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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Fw: Aramaic to them?

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Fw: Aramaic to them?
  • Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 14:51:31 -0800

On 03/03/2004 14:37, Dave Washburn wrote:

...


I've read most of them, but I suspect that most of the conclusions are flawed because they are treating documents that are inherently religious, as though they were more or less common speech. There is no reason not to expect exclusively (or primarily) religious language to undergo change of the type that is purportedly observed; I also suspect that at least some of the changes spotted have been somewhat exaggerated. But that's a matter for a different list.


I haven't read most of the articles. But your hypothesis can be tested, as there are many languages in the world which have survived for many centuries as exclusively or primarily religious language, with no mother tongue communities - or in forms which have gradually diverged from those used by mother tongue communities, as with Greek. (Hebrew was probably in that category for more than 1500 years.) Can you point to cases where such languages have undergone the same types of change that Hebrew was undergoing during the DSS period? If not, there is good reason to conclude that these changes occur only in languages with mother tongue communities.

What other list should this be discussed on? Despite the subject line, we are talking about Hebrew, although not strictly biblical.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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