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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: pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca
  • Cc: 'Hebrew' <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Fw: Aramaic to them?
  • Date: Sat, 06 Mar 2004 13:28:14 -0800

On 06/03/2004 12:26, Ken Penner wrote:

Blau probably is the main representative of the view that QH was not spoken.
His article in _Diggers at the Well_ concludes,

"The analysis of the various items in which Qumran Hebrew differs from biblical Hebrew has demonstrated that no proof exists that they reflect a spoken Hebrew dialect used by the
members of the Qumran sect. Comparison with Middle Arabic
texts shows that these deviations may as well be due to changes
that occur in literary texts written in a literary language, no
longer spoken, owing to various traditions, genres, fashions,
scribal schools, and personal inclinations. Accordingly , there is
no justification in abandoning the prevailing view, which explains
in the simplest and the most convincing way all the details, that
the main current of the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls reflects
basically the latest stage of biblical (literary) language, exposed
to the influence of the spoken vernaculars, viz. Aramaic and
some sort of Middle Hebrew , which later crystallized as Mishnaic
Hebrew."


Thank you, Ken. But note that Blau is NOT saying that Hebrew was a dead language at the time, and so he actually SUPPORTS my position. He accepts that there was at the time and afterwards a spoken language, "some sort of Middle Hebrew, which later crystallized as Mishnaic Hebrew", and that the Hebrew of the DSS was influenced by this Hebrew.

I never did claim and never would claim that QH was a spoken language, simply because rarely if ever is a written language identical to a spoken language. I didn't even claim that the writers of the DSS were mother tongue speakers of Hebrew. My claim was simply that QH provides evidence for contemporary use of Hebrew as a mother tongue, because it was influenced by it. And so I am in complete agreement with Blau.

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





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