Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uzi Silber <uzisilber AT gmail.com>]

Remember that Isaiah himself refers to Hebrew as 'sfat knaan', implying that
Hebrew was the tongue of not merely Israelite/Judahites/Jews but of all
those Peoples who lived in the area known as Canaan (and presumably its
immediate environs excepting Aramaic).







On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 3:24 PM, fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello Yigal;
>
> I am not sure what you mean by serious? but ....
>
> a. don't the sages and the medieval writers both claim the post
> exilic aramaic script as the original lettering of the language? and
> notwithstanding the prior letters (alphabet) of the siloam inscription,
> etc.? that conclusion seems a fairly strong attestation of linguistic
> uniqueness.
>
> b. don't a lot of people who consider themselves mainstream (bankers,
> barbers and bakers) ..... accept the claim that codes are written into the
> tanakh lettering?
>
> c. isn't the attitude of most mainstream people who engage in worship on
> the
> weekend; "if that's what the man in the pulpit says; ... that's the facts
> we
> go with?" isn't much of what happens in the religious services on the
> weekend, the claim of linguistic uniqueness to the language?
>
> d. i haven't conducted a survey, but i suspect that lots of people who
> participate in this forum, make that claim of linguistic uniqueness.
>
> e. i advocate no theology here ... one way or the other. but the suggestion
> that 99.9 percent of serious people (be they linguists or relative lay
> persons) claim the linguistic commonness of the biblical hebrew
> language, represents in my humble opinion ... reality ... not.
>
> regards,
>
> fred burlingame
>
> On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 1:48 PM, Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
> wrote:
>
> > Fred, very few serious people, including the sages of the Talmud or the
> > Medieval Jewish writers, have claimed that Hebrew was LINGUISTICALLY
> unique.
> > On the contrary, they routinely cited parallels in related languages.
> > Hebrew's status as a "holy tongue" is based on the belief that God chose
> to
> > reveal his word in that language, perhaps even to create the world in it.
> > But that belief is beyond the purview of this list.
> >
> > Yigal Levin
> >
> >
> >
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>



-- 
Regards,
Uzi