Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Since you refer to my "worldview", permit me to briefly reiterate, at  
the end of this discussion, what I said earlier: I tend to think that  
biblical Hebrew was never a spoken language. I imagine that people  
who spoke Hebrew at home spoke a simplified version thereof. At the  
wane of the era of the prophets the written language started to come  
down towards this vernacular. Then, the rabbis, HA-PRU$IYM, who were  
not part of the temple milieu, and who spoke directly to the people  
about urgent practical matters, reverted entirely to the speech of  
the land, culminating in the terse Mishnah. Namely, I tend to think  
that, essentially, "Mishnaic" Hebrew was there all along.

There is no denying that "Mishnaic" Hebrew absorbed words and turns  
of speech from both Aramaic and Greek. This light version of biblical  
Hebrew is essentially what some call now "Modern" Hebrew.

So, what Abba Bendavid calls L$ON XAXAMIYM, the language of the wise  
and the learned, I would call L$ON AM HA-AREC, the language of the  
people of the land.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 19, 2011, at 11:41 PM, Randall Buth wrote:

> The point is that there was a stage of the language called
> Mishnaic that your worldview doesn't seem to have much
> room for. Abba Bendavid's leshon miqra ulshon Haxamim
> 2vol 1967, is a good place to start.