Palestinian Study: Hebrew Descended From Pig Latin

The pig-oriented linguistic argument fits into a trend in Palestinian and Islamic scholarship at large.

Ramallah, February 16 – Linguistic researchers at Bir Zeit University published an article this week in which they argue that Hebrew is not in fact a Semitic language, as is generally accepted, but is descended from Pig Latin.

Professor of Semitic Languages Hijazi al-Haziri at Bir Zeit’s Linguistics Department authored an entry in this month’s issue of Linguistics Monthly that seeks to upend the traditional understanding of Hebrew’s pedigree, and contends that the language of the Jews is unrelated to others that span the Middle East and North Africa, but rather comes from an entirely different, porcine, source. Semitic languages arose in southwest Asia, forming one branch of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family, and were among the first to be recorded in written form more than four thousand years ago. Pig Latin, on the other hand, is of more recent vintage.

Al-Haziri points to multiple instances of Hebrew word structure that bear close resemblance to Pig Latin, and holds up those examples as evidence that the mainstream classification of the language as belonging to the same family branch as Arabic, Amharic, and Aramaic, as well as extinct ancient languages such as Akkadian, is in error. Rather, he argues, Hebrew emerged as a distinct entity only as a result of bastardization of Indo-European languages, which include the Latin (Romance), Slavic, and Germanic branches.

As evidence al Haziri discusses dozens of “-ay” Hebrew words as early as the Bible: “ibbay,” “‘aday,” “afsey,” “avnay,” “imray,” and “esray,” to name a few. “All Pig Latin words begin with a vowel and end in the ‘ay’ suffix,” he explained. “The preponderance of the same pattern across Hebrew texts from as far back as the language has been recorded indicates an intimate relationship between it and Pig Latin – a European tongue – that goes far beyond what a mere borrowing could account for, especially since the documented encounter between the two cultures does not suffice to explain the depth of the overlap.”

The linguistic argument fits into a trend in Palestinian and Islamic scholarship at large, which have increasingly explored the ways in which Jews are the descendants of pigs. “There are actually two competing schools of thought on this issue,” noted political commentator Aiman Ahss. “While the plurality of Palestinian academics side with the notion that Jews are the descendants of pigs, a good number instead insist that they are the offspring of apes. This new study could go a long way toward establishing the Jews-are-pigs faction as dominant, and not merely more prominent.”