Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Vadim Cherny" <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>]

> You admit that "I assume that the Tiberian forms *do not* capture the more 
> ancient forms." You are probably right because languages change over 1000+ 
> years, but I am asking you not to simply assume this, but to present some 
> evidence for it - and I don't think that evidence is in LXX, at least 
> certainly not in a conclusive way; for I agree with you that:

Peter, I think, you overgeneralize. The changes in Hebrew were not as 
significant as in other languages:

- frozen language, not in daily use
- rigid root-based system with morphologically meaningful (thus, not in 
flux) vowels
- careful chanting pronunciation
- many Tanakhic names, such as in LXX, were not common, and thus need not 
change, but preserved frozen

When, however, the Hebrew became a spoken language in Israel, we saw a huge 
volume of dubious changes in very short period.

Vadim Cherny