“Abba, why was Professor Higgins trying to teach Eliza to speak like our cleaning lady?”: Mizrahim, Ashkenazim, prescriptivism and the real sounds of the Israeli language

Language is such a sensitive issue in Israel that even politicians are involved. In a session at the Israeli Parliament on 4 January 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rebuked Israelis for using the etymologically Arabo-English expression yàla báy, lit. “let’s bye”, i.e. “goodbye”, instead of “the most beautiful word” shalóm “peace, hello, goodbye”. In an article in the daily newspaper Ha’aretz (21 June 2004), the left-wing politician Yossi Sarid attacked the common language of éser shékel as inarticulate and monstrous, and urged civilians to fight it and protect “Hebrew”.