Arabic Traces in Masalhas Language in the literary translated work The Cactus
The main target of this article is to examine the impact of Arabic on the Masalha’s literary translated work The Cactus from Arabic into Hebrew, focusing on the lexical effects. Specifically it examines his use of words and phrases borrowed from Arabic and loan translations of idioms and proverbs, specially from colloquial Arabic. These words and phrases serve to increase the authentic sense of the Arab culture that the text depicts. This article reports also on the phenomenon of Arab authors in Israel writing in Hebrew. “Writing in Hebrew” refers to literary works originally written in Hebrew or translated from Arabic to Hebrew. The article examines the status of the Hebrew for Israeli Arabs, the scale of the phenomenon of writing in Hebrew, the bilingual literary works of Arab authors in Israel, and Israeli society’s acceptance of Arab authors writing in Hebrew. Methodologically, the article contributes to the teaching of the general topic: “The linguistic contact between Hebrew and Arabic in the state of Israel” as it presents a broad background to the status of Hebrew language in Israeli Arab society. The article also contributes specifically to teaching the topic: “Bilingualism in Arab authors in Israel who write in Hebrew”.
