Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Mon, May 18, 2009 at 10:21 AM, James Read wrote:

> I did once hear a theory that Hebrew must be the mother of all
> languages and that there was some biblical support for this. However,
> try as I might, I haven't been able to find any biblical support for
> this. We are merely told that everybody's language gets confused at
> Babel but no mention is given as to what language they spoke before
> that.

Traditionally, Hebrew has been viewed as the source of all languages.
Genesis Rabbah says, commenting on Gen 2:23:
רבי פנחס ורבי חלקיה בשם רבי סימון אמרי: כשם שניתנה
 תורה בלשון הקודש, כך נברא העולם בלשון הקודש,
 שמעת מימיך אומר גיני גיניא?! אנתרופי אנתרופא?!
גברא גברתא?! אלא, איש ואשה.
למה? שהלשון הזה נופל על הלשון הזה

Rabbi Pinhas and Rabbi Hilqiyah said in the name of Rabbi Simon:
Just as the Torah is written in the Holy Tongue so was the world
created in the Holy Tongue.  Have you ever heard someone say
gune gunaya? (Greek woman) anthropos - anthropa? (Greek man)
gavra - gavrata (Aramaic man)?  Rather, i$ and i$$a (Hebrew man-
woman).  Why? Because this word is derived from that word.

In other words, because in the main languages in use at the
time, Aramaic and Greek, the word 'woman' did not derive from
the word 'man', Hebrew was the only one for which the quote
to Adam was applicable.

Yitzhak Sapir