ABSTRACT
The social importance of languages then fluctuates with the social location, wealth, power, and prestige of their carriers. Models of bilingualism anchored in social divisions and inequality call for a distinction between elitist bilingualism and folk bilingualism. The Anglo-Saxons make up a powerful group able to raise demands and obtain satisfaction. They imposed several members of their group as English teachers in school despite the fact that they lack formal qualification. The best known Jewish diasporic vernacular is Yiddish, the language of origin of more than 80% of the Jews in the world, and of 50% of the Israeli Jews. Yiddish emerged, following the settling of Jews in Germany, as a language which allied Semitic and German components. Arabic is the language of the neighboring states, the Occupied Territories, and a national Arab minority. Spoken Arabic is compulsory in the fourth-to-sixth grades of elementary school, and literary Arabic is optional, alternately to French, in high schools.
