Is Modern Hebrew Standard Average European? The View from European

In contrast with previous work emphasizing European influences on Modern Hebrew as compared to the Biblical Hebrew model adopted by the Hebrew revival movement, this article sets out to examine relevant typological features of Modern Hebrew in its own right. Taking the typological literature on Standard Average European as a starting point, it is argued that Modern Hebrew is in fact quite far from the European type in the majority of pertinent features defined independently of the literature on Hebrew. Notwithstanding the many European influences present in Modern Hebrew, especially in phonology and semantics, and considerable differences compared to Biblical Hebrew, it will be shown that key structural similarities with European languages are remarkably few, and in most cases not due to the revival process at all.