Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

George:

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 3:55 AM, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>wrote:

> Karl, I understand your objection to a theoretical proto-Hebrew, but the
> argument seems to be quite minimalist in not allowing anyone to trace a
> trajectory backwards from known patterns in Hebrew and cognate languages.


My objection is that human actions are not mathematically predictable, and
historical development of languages is part of human actions. In the
development of Hebrew, did it gain, lose or exchange phonemes? Languages do
all three, sometimes all three simultaneously, and there is no way to
predict which ones happen. The same question exists for the cognate
languages. Without a written record, how can we know which changes happened?
This question deals with just one aspect of language change.


> The basic data are there within Hebrew itself, as well as cognates like
> Ugaritic, Phoenician, Amarna Canaanite, and the like. It's not, as you seem
> to be implying, without any basis.
>
> Are you perhaps denying that Hebrew developed as a language? This would be
> highly irregular amongst languages.
>

The record for Biblical Hebrew spans only about 1000 years, assuming
traditional dates, and during that time the written record shows remarkably
little linguistic variation. But during most of that time it was largely
isolated from outside influences. Afterwards there were significant changes.
Before? We don’t know, there is no record.

>
>
> GEORGE ATHAS
> Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
> www.moore.edu.au
>
> Karl W. Randolph.