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b-hebrew - Re: the chicken(poetry) or the egg(prose)?

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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
  • To: 596547 AT ican.net, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: the chicken(poetry) or the egg(prose)?
  • Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 18:01 -0500 (EST)


I am no expert on this, but perhaps I can illuminate the situation
from another Middle Eastern language, Azerbaijani. (I guess the
situation is similar in Arabic too). Doubtless the first form of the
language was colloquial and spoken, not especially rhythmic and so
would be classified as "prose" rather than "poetry" - but if you
transribe spontaneous informal conversation in any language, even an
extended monologue, it is not going to look like well-formed prose.
Then, in Azerbaijani, came poetry (probably first epic and then more
artistic) as the first written form of the language; the epics were
originally oral literature and no doubt acquired their poetic form for
easier memorisation. Only several centuries later came the development
of written prose, and this came to use a rather artificial style with
complex constructions not used in conversation. This prose style was
actually consciously borrowed from that of a closely related language,
Turkish. Maybe this (perhaps apart from the last point) mirrors the
development of different styles in Hebrew: first conversational (Can
we find traces of this in conversational exchanges in BH? Do these use
wayyiqtol etc. in the same way as formal prose?), then poetry, and
then the formal prose of narrative and stylised speeches.

Peter Kirk




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