Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 5:54 PM, Yitzhak Sapir wrote:

> On the basis of personal research, I am of the opinion that Hebrew changed
> drastically during the 7th-6th centuries BCE, due to Aramaic influence.  
> [...]
> Very likely, by the 4th century the deletion of the -ti: 2fs vowel was well
> underway.  Perhaps in some instances it was still used, and evidently it was
> kept in compositions that had them.  But it is unlikely to me that a book
> that was composed in the 4th century would show the non-deleted form
> -ty in non-archaic context.  So, I think this is one reason to date the book
> of Ruth earlier than Ezra.

After reviewing Arad 49, I am redating the change from the late 8th century-
6th century BCE.  Also, I would suggest the second stage (deletion of the
vowel) that I described be dated along with the second stage of the nunation.
Initially, Aramaic plurals were borrowed into the language, but later, in
a second stage, nouns that simply ended in -n or -m were used
interchangeably.  There is evidence for the second stage in the name
Shalun in Neh 3:15, as well as the Elephantine correspondence.  So this
would suggest that the second stage of the 2fs suffix was well underway as
well by this time.

Yitzhak Sapir