The sociolinguistics of the Old City in the 1980s; Jewish multilingualism; the sociolinguistics of Old Jerusalem - non-Jewish languages in the late 19th century; the sociolinguistics of Old Jerusalem - Jewish languages in the late 19th century; the revitalization and spread of Hebrew; the language of signs; language choice in the market-place; reflections of language planning; language learning; the spread of Hebrew among Arabic speakers.

'Spolsky and Cooper weave a rich brocade ... this is a well written and engaging book. The historical chapters are richly written; the reports of modern studies are serviceably written without overreliance on jargon. The book is carefully produced ... the authors have skillfully woven together the numerous interesting themes they have chosen into a handsome volume that I highly recommend.' Loraine K. Obler, City University of New York and Emerson College 'The authors' imaginative and wide-ranging probe demonstrates how acute a profile of a society the sociolinguist can supply.' Lewis Glinert, Bulletin of the SOAS `providing a wealth of valuable and, at times, fascinating information ... most engaging and interesting book' Journal of Semitic Studies `Spolsky and Cooper's volume is ... the first monograph to deal with this topic ... The authors' imaginative and wide-ranging probe demonstrates how acute a profile of a society the sociolinguist can supply.' SOAS `This valuable sociolinguistic study of the "linguistic opulence" of contemporary Jerusalem, and of the historical background of languages used in Jerusalem throughout the ages, will be of interest not only to linguists but to scholars working in many other disciplines ... The book is written in a clear, concise, and jargon-free style ... a model of clarity and concision ... major work of thorough, subtle, and important scholarship ... Oxford University Press is to be congratulated for bringing out such a fine book ... The Languages of Jerusalem is sure to win a wide readership.' Anthropologica