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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] hebrew is dead?

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Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>
  • To: "Will Parsons" <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
  • Cc: nir AT ccet.ufrn.br, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] hebrew is dead?
  • Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 12:39:59 -0600



--------------------------------------------------
From: "Will Parsons" <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 7:36 AM
To: <jkilmon AT historian.net>
Cc: <tensorpath AT gmail.com>; <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>; <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] hebrew is dead?

On Tue, 28 Dec 2010 21:48:38 -0600, "Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net> wrote:
Fred:

It is true that Aramaic replaced Hebrew as the vernacular in the 2nd Temple
period but if you can quote anyone who claimed that Hebrew "died" and was
"buried" I encourage you to do so or please bury this repeated red herring
instead.

To be fair, the most common definition of a "dead" language is one that has
no native speakers, and by this criterion Hebrew did indeed "die". (At
least, I'm not aware of any claims that it served as the mother tongue of
a community continuously from ancient to modern times.) Now you (and others)
may object that Hebrew was used - even to the extent of having new literary
works composed in it - long after it ceased to be a spoken (i.e., mother
tongue) language, and I would agree that "dead" doesn't seem to be a
completely appropriate adjective to apply to this situation. At mentioned
elsewhere in this thread, it's important to define terms here.

--
Will Parsons


That's very true, Will, but Fred has been repeating, and as a result inferring, that I claim Hebrew was "dead and buried" and then proceeding to argue against that. I not only do not object to Hebrew being used, as the Lashon haKodesh it continued to be used for post-exilic works and was also spoken by the priests and literate 3-5% of the population but the pomegranate vendor down the street spoke Aramaic as did the High Priest in family usage.

Jack Kilmon




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