© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi �0.��63/ ���34638-� �340033 Journal of Jewish Languages 3 (2015) 271–282 brill.com/jjl The Impact of Contact Languages on the Grammaticalization of the Modern Hebrew Superlative Yael Reshef The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel yael.reshef@mail.huji.ac.il Abstract Modern Hebrew grammatical constructions include a tripartite paradigm of degree comparison consisting of the positive adjective, the comparative, and the superlative. Such a paradigm did not exist in classical Hebrew, and the expression of the superla- tive in both Biblical Hebrew and Rabbinic Hebrew required reference to a compari- son class by means of a noun. Based on an examination of textual evidence from the initial phases of the formation of Modern Hebrew, this article traces the emergence of the modern superlative constructions and evaluates the role of contact languages in the process. Keywords superlative – adjective degree comparison – revival of Hebrew – language contact – grammaticalization Modern Hebrew possesses two common paradigms to express the degree com- parison of adjectives: Positive Comparative Superlative (1) ADJ yoter (‘more’)+ADJ haxi (‘most’)+ADJ (2) ADJ ADJ+yoter (‘more’) ha-ADJ(the-ADJ)+beyoter (‘most’) e.g., gadol yoter gadol/gadol yoter haxi gadol/ha-gadol beyoter big more big/big more most big/the-big most ‘big’ ‘bigger’ ‘biggest’