Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Maria Solarez <funi AT earthlink.net>]

Dear NPL,

Thank you for the  clarification.

Which culture(s) wrote the Amarna letters and what was the purpose of
the letters?
Why does this diversificatin not occur before the 1st millenium BCE?
What events
promted the spread or impact of the root language? Wars, floods, trade
routes ??

With interest, Maria


Niels Peter Lemche wrote:

> BH is a dialect within the language family of Northwest Semitic, also known
> as Amoritic, attested since the second half of the 3rd millenium BCE. It is
> well attested especially in Amorite names in the Mari letter (Huffmon wrote
> a book about those thirty years ago); it's the dialect behind the Amarna
> letters written in Syrian And Palestine, and it is of course very well
> attested in a North Syrian form from the LBA in the texts from Ugarit. Then
> a few letters in 'Ugaritic' cuneiform from Ta'anekh and other places. 1st
> millennium see a diversification in a number of dialects, Phoenician,
> Palestinian Hebrew (inscriptions), Moabite, Ammonite. Then we have BH and
> diverse developments of the language in espec. Qumran literature and more.
>
> NPL
>
>         -----Original Message-----
>         From:   Maria Solarez [SMTP:funi AT earthlink.net]
>         Sent:   Wednesday, June 21, 2000 18:38
>         To:     Biblical Hebrew
>         Cc:     Biblical Hebrew
>         Subject:        Re: "Is Biblical Hebrew a Language?"
>
>         Thank you for this wonderful food for thought and discussion.
>
>         Is there enough of the Canaanite language around to consider BH a
> dialect or subset?
>         Is enought known about the society at the time span of the writings
> of BH to be
>         certain that the Canaanite language is not a subset of something
> else?
>
>         Forgive my lack of precision in this setting. however, my questions
> remains Enlighten
>         me please..
>
>         Maria
>
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