Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Ian Hutchesson <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

I was browsing a book by Garbini a few days ago ("I fenici: storia e
religione" [The Phoenicians: history and religion], Napoli, 1980) and was
taken by his comments about the Hebrew language. He said:

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A confirmation of the linguistic character of south Palestinian, still in
the Phoenician sphere, is offered by an inscription, the so-called Gezer
"calendar", written in a languageusually considered to be an archaic form
of Hebrew, but which in reality constitutes (..) an archaic form of
Phoenician: the absense of articles (as in the Ahiram inscription) and the
presence of the masculine plural suffix -w to the construct state (as in
Ugaritic) are linguistic "throwbacks" and therefore cannot be related to a
language such as Hebrew which is a carrier of innovations. The language of
the Gezer "calendar" should be contextualised, in a historical perspective,
as the most southern of the Phoenician dialects, beside those of Arad and
Byblos (which are linguistically more evolved, which a greater number of
Amorite elements) and those of Tyre and Sidon. The archaizing, ie
conservative, character of the Gezer dialect aligns perfectly with what we
know thus far of the south Palestinian culture.
                                       --p 27
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Any thoughts on the distinction Garbini is making between what he sees as
these conservative and innovative languages?


Ian