Biblical Hebrew Forum

[RobertSumner0110 AT wmconnect.com]

You know, it was this very question that led to the death of 43,000 
Ephraimites in Judges 12.  Are we to assume that an entire tribe of Israel 
had a speech 
impediment?  I don't think so. What we see is a language in the process of 
dialectic differentiation.  The spoken language possesses a fluidity that is 
not 
found in the written tongue.  Once a language is reduced to writing, but 
before spelling and grammer is standardized, it is entirely possible that one 
word 
could differentiate into two closely related words, with different spellings. 
 I seem to remember (don't have a dictionary in front of me) that  such a 
situation is reflected in the terms for 'gold' and either 'brightness' or 
'jewelry'.  Whatever the case, the words were pronounced virtually the same, 
although 
one was spelled with a Kaph and the other with a Koph.  Once standardized 
spelling and grammer was introduced (and this came late with Hebrew) only one 
dialect becomes 'correct.'  Whatever words are present in that dialect are 
essentially fossilized by the spelling, and should the later researcher 
neglect to 
go beyond the written text to the variations of the spoken word (which likely 
antedate the text by centuries) there is bound to be confusion.

You guys be nice to one another........I have learned much from both of you.
Robert Shannon Sumner