Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <ButhFam AT compuserve.com>]

shalom 
the following is not an easy call

> Any idea whether there's a distinction in Hebrew that would parallel the
>philologist/linguist distinction in English?
>
>Charles answers:  Not in my personal dialect of spoken Hebrew.  But again,
>others on the list may have different ranges of usage than I.  I have
always
>heard and used the same word.  But I have actually heard philologya for
>philology, comparable to philosophya for philosophy.
>Anyone else?
>Charles

Yes, philologia is more common for philology 
and 
balshanut for linguistics.
However, linguistics, theoretical, 
is not often distinguished by Hebrew speakers 
from linguistics, traditional and etymological, 

But the same is probably true in English, philologia and linguistics,
so the problem is the background knowledge of the speakers 
concerning theorectical linguistics. 

bivraxot 
Randall Buth