Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 8:08 AM, Arnaud Fournet 
<fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>wrote:

> Actually
>
> Navajo should be compared to other Western Apache languages, with which it
> shares a number of features and innovations, either diffused or
> independently acquired.
> That comparison is roughly equivalent to Hebrew as compared to its
> neighbors and Semitic relatives, although Western Apache is a probably
> younger branch than Western Semitic.
>
>
> Arnaud Fournet
>
> When I was in college, I had a friend who grew up speaking Apache (learned
on the playground, not at home). He claimed he could understand spoken
Navajo because it is so similar to Apache.

Likewise, from reading the Mesha Stele, it looks as if Moabite and Hebrew
were so similar that both peoples could understand each other’s speech.
Probably the same with Edomite.

But when it comes to Aramaic, we have historical records that those who
spoke only Hebrew could not understand it, even though linguists can
recognize the similarities.

Karl W. Randolph.