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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Eden

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Karl Randolph <kwrandolph AT email.com>
  • Cc: Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Eden
  • Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 02:47:58 -0700

On 14/06/2004 22:19, Karl Randolph wrote:

Dear Peter:

Now that you bring in science……

...

This is not a claim that ”creation science“ is science. It is not science for
the same reasons evolution is not science.


I agree with you, more or less. Certainly evolution in terms of mechanisms is no more scientific than creationism because both are based on unfalsifiable speculation.

The reason I objected to ”proto-Semitic“ language, especially as a yardstick
to evaluate Biblical Hebrew, is because it, like evolution, is based on
inobservable presuppositions that may or may not be true. I would prefer to
stay with that which can be observed, in this case, the Biblical Hebrew
language recorded in Tanakh and what few other writings in Biblical Hebrew
that we have found.


I hadn't mentioned proto-Semitic for some time, but you have anticipated my mention of it just posted. Well, there are a large number of words and grammatical structures which are more or less common between many modern and recorded ancient Semitic languages. These are similar to the large number of words and structures in common between e.g. Romance languages which can be traced back to a known ancestor, Latin. It is a reasonable speculation, although formally unprovable I agree, that the common Semitic vocabulary and grammar derive from an original common Semitic language, which is probably lost (although I suppose one could try to argue that proto-Semitic is Akkadian, the oldest recorded Semitic language). To go further into determining the exact shape of that proto-language may be speculative, but that is not actually my point.

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





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