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  • From: RobertSumner0110 AT wmconnect.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Richard Steiner on Sin and Shin
  • Date: Tue, 9 Jan 2007 07:20:55 EST

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



  • [b-hebrew] Richard Steiner on Sin and Shin, RobertSumner0110, 01/09/2007

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