Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

The same can be said of Greek. It still exists as a language in one  
form but is a very different form to the Greek of the apostles and to  
that of the philosophers. Words have changed meaning, pronunciation  
has changed, grammar has changed.

I think some list members would have it that if a language has been in  
use it is not dead. Well, that's fine. If we are to define a dead  
language in this way then there are no dead languages that we know of.  
Perhaps Egyptian was dead once until we cracked it via the Rosetta  
stone.

Anyway, let me rephrase it. There are no native speakers of the  
snapshot of Hebrew we are discussing.

James Christian


Quoting K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>:

> Yodan:
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:30 AM, Yodan <yodan AT yodanco.com> wrote:
>
> > Responding to James Read's statement:
> >
> > "The simple facts of the matter are that Hebrew is a dead language."
> >
> >
> > …
> >
> > Perhaps we should define "dead language" so that we can reconcile the view
> > that Hebrew "is a dead language" with the facts arguing against it. To me,
> > a
> > "dead language" is a language that is not used (or has not been used for a
> > period of time) at all - neither in speaking nor in writing/reading. This
> > is
> > not true for Hebrew, a language that has continued to be used throughout
> > the
> > ages without interruption.
> >
> > I have the same reaction to this discussion. What defines a “dead
> language”?
>
> According to the above definition, the little ditty my mother taught me,
>
> “Latin is a dead language, dead as dead can be,
> First it killed the Romans, and now it’s killing me!”
>
>
> is wrong, because Latin is still used, continuously since the Roman Empire.
>
> Hebrew has changed more than Latin in its history. However, I agree with you
> that it has been continuously used since ancient times. But at the same time
> it has changed so much that I cannot understand modern Israeli Hebrew even
> while I prefer to read Tanakh without points.
>
> So what’s the definition of “dead language”?
>
> Karl W. Randolph.
>
>
> > Bruryah Yodan
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew



--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.