Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

hello fred,

your example (numbers 36:1)

a. the hebrew: וידברו ; and

b. the aramaic: ומלילו

actually shows how close the languages were, as MELILU derives from MILA
exactly as DIBRU derives from DIBUR. and both MILA and DIBUR are biblical
hebrew. moreover, the prefix and suffix are the same, and have the same
function as in hebrew.

i agree with you that there are many different words, but they are a minority.
the grammar is almost identical, the vocabulary is to a large extent common,
and simple transition rules exist, like the article H becomes a suffix A, the
plural suffix IM becomes IN etc etc. given that the region entertained several
semitic dialects/languages, this would not be a hurdle.

i read the aramaic parts in daniel and ezra. it took me a few hours to get
acquainted with the differences and to understand the text completely. this
said, clearly you are right that a text in aramaic read loudly to a
hebrew-speaking croud would not be understood at all. unless they knew some
aramaic.

nir cohen

> The pronunciation of these two words resemble one another, not. The fluent
hebrew speaker, who cannot speak aramaic, will experience zero comprehension
of the aramaic vocalized here.