Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Tory Thorpe <torythrp AT yahoo.com>]

--- On Mon, 6/15/09, Moshe Shulman <mshulman AT ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> Tony, I can only assume that you are not familiar with
> Modern Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew.

I'm fluent in modern Hebrew (I'm Israeli) and I've been reading the Biblical 
Hebrew since I was a child. My first point was that modern Hebrew is no 
obstacle to learning BH. I really can't see that it is. 

> The differences are significant 
> enough to be problematic. 

Many modern Hebrew speakers have never studied BH but their mother tongue is 
not an "obstacle" to learning. The disadvantage I spoke of in my second point 
relates to preference and even credibility. Although very different, I would 
prefer to learn ancient Egyptian from someone who knows Coptic inside and 
out. Similarly, as a linguist, I would not want to learn early Russian from 
someone who does not know and speak modern Russian fluently. Maybe this helps 
clarify.

Tory Thorpe