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  • From: Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Survey Question about use of Biblical Hebrew in class
  • Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:31:53 -0400

At 03:17 PM 6/14/2009, you wrote:
>More practically, in real Biblical Hebrew, how could a student say
'The dog ate my homework' or the teacher, 'I left my notes for the
lecture on the bus.' >
alot of simple things can be said, actually.
you could try the following on a gullible teacher:
ha-kelev axal et asher katavti ba-bayit.

Of course you are talking about my grocery list and not my class notes. :) I would have used avodat ha-bayit, but that would not have been Biblical Hebrew either. (I like your Israeli pronunciation.) While I see it as an interesting pedagogical method, I am not sure you come out 'speaking' pure Biblical Hebrew. Hebrew itself developed from the Biblical period to the rabbinic period and later.


> The vocabulary is quite limited. Also the
limited tenses, might make conversation a bit difficult.>
Yes, biblical vocabulary is quite limited. While a class might
be controlled and led into subject matters that BH covers (we
do that at BLC), Ullendorf has elegantly shown that the vocab is
only a piece of the real language. ("Is biblical Hebrew a Language?")
However, your point on the tenses would not have been accepted
by the ancients. They certainly carried on lively conversations and
found the verb system communicative.

I think you are minimizing the problem. The present tense is virtually non-existent. In fact I doubt you can find a single instance of it.

I also think that you are minimizing the pronunciation issue. With any language there are variances of pronunciation based on geography but I seriously doubt that the modern Hebrew pronunciation would have been understood in Biblical times.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moshe Shulman outreach AT judaismsanswer.com 718-436-7705
Judaism's Answer: http://www.judaismsanswer.com/





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