Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear Reinhard,

I for one would more lean to Spanish and Portuguese. I have a niece who 
married
a Brazilian in Lisbon. She speaks English, Portuguese and Spanish; he speaks
Portuguese and Spanish and is learning English. I have had 5 years of Spanish
and I found it easier to pick up the Portuguese.

I also think one has to remember the history of the OT to really get a flavor
for the similarities and dissimilarities of Hebrew and Aramaic.

Judging from II Kings 18-20 // Isaiah 36-39 Aramaic was still distinct from
Hebrew circa 722-700 BCE. By the time of the Babylonian Exile beginning in 
605,
then 597 and finally, with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, it became
even more pronounced as the those exiled to Babylon were learning Aramaic by
necessity; although I will grant that Hebrew was still being used. The switch 
to
Aramaic characters for the alphabet would be an obvious clue; as well as the
rise of the synagogue for the continuing reading of the Torah in Hebrew. The
people who remained in the land of Israel and Judah would have still used
Hebrew, but it would become more and more of a necessity to learn Aramaic.
Daniel definitely reflects the use of Aramaic in the chapters 2-7 with Hebrew
surrounding it. Thus, by the time of Cyrus and Darius Aramaic had pulled near
even with use amongst the populace.

Ezra-Nehemiah indicate that the interpretation of the Hebrew Torah was into
Aramaic for the people had largely spoke Aramaic. Aramaic would definitely
supplant Hebrew amongst the populace by the end of the Second Temple Period,
while Hebrew was still used by the Rabbis, scribes and Temple personnel. Of
course, Mishnaic Hebrew would begin during the end of the Second Temple Period
and continue for centuries. One should also remember that the Maccabbean 
Revolt
would have highlighted the use of Hebrew in the rebellion against the Seleucid
Dynasty's, i.e. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, attempts to force everything Greek on
the people.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "R. Lehmann" <lehmann AT uni-mainz.de>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2011 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Similar to......


Not at all.
There is sufficient evidence that at least Old Testament times Hebrew and
Aramaic were incompatible foreign languages to each other, and in my opinion 
it
is well-proven that the phonemic repertory of both languages was well distinct
and different throughout Old Testament times.
However, the tricky point is the specification "Biblical", and the question
whether we deal with "languages" at all. Is there "a" Biblical Hebrew 
language,
or are there some and more Biblical Hebrew languages, and, what is more, is
Biblical Hebrew a language at all (? See for the last question the important
papers of the late Edward Ullendorf,  Is Biblical Hebrew a Language?, in: Is
Biblical Hebrew a Language? Studies in Semitic Languages and Civilizations.
Wiesbaden 1977.3-17,
and Ernst Axel Knauf, War "Biblisch-hebrisch" eine Sprache? Empirische
Gesichtspunkte zur linguistischen Ann herung an die Sprache der althebrischen
Literatur: ZAH 3 (1990) 11-23.
The same can be debated with Biblical Aramaic.

BIBLICAL Hebrew and BIBLICAL Aramaic look so similar and contiguous only 
because
they both were, as being "Biblical", encoded by the same system (the 
masoretic)
and in a time (9th-10th century CE) when both languages in Jewish tradition 
had
melted to a certain extent.


䨨
Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann
Academic Director
Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy
FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology
Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz
D-55099 Mainz
Germany
lehmann AT uni-mainz.de
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de
http://www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de/297.php
Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis (SILO):
http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/182.php
10th  Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH):
http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php



> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2011 12:42:34 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Will Parsons <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Similar to......
> To: George.Athas AT moore.edu.au
> Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Message-ID: <20110604.124234.120454042.wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
> Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> On Fri, 3 Jun 2011 10:30:35 +0000, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>
wrote:
>> French and Italian. Clearly related, and yet still morphologically and
>> phonetically different enough to sound very distinct.
>
> That's probably a reasonable comparison with respect to morphology and
> vocabulary, but is it true on a phonetic level?  I rather think that once
> Hebrew became replaced by Aramaic as a native tongue, it is unlikely there
> could have survived a native Hebrew phonemic system distinct from that of
> Aramaic.  So, in this respect Hebrew and Aramaic would be closer to each 
> other
> than to even such closely related languages as Spanish and Portuguese (or
> since the original question came from [I believe] a Catalan speaker, Spanish
> and Catalan).
>
>> From: Pere Porta <pporta7 AT gmail.com<mailto:pporta7 AT gmail.com>>
>> Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 11:39:50 +0200
>> To: B-Hebrew 
>> <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>>
>> Subject: [b-hebrew] Similar to......
>>
>> Dear b-hebrew listers,
>>
>> I need to know some answer to this question:
>>
>> The relation between the biblical Hebrew and the biblical Aramaic.... what
>> is it like, compared with today languages?
>>
>> Is it similar to the relation, say, between English and German?
>> Is it similar to the relation between Spanish and Portuguese?
>> Is it similar to the relation between French and Italian?
>> Is there a better comparison than these?
>>
>> What do you think?
>
>
>

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