Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yochanan Childs <jayc AT telepath.com>]

B-Haverim,

I am one of those guys who really has done things "backwards".  I began with 
Biblical,
did enough Modern Israeli Hebrew to get me into trouble, did a unit of 12th 
century
Hebrew, and finally did Ulpan at Hebrew U. this past summer.  While I have no 
real
regrets as to any of my experience, I am convinced that doing Modern first 
really sets
you up as  a scholar who is acquainted with Hebrew as a living language.  
Hebrew is
alone amongst the classical languages with this kind of similarity to 
something in
conversational use.  Greek was not "mothballed" in that sense and did not 
have the
benefit of someone like Ben-Yehuda, who was able to revive all the classical 
elements
into the formation of the new tongue.


Shalom,



Jonathan Robie wrote:

> At 09:32 PM 9/22/98 -0400, Bryan Rocine wrote:
> >B-Haverim,
> >
> >Wanted:  someone who learned BH first, and later attained fluency in Modern
> >Hebrew, maybe by learning at ulpan and then being 'immersed.'
> >
> >Question:  What was it like?  How did your experience with modern Hebrew
> >affect your reading and/or teaching of BH?
>
> A similar question...for a rank beginner like me, would it be better to get
> out the books and cassettes for Modern Hebrew from the Foreign Service
> before working my way through the Bible, or is Modern Hebrew different
> enough from Biblical Hebrew that I should focus on Biblical Hebrew?
>
> Jonathan
>
> jonathan AT texcel.no
> Texcel Research
> http://www.texcel.no
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to b-hebrew as: $subst('PurgeID')
> To unsubscribe, forward this message to $subst('Email.Unsub')