ABSTRACT
The linguistic situation in Israel dealt with in the following chapter on English/Hebrew code-switching is quite complex. Israel has only one official language (Hebrew) but is de facto extremely multilingual with almost everyone speaking at least one additional language, 80 per cent of the population two additional languages, and 49 per cent even three or more additional languages according to census data (Ben-Rafael 1994:111ff.). These additional languages are often those of the first-generation immigrants or (usually to a lesser degree) their children and grandchildren. Thus, the situation is not stable but characterised by a transient individual bilingualism to Hebrew, which is rarely spoken before immigration but acquired in the country. However, although Hebrew has been gaining speakers throughout the history of immigration into Palestine and later into Israel, the transition to Hebrew monolingualism has never been achieved completely, since new immigrants continue to bring with them their first languages.
