Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Abernathy" <mabernathy AT isot.com>
To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2003 9:48 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] When did Hebrew cease to be a commonly spoken language?


> Liz commented on the fact that the papyri from Elephantine were written in
Aramaic.  This is relevent evidence for what was happening outside of
Israel.  One question that must be raised is, "Did the Jews in Israel and
the Jews in foreign lands continue to speak the same language?"  There is
some evidence that Aramaic was used as a trade language outside of Judah and
eventually adopted by the Jews while the Jews in the Holy Land continued to
use Hebrew as their primary language.  For example, you will find that most
of what was written in Israel in the first century was in Hebrew.


This needs to be clarified.  If your sample is the DSS, as a social pocket
for Hebrew, Qumran does not refelect common usage.  Most of what was written
by the common folk (graffiti) is Aramaic.  The publications on 1st century
language use often divide the population into the literate (less than 5%)
and the illiterate but omit a larger group among the common folk..the
quasi-literate who scrawled the ossuaria and graffiti...all exclusively
Aramaic.  Graffiti is in the language of the common folk.

Additionally, what language is written by the literati is not necessarily
that spoken on the street.  The Vatican archives will lead you to believe
that Latin was the spoken language of medieval Italy.

>  You can also find references in the Talmud to Jews in Jerusalem seeking a
translator because someone asked a question in Aramaic.

When and where?  This anecdote does not explain the use of Aramaic targumim,


>  On the other hand, I remember a reference to a Jew outside of Israel
asking his maid to explain what the Hebrew in a passage meant.

Another anecdote without details.  Hebrew had not been commonly spoken as a
language between the 5th century BCE and 1948.


Jack