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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew grammar, (was Zech 6:8)

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  • From: Martin Shields <enkidu AT bigpond.net.au>
  • To: Herman Meester <crazymulgogi AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew grammar, (was Zech 6:8)
  • Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 20:17:48 +1100

We have to be wary of archaisms only in syntax, I think: usually,
words and spelling can be "archaised" without errors, but syntax can
never be "copied" without errors.
It's an interesting problem. Are there some notorious passages in the
mentioned corpus where people say it is archaic artificially? I admit
I never really studied this.
Regards
Herman


Hi Herman,

But we expect that students can reproduce Hebrew in exams, esp. if we
test on English to Hebrew. Some bright students can get 100%, so how
about scribes etc?

I guess there are bright people all over, David, but imagine you read
a lot of Shakespeare and you decide to write some Shakespearean stuff
of your own (a new composition). It's easy to reproduce the
morphology, the spelling, the words, but it's very difficult to get
the syntax perfect:
In your fake Shakespeare text, certain structures will easily end up,
that look perfect English, but further research shows it was unknown
in Shakespeare's days.
I don't say it's impossible, but it's near. I for myself could fake
17th century words and spelling, but I have no idea how the syntax
really works in detail.
best regards
Herman

The parallel with Shakespeare doesn't work too well because for Shakespeare we have an extensive corpus of texts against which any text manufactured to look old can be measured. There is no such control set of texts for biblical Hebrew because we have little direct knowledge of the early history of the text and so any attempt to identify definitively a corpus of exclusively older Hebrew is plagued by the possibility (or perhaps probability) that the texts identified as old have either been updated or have themselves been manufactured to look old.

Regards,

Martin Shields,
Sydney, Australia.





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