Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004 06:57:36 -0700 (PDT) Jason Hare <jason AT jhronline.com>
writes:
> Does anyone know of any possible connections early on
> between the Indo-European languages and the Semitic
> family? When did they break off of the language tree
> respectively - or did they share roots? I am asking
> because I got the following message from a participant
> on my message board:
> 
> <<Hello. I am from p207.ezboard.com/b***************,
> and I am wondering about any connection between
> Indo-European and Hebrew. Now, I know that there are
> the adopted Latin/Greek words like technology etc...,
> but I'm more curious about words that survive from
> biblical days. Since, the Philistines and Hittites
> were IndoEuropean peoples, one can easily assume that
> the language must have had an impact, being neighbors.
> Do you have any idea (hint: Etruscan is closest to the
> language of the Philistines.)
> 
> Thanks for the time and consideration. Shalom. >>
> 
> I already told him that I would post his question here
> and find out if anyone had any ideas. I am sorta cut
> off from sources at the moment.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Jason Hare
> 
> Student of Spanish and Philosophy
> Missouri Southern State University - Joplin
> jason AT jhronline.com http://www.jhronline.com 
> hare-j-814 AT mssu.edu 
> 
> _______________________________________________

Jason,

Trevor and Liz have already mentioned that there were certain loan-words,
but I got the impression that your questioner had something else in mind.
 While some of the Greek grammars such as Henry Weir Smyth's _Greek
Grammar_ will indicate certain connections between Greek, Latin, and even
German which have links to proto-Indo-European, I know of no such links
with the Semitic family of languages.  This would indicate to me that in
the history of the evolution of ethnic groups and their dispersal
geographically the split between the Indo-European group and the Semitic
was quite early.  There are certain languages of Africa such as Ge'ez
which are linked to the Semitic group.

george
gfsomsel