Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

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/