Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

I am not suggesting quite as much change as with English. But a lot of 
the change in English has been diversification. Formal written British 
English is not that different from a century ago, except of course for 
new words introduced for new concepts. The use of verb forms has 
changed very little. No educated English speaker would have real 
trouble understanding a text from 100 years ago. Many languages have 
changed far more, e.g. Turkish from a century ago is almost 
incomprehensible to modern Turks.

As for changes in Hebrew, we would not I think expect to see the full 
extent of such changes in the Bible which (especially in the later 
books) is formalised writing. For example, we can compare parallel 
passages in Kings (late pre-exilic?) and Chronicles (post-exilic) and 
find some changes in verb forms, syntax and vocabulary. I would 
suggest that the Chronicler made changes only where he felt obliged to 
because the Kings usage was clearly obsolete, rather than making a 
full revision into the modern style. Even the fresh post-exilic 
compositions in "late Biblical Hebrew" were very likely written (to 
varying extents) in a formalised and archaising "Biblical" style. 
Another issue is that we don't know how much if at all earlier books 
were themselves edited to match later style. Indeed, we can't be sure 
about any of the dating issues unless we can provide convincing 
answers to those who argue for Hellenistic composition etc. So the 
argument that there was little difference between pre-exilic and 
post-exilic Hebrew is rather shaky.

It was no doubt this continuing written tradition which allowed Hebrew 
to survive, even until today, with comparatively little change. The 
written tradition of English literature, such as the great 19th 
century novels as well as Shakespeare, helps to anchor English and 
keep its changes under control, though who knows whether the anchor 
will hold throughout the English-speaking world, or will English 
disintegrate as Latin did in the "dark ages" into regional languages 
and a separate dying literary language?

Peter





______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re[3]: wayyiqtol vs. English
Author:  dwashbur AT nyx.net at internet
Date:    04/03/1999 09:48

Peter wrote:
<snip>

Oh, come on.  Do you really believe that Hebrew (especially pre- 
exilic) underwent the massive changes and rapid flux that English 
has in the past 100 years or so?...
<snip>