Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

Speculations!

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Nov 21, 2011, at 2:15 AM, K Randolph wrote:

> so Mishnaic Hebrew was an official language used for high
> literature, religion and civic affaires, but no-one spoke it natively.

I will have to agree with Isaac. In fact, mishnaic Hebrew was the opposite:
it
was not a high language. During the Second Temple, classical Hebrew
was a high language and mishnaic Hebrew was a low language. The problem
with the Latin analogy is that mishanic Hebrew lines up with vulgar Latin
and the emerging romance languages, not the high language. Mishnaic
Hebrew only became a high language in the 3rd century CE.





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Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
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