Biblical Hebrew Forum

[rob acosta <robacosta AT hotmail.com>]

 Mr . Ishinan
    If I may put my two cents in, I believe current opinion is that the 
"semitic" languages belong under the larger umbrellaof  the Afro Asiatic 
languages family, which includes Berber, Egyptian, Arabic, Hebrew, etc. This 
is well known so I agree with Mr Williams that Hebrew is in no way a special 
language. Nor do I find its classification as "Semitic" as necessarily an 
insult although it may well be outdated.    I believe it was George Rawlinson 
in his book "The Five Great Monarchies of the Eastern Ancient World" who 
discovered a strong Ethiopian influence in the development of ancient  
Assyria and Babylon and consequently the languages of the region.. Aside from 
the archeological evidence, he relates the records of Homer, Herodotus and 
Strabo who mention the Ethiopian "kingdom" as once extending into Asia and 
beyond in ancient times.     The Babylonian/ Assyrian/Ethiopian connection 
seems to be supported by the fact the ancient Greeks and Armenians considered 
Belus, the Babylonian god of war said to be founder of Babylon a 
Cushite...and give an extensive genealogy that includes Canaan and Libya.   I 
say all of this to offer just one possibility as to why both the Semitic and 
Arabic languages belong under the Afro Asiatic umbrella along side Egyptian 
and the languages of East Africa..There was,undeniably, a great 
interconnection between the Ethiopians and the inhabitants of the Fertile 
Crescent in the ancientrecords as is made clear by the ancients and their 
mythology, which may go a long way into explaining the development of the 
languages of the region, including Hebrew.

Rob Acosta