Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>]

Interesting reasoning. I'm not sure why some assume that hebrew was the 
original 
language. Maybe because of the hebrew names used in Genesis. But these could 
well 
be just literal translations of the original names or just the way the 
hebrews 
would automatically remember them after having had their language 
transplanted at 
babel. But the text doesn't in any way seem to directly state that hebrew was 
the 
language originally spoken in Eden. 

I liked your suggestion that Ishmael's descendents may have adopted the 
Arabic 
language based on their place of residency. This made me call to mind a 
question 
I have had for a long time: When Abraham went to Egypt, what language did he 
speak 
to them? In the account in Genesis of Joseph remeeting up with his brothers 
he is 
depicted as having a translator. This seems to suggest that he was speaking 
Egyptian 
as a part of the facade.

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org on behalf of Kevin Riley
Sent: Fri 9/30/2005 9:25 AM
To: B Hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Language Evolution - Out of Bounds
 
 
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Read, James C
Date: 09/22/05 22:58:46
 
While I agree with you that this topic has the potential to go
out of bounds (especially when we have to explian to you the
limitations of dating techniques) I disagree that the discussion
is completely out of bounds.
 
The amount of time that Arabic, Hebrew, Ugaritic, Aramaic etc. had
to divrsify from their common ancestor has a direct relevance on the
linguistic discussion.
Historic tesimonies of the origin of the Arabic language are scarce
but Genesis tells us that Ishmael came from Abraham's loins and it
is reasonable to assume that they spoke the same language. As Arabic
tradition does not contradict the long held tradition that Ishmael
became the father of the Arabian nation it is not impossible that
the Arabic language and the Hebrew of the bible came from the
language that Abraham spoke. Now, Abraham is described as a hebrew.
Exactly what that term means we do not know. If the language he spoke
was exactly the same as the hebrew we see in the bible, we do not know
either. Archaic forms such as YHWH seem to suggest that the language
had adapted slightly by the days of Moshe and this is not unreasonable
as the language would undoubtedly have been affected by a few hundred
years of Egyptian slavery.
 
**************************
Ignoring what is meant by the terms, the Bible presents Abraham as being an
Aramaean [where is that statement: "my father was a wandering Aramaean" - is
it the Bible or tradition??].  Those members of his family who did not
migrate to Canaan still spoke Aramaic 3 generations later [the Jacob and
Laban stories].  The Bible refers to the language of Abraham's descendants
as 'Hebrew', but also at least once as 'the language of Canaan'.  I think we
can thus assume that Abraham spoke Aramaic originally, but he/his
descendants adopted Canaanite.  That also fits with what scholars have
written from studying Hebrew and comparing it with Canaanite/Phoenician.  It
also places the split between Canaanite/Phoenician and Aramaic back to
before the time of Abraham.  Where Ugaritic fits in all this is still
disputed.  Arabic did not come from Hebrew.  There is no evidence for that. 
It has been argued that Arabic should be classified with NW Semitic rather
than Southern Semitic, but both positions have their problems and strong
points.  It is perfectly possible that Ishmael's descendants adopted the
language of the tribes they dwelt among just as Abraham's did.  Whatever
location we favour for 'Ur of the Chaldees' it is likely that Assyrian was
the official language and that Abraham would have spoken it.  Aramaic is
most likely his family language,  Canaanite was the language of the country
to which he moved and his not infrequent dealings with the inhabitants would
suggest he spoke that as well.  What did he speak at home with Sarah and
Isaac [and Ishmael]?  We don't know, but his grandson Jacob spoke
Hebrew/Canaanite, as did his descendants until many [re]adopted Aramaic when
in captivity in Babylon.  I don't find anywhere where the Bible record is in
serious contradiction to the scholarly consensus on the Semitic languages,
even if some assumptions made about Hebrew [that it must be the original
language, etc] disagree with what is known.

Kevin Riley

_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew

This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email
Security System.


This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email
Security System.