Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

It shouldn't be surprising that Californians of the 19th cent would use
English in much the same fashion as those in the east since a good many
Californians of that time were eastern transplants.  It would rather be
surprising if they didn't.

gfsomsel
________

On Sat, 29 May 2004 13:19:00 -0700 Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
writes:
> On 29/05/2004 13:26, Michael Abernathy wrote:
> Oh, I understand. I know of places where a few miles walk in any 
> direction results in language differences as great as that between 
> the 
> UK and France or between the USA and Mexico, i.e. totally different, 
> 
> although distantly related, languages. And I know of a language 
> spoken 
> in just one village of 2000 people, but which still has four 
> distinct 
> dialects spoken in the four quarters of the village. On the other 
> hand, 
> I also know of places where essentially the same language was spoken 
> 
> over distances of thousands of miles even before any modern 
> inventions. 
> Indeed the USA itself is a good example, in the late 19th century 
> (and 
> even before the telegraph and the transcontinental railroad if you 
> want 
> to get picky about modern inventions); certainly there were some 
> regional variations, but I suspect that the English of a 19th 
> century 
> California newspaper would be only slightly different from that of a 
> New 
> York newspaper, or a London one.
> 
> So, we can't jump to any quick conclusions about language use in 
> ancient 
> rael, but we need to look closely at the actual evidence. And Yigal 
> has given us some good pointers in that direction.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
> 
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> 
> 

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