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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Piel Participles of ayin-waw-yod

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Jack Kilmon <jkilmon AT historian.net>
  • Cc: Hebrew List <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Piel Participles of ayin-waw-yod
  • Date: Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:03:21 -0000

Of course languages change, yet they my still remain the same. A definite statement about what is "the same" and what is "different" requires a norm, or a measure, which is elusive for such a complicated thing as language. Yet I believe that were Moses to reappeared today in a coffee house in Tel Aviv he would understand most of the talk. He would certainly recognize the words מים חמים, כוס, צלחת, עוגה, לחם, חמאה, ירקות טריים, מרק בשר, as well as the exclamation איזה ערב נעים but he would not recognize סוכר, קפה, עגבניה, מלפפון. He would certainly understand the people asking him מה הענינים מושיקו, הכול בסדר אצלכם Yet I suspect he would not recognize the people he took out of Egypt, but it should not take him more than a couple of days to adapt and become fluent in "modern" Hebrew.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Oct 31, 2010, at 1:49 PM, Jack Kilmon wrote:

I cannot get a handle on the proposition that modern Hebrew is virtually unchanged since the Bronze Age. Languages are cultural and cultures are never static.





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