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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Proto-Semitic, was WAYYIQTOL

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • To: "Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Proto-Semitic, was WAYYIQTOL
  • Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 17:56:15 -0500

Peter:

It looks as if we should drop this
discussion. Unless either of us finds data
other than what has been presented on this
list in the last few weeks, neither seems
able to convince the other. We are arguing
in circles.

Evidence that I recognize argues for an
earlier, rather than later, adoption of
Aramaic for the language cooed over the
cradle, bickered in the market and
conversed on the street, leaving Hebrew
spoken fluently only as a second language
by an educated elite for religion,
government and high (mostly religious)
literature. This is analogous to the use of
Latin in Europe in the 14th century and
imperial Chinese in the 19th. You argue
that the existence of religious,
governmental and high literature Hebrew
indicates that people still learned Hebrew
at their mothers’ knees.

My personal preference is that Hebrew was
the language of the street, but I just
don’t see it.

Unless you present some radically new data,
I plan not to respond to any message
dealing with this issue.

Yours, Karl W. Randolph.


----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>

> On 17/03/2004 17:45, Karl Randolph wrote:
>
> >Peter:
> >
> >Where have I argued that Hebrew was not
> >used after the Galut Babel?
> >
> >Karl W. Randolph.
> >
> >
> >
> You wrote the following:
>
> >Hebrew had
> >ceased being the language on the street in
> >all but the most remote farming villages by
> >the time of the Maccabees, if not earlier.
> >Yet because it was the language of
> >religion, government and high literature,
> >it continued to be spoken by an educated
> >elite, much like Latin in Europe.
> >
>
> So you accept that Hebrew was used for religious purposes including
> writing the DSS, but not as anyone's mother tongue. In principle that is
> possible. In actuality the evidence is against it, but rather that
> Hebrew continued as the mother tongue of some communities throughout the
> Second Temple period.
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>

--
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