Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>]

Chavoux:
>> How will you distinguish between the two possible reason for the
>> changes in Hebrew? Only once you have a method for distinguishing
>> between normal change in language and changes due to it being spoken
>> as a second language, can you apply it to biblical Hebrew and draw the
>> kind of conclusion that you do.
>
Karl:
> I did. While I haven’t done an academic study on the subject, I have
> noticed a pattern that I have also seen among children of immigrants who
> still speak their parents’ languages. I noticed it among several language
> groups, the same pattern, a simpler vocabulary and far less usage of
> figures of speech. That, combined with the historical record, causes me to
> conclude that those who moved to Judea under Cyrus no longer had native
> speaking ability in Hebrew. And by extrapolation neither did those who
> lived later as well.

The methodology is flawed, but more importantly
I don't believe the evaluation of Hebrew and challenge it for evidence. Some
of the postexilic books have as rich a vocabulary as preexilic.


-- 
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
Biblical Language Center
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