Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

I asked for comparison because when you say a language is 'isolated', it begs the question, 'Isolated from what and how?' My appeal to cognates was not to ask whether Hebrew was more isolated than these other languages, but rather how there is a connection and commonality with these languages at all in the first places (the fact there is one suggests anything but isolation). I suspect that what you mean by 'isolated' is 'static', such that Hebrew does not change at all across many centuries. Is that correct?

GEORGE ATHAS

Dean of Research,

Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au)

Sydney, Australia

From: K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
Date: Wednesday, 10 April 2013 2:34 AM
To: George Athas <george.athas AT moore.edu.au>
Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Hebrew was linguistically isolated?

George:

On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 6:48 AM, George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au> wrote:

Now, could we stick to the question of what evidence there is for Hebrew as a linguistically isolated language—that is, more isolated than any other language in antiquity (eg. Phoenician, Ugaritic, Aramaic, etc.).

I didn’t know you wanted a comparative,  but even there an argument can be made that Hebrew was more linguistically isolated by reference to the populations who spoke the listed languages.

Ugararit — port and trading city where people came from different countries, cultures and languages for trade.

Phoenicia — a group of ports known also for their sailors, with repeated contact with different peoples and languages for trade, diplomacy, etc.

Aramaic — (according to what I was taught) was a lingua franca for much of the Levant for centuries, even centuries before the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar and for centuries afterward as well. As a lingua franca, educated people from several languages would learn it, and it would be in contact with all those languages.

Hebrew — most of its speakers were farmers, shepherds or small craftsmen, plying their trade locally. Even most of their traders were really peddlers, never needing to know more than Hebrew. As a result, most of the population never even heard a foreign language, let alone learned one.

Based on the above, which of the languages would you say is the most linguistically isolated?

Karl W. Randolph.