.

Birnbaum acknowledged that few of the non-professional coinages catch on.

For example, academy members were irked by the growing use of “chips” for french-fried potatoes. So they came up with “tuganim,” based on the proper Hebrew root for “fry.”

Israelis, like the British, still say “chips.”

Nor have attempts to replace distorted English-based words such as “egzoz” (car exhaust) or “hambrek” (hand brake) been “efecteevee” (effective).

When the “supermarket” became popular in the 1970s, the academy figured that somewhat cumbersome word could be replaced. It proposed “markol.” But Israelis just shortened the foreign word to “super.”

Rehavam Ze’evi, a conservative legislator, feels the academy has “a marketing problem.”

“People must be made to see that our language should be rooted in our culture and not somebody else’s,” he said.