Jonas Sibony was born in Paris into a family of Moroccan and Polish Jewish origin, in which several languages were spoken, including Yiddish, Spanish, and Judeo-Moroccan Arabic. He pursued his studies at the National Institute of Oriental Languages in Paris, where he studied Arabic and Hebrew. He later taught at several French universities, including the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), the University of Strasbourg, and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, before obtaining a position at Sorbonne University as Maître de Conférences (Associate Professor) in Hebrew linguistics.
Over the course of his career, he taught Judeo-Moroccan Arabic for ten years at INALCO in Paris. He offers courses and specializes in comparative Semitic linguistics, Biblical Hebrew, Hebrew grammar, Modern Hebrew, and Arabic dialectology. His research focuses on Semitic languages, the linguistics and sociolinguistics of Modern Hebrew, the influence of Moroccan Arabic on Modern Hebrew, and, above all, the Arabic dialects spoken by the Jews of Morocco.
