Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Proto-Canaanite is not a language - it's a script. We actually do have quite
a few inscriptions in the proto-Canaanite script, dating from the 16th to
the 11th centuries, ranging from Sinai in the south to what is now southern
Lebanon in the north. However, none of these inscriptions is very long.
At least in theory, this proto-Canaanite script was the direct predecessor
of the 22-letter alphabet that was adopted by the Phoenicians, the Hebrews,
Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites and Arameans, and, presumably was used by
whatever "Canaanites" were around during Iron I.

Yigal
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Roberts" <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
To: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2004 12:42 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus and Hebrew Language


> What exactly IS proto-Canaanite? What I meant to say is: how does one
> look at three inscriptions - one Canaanite, one Hebrew, and one
> "proto-Canaanite" and visually distinguish the latter from the first
> two? How large is the corpus of proto-Canaanite script?
>
> Best Salaams,
>
> Brian Roberts
>
>
> On Saturday, May 29, 2004, at 05:59  PM, Jack Kilmon wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brian Roberts" <formoria AT carolina.rr.com>
> > To: "Walter R. Mattfeld" <mattfeld12 AT charter.net>
> > Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> > Sent: Saturday, May 29, 2004 8:08 AM
> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus and Hebrew Language
> >
> >
> >> Walter,
> >>
> >> You're forgetting the Izbet Sartah ostracon. (Naveh 1982), which is
> >> arguably 13th-11th century.
> >
> > I am not sure what it is that makes the Izbet Sartah inscription Hebrew.
> > The script is proto-Canaanite.  Is it considered Israelite because the
> > abecedary had..or was supposed to have..22 letters?   Hebrew is a
> > language
> > that used the Canaanite script and some centuries later, adopted the
> > Aramaic
> > script...but a script is not a language, is not a culture.  This
> > ostracon
> > could have been the exercise of a Philistine child learning Canaanite.
> > Maybe there is something I am missing here.
> >
> > Jack
> >
>
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