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b-hebrew - Re: Discourse Analysis in general

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Peter_Kirk AT sil.org
  • To: manstey AT portal.ca, b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Discourse Analysis in general
  • Date: Thu, 03 Dec 1998 23:50 -0500 (EST)



Matthew Anstey asked:

1. how can one best be immersed in a dead language?
2. how can one best teach others in this way?
3. at what point does one move to linguistic description, particularly
discourse analysis stuff and how?

I've read several proposed answers, but I'm not convinced, except
perhaps by Randy Buth's ideas. When I learned Azerbaijani, a living
language of course, I started with the basic grammar and conversation
(helped by a teacher), and after that I did a lot of reading, guided
at first by another teacher who also helped with further grammar
studies. I was also able to learn some by speaking to people on the
streets, but it was hardly "immersion" - the "immersion" was by
reading simple texts.

Most of this could be repeated with b-Hebrew, perhaps using a grammar
book instead of a teacher. Either drop the conversational part or
replace by modern Hebrew. (In Azerbaijani also there is a contrast
between the relatively "pure Turkic" written language and a spoken
form which is much influenced by Indo-European (Farsi and Russian)
syntax and vocabulary; but one learns that different registers are
different.) So my key recommendation is: read a lot of b-Hebrew, at a
level you can just understand, i.e. start with the simple and work up
to the complex.

One reason for discouragement is surely that the Hebrew alphabet is so
difficult for us westerners. For years our attention is primarily on
getting the correct pronunciation, and understanding takes a second
place. So how about reading the Hebrew in a good clear
transliteration? It is not hard to make a complete (readable)
transliterated Bible text from e.g. the Oxford Text Archive BHS - I
have one myself.

As for question 3, I must disagree with Bryan: first get to know the
language well, and then start looking at discourse analysis type
things.

Peter Kirk





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