# שיעור לשון



## cfu507

Hi, when I was in high school one of the lessons was how to write, speech, and grammar. In Hebrew we name it שיעור לשון. 
Do you know how the Americans name it?
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## Le Bélier

cfu507 said:


> Hi, when I was in high school one of the lessons was how to write, speech, and grammar. In Hebrew we name it שיעור לשון.
> Do you know how the Americans name it?



It's been many years since I was in school, but where I grew up, it was called _language arts _in the later years of elementary school, and just _English _in early high school years.


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## Ali Smith

I thought the only Hebrew word for “language” was שפה (lit. “lip”). I didn’t know לשון (lit. “tongue”) could be used for it too. Is it common in modern Hebrew?


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## Drink

Generally, שפה is a language as in "Hebrew, English, French, and Arabic, are different languages". While לשון is generally used in other ways, like "fancy language", "archaic language", "poetic language", where it refers more to a way of speaking rather than a "different language".


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## Techref

Ali Smith said:


> I thought the only Hebrew word for “language” was שפה (lit. “lip”). I didn’t know לשון (lit. “tongue”) could be used for it too. Is it common in modern Hebrew?


Eg:
מכל משפחה ו*לשון* וכל עם וגוי
From every tribe and tongue and people and nation


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## Drink

Techref said:


> Eg:
> מכל משפחה ו*לשון* וכל עם וגוי
> From every tribe and tongue and people and nation



Just to clarify for the OP, that is a Biblical quote.


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## Ali Smith

Drink said:


> Generally, שפה is a language as in "Hebrew, English, French, and Arabic, are different languages". While לשון is generally used in other ways, like "fancy language", "archaic language", "poetic language", where it refers more to a way of speaking rather than a "different language".



Thank you so much! Your explanation makes a lot of sense. I guess לשון would be the exact equivalent of the French “langage” while שפה would be the exact equivalent of the French “langue” (not in the sense ”tongue”, of course). Am I correct?


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## Drink

I studied French, but I never knew there was a difference between "langue" and "language". So I guess I don't know, but if you say so.


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## elroy

Drink said:


> Generally, שפה is a language as in "Hebrew, English, French, and Arabic, are different languages". While לשון is generally used in other ways, like "fancy language", "archaic language", "poetic language", where it refers more to a way of speaking rather than a "different language".


 לשון can also mean "language" in the first sense -- just like שפה -- but I think לשון is limited to set phrases (as in the OP) and higher-register / literary uses (for example, the Academy of the Hebrew Language is האקדמיה *ללשון* העברית).

Similarly, the English "tongue" and the Arabic لسان can be used to mean "language" in the first sense (as in "mother tongue," "speaking in tongues," لسان العرب, التكلّم بألسنة), but are much more limited in usage than "language" and لغة, respectively.


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