Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 10/27/07, Yigal Levin wrote:
> As I wrote, I agree. Also, I think that the Nehemiah memoirs show that at
> least some Jews kept speaking Hebrew even in Babylon, so that the "revival"
> of hebrew in the post-exilic period would not have only depended on its
> being spoken by non-exilied Judeans.

Indeed, even in Israel today, there are communities of immigrants or 
descendants
of immigrants where the native language spoken may be Yiddish, English, 
French,
Ethiopic, etc.  Such communities also exist in Europe and the US.  When small
numbers of immigrants immigrate they generally get absorbed in the population.
But when large numbers of immigrants immigrate together, for whatever reason,
the community will not necessarily speak the official spoken language,
and rather,
may keep to their mother tongue for generations.  For Israelis, doing
so with Hebrew
may also be done for Zionist reasons, which may perhaps be compared to the
exiled Judeans in Babylon hoping for a quick return to their homeland.

Yitzhak Sapir