Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear Fred,

Why is 10 AD important to you? Where did you get this date? As far as I know,
Mishnaic Hebrew would be circa 200 AD when the oral interpretation of the 
Torah
was codified by Judah haNasi with another 4 centuries for analysis, debate and
editing ending in the Gemara. It would include all the discussions about the
Oral Law that Rabbinic Judaism after 70 AD. I find the article at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mishna to be adequate source. Jewish Encyclopedia
would be another. Yigal, Uri and others may give a more complete description. 
I
will NOT go into the issue of the Oral Law and the Written Law (Law of Moses)
being given at the same time of the Sinaitic legislation (it is beyond list
guidelines anyway). It is this codification, the Mishna, that continues the
Biblical Hebrew down to our day. This would include the number of additions 
and
subtractions in the grammar and syntax that any language would go through over
time.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fred burlingame" <tensorpath AT gmail.com>
To: <yodan AT yodanco.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2010 1:41 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew - a live language throughout the generations 
(was
Hebrew dead language etc.)


> Shalom Rivka:
>
> 1. I define "living language" as a language used by two or more people for
> at least 70 percent of their exchanged and vocalized communications,
> annually, and year in ... and year out.
>
> 2. I offer here an example of a language that appears alive, but remains
> dead, under the definition I use.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Mass
>
> 3. My limited position as to hebrew language follows.
>
> 4. Biblical hebrew language evolved into mishnaic hebrew language ("MH"). In
> 10 a.d., jerusalem and galilee, the lower, middle and upper class of hebrews
> used MH ... as a living language. The vocabulary, knowledge and
> speaking skill of the lower class differed from that of the religous
> aristocracy ... then ... just as today.
>
> 5. The position of other posters here, as I understand it:
>
> 6. The hebrew language never died according to their different defintion of
> "living." Aramaic language however, displaced MH in 10 a.d., as the means of
> daily communication by and amongst the hebrews occupying judah and galilee
> at that time.
>
> 7. I would consider hebrew language a dead language, if paragraph "6"
> represented fact. I do not however, believe that paragraph "6" represents
> fact.
>
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 1:46 PM, Yodan <yodan AT yodanco.com> wrote:
>
> > Shalom!
> >
> >
> >
> > I apologize in advance for not reading all the recent posts on whether
> > Hebrew is (has been) a live, dead, or resurrected from the dead language.
> >
> >
> >
> > Therefore, I'm not sure if anyone mentioned the book Ivrit Safa Meduberet
> > ("Hebrew - A Spoken Language") by Shlomo Haramati, a professor at the
> > Hebrew
> > University. This slim, easy-read book, published in 2000, reviews the use
> > of
> > Hebrew throughout the generations and discusses/debunks the myth that
> > Hebrew
> > was a dead language that was "resurrected" by Ben-Yehuda.
> >
> >
> >
> > One of the points in this book is that while Ben-Yehuda's efforts and
> > accomplishments in inventing new words and in making the daily use of
> > Hebrew
> > as a primary language are invaluable and are certainly acknowledged, it is
> > incorrect to consider Hebrew a dead language.
> >
> >
> >
> > Because it is clear (to me and to many others) that today's Hebrew has
> > evolved from Biblical Hebrew through the continued use of the language,
> > much
> > as modern English has evolved from old English etc., I don't see how we 
> > can
> > say that Hebrew (or Biblical Hebrew) is a dead language. IMHO a "dead"
> > language is one that, except for academic researchers, no one is using it
> > in
> > speaking, writing, teaching, prayer, singing, communicating, etc.
> >
> >
> >
> > If Fred, who insists on referring to Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew, I presume) 
> > as
> > a dead language has not done so already, perhaps he'll kindly defined 
> > "dead
> > language" for us. If he has done so, sorry I missed it (as I said, I 
> > didn't
> > read each post on the topic - my apologies).
> >
> >
> >
> > Bevirkat Kol Tuv,
> >
> >
> >
> > Rivka Sherman-Gold
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > b-hebrew mailing list
> > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
> >
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
>
>
> -- 
> Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.3/696 - Release Date: 02/21/2007
3:19 PM
>
>