Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

Jack,
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Zellmer" <pzellmer AT sc.rr.com>
> To: "Biblical Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2002 4:56 PM
> Subject: RE: alliteration
> 
> 
> > Jack,
> >
> > I'm not quite sure I follow your logic here.  You posit that the original
> > uses of poetry were as mnemonics, yet you seem to be arguing against the
> > assignment of alliteration to poetry for an oral ancient society.  Perhaps
> I
> > don't understand what is the "modern literate sense" of alliteration (or
> its
> > supposed assignment to poetry??).  Alliteration is a modern mnemonic
> device
> > often utilized in modern day prose, whether oral or written.  Since it is
> > not used exclusively in poetry today, I'm not aware of anyone who assigns
> it
> > exclusively to ancient poetry.  Is there someone who has taken that
> position
> > that you know of?
> >
> > I would have thought from Andrew's question that he would have been
> > surprised if it were not found in prose.  He just couldn't think of any
> > examples.
> 
> 
> I think I did a poor job of making my thoughts clear, Paul, easy to do when
> a subject could be covered in a 2 volume set <g>.  The background of my
> position is my sense that there is a more profound difference between an
> oral and literate society than is appreciated and factored into our studies
> of ancient texts.  What I meant was that the embroidery of poetry in an oral
> society was primarily functional while poetry in a literate society is
> primarily aesthetic.  I was attempting to draw the line between a functional
> alliteration as a mnemonic tool and alliteration as pure decoration.
> 
This distinction isn't limited to ancient texts.  The average Christian 
preacher will try to use alliteration as a mnemonic device, and I had 
a prof in college who was so in love with it that he gave extra points 
if we could come up with one that he hadn't thought of!

That being the case, and since we don't actually know any real 
percentages of literacy in ANE society, I do wonder how pressable 
your point is.....

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Don't let your mind wander.  
It's too little to be left alone."