Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Isaac:

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 5:57 PM, Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu> wrote:

> …
> 2. It is conceivable that no one ever spoke biblical Hebrew ––– biblical
> Hebrew may have never been a spoken language. King David spoke biblical
> Hebrew to his God, but to Mikal to Abigail, to Axinoam, to Maakah, to Xagit,
> to Abital, to Eglah, to Bat Sheva, to Abishag, and to their children he
> spoke, I imagine, a lighter, less inflected version of Hebrew, known today
> as MI (Modern Israeli).
>

No way! The grammar, verbal usage, is so different that they are different
languages. When people are diglossic between a language and a dialect
thereof, grammar is almost always almost identical between the dialect and
the “high” language. That situation does not exist between Biblical Hebrew
and modern Israeli.

There are other differences as well repeatedly mentioned on this list.

>
> 3. Hebrew was apparently not spoken (or only sporadically spoken) for long
> periods of time, but at any given moment of time, tens of thousands of Jews
> (men mostly) have prayed in Hebrew, have read the prophets, listened to the
> Torah being read aloud in their houses of worship, and eagerly studied the
> Mishnah and the Talmud, and their interpreters. Also, remarkable Hebrew
> poetry and prose never ceased to be produced, even by people who never spoke
> everyday Hebrew.
>

I agree, and repeatedly have so written. But that does not contradict my
claim that Biblical Hebrew was spoken on the streets as a native language
before the Babylonian Exile.

>
> 4. I would trust the NAQDANIYM that they new what they were doing.
>

Depends on what they thought they were doing. I think they did a very good
job transcribing the tradition that existed in their place and time, but
that does not mean that their tradition was the same as what was spoken when
Biblical Hebrew was a natively spoken language.

>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
>
Karl W. Randolph.