Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Barry:

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 8:15 PM, Barry <nebarry AT verizon.net> wrote:

On 4/27/2013 8:23 PM, K Randolph wrote:

> In closing, what do you want to do with your study of Biblical Hebrew?
> If you want to make it part of a broader study of linguistics, then a
> study of cognate languages is not only preferable, but needed. But if
> you merely want to maximize your understanding of Hebrew itself and of
> the Tanakh, then a study of cognate languages will actually hurt.

That's not my experience at all. I've been doing Latin and Greek
(cognate languages) simultaneously since 1977. It hasn't hurt me at all,
and in fact, has been quite helpful. Learning Aramaic was far easier
since I already had some Hebrew under my belt. In the early stages of
learning, if you do two languages at the same time, it can occasionally
be confusing, but rarely (again in my experience) due to the cognate
nature of the languages.

Maybe a better way to say it is the difference between learning to use a language, and acquiring mastery thereof. The patterns learned in a cognate language can interfere with acquiring mastery in a target language, as the mind unconsciously tries to apply consistently the patterns to similar situations. The cognate effect interferes with the mastery, not basic learning.

What I’ve learned is that Biblical Hebrew grammar is far different from even Mishnaic Hebrew. From what I learned, Mishnaic Hebrew is a tense based language (according to Waltke and O’Connor). Biblical Hebrew conjugates for neither tense, nor aspect, nor mood, rather grammaticalizes for concepts that I’ve found in no other language. But in reaching this realization, I even had to unlearn what I was taught in class concerning Hebrew. That took me many years and several times reading Tanakh through cover to cover.

Now I studied Latin, but found it such a useless language that I forgot almost all that I learned. Not so with koiné Greek, which I use almost every day.

--
N.E. Barry Hofstetter
Semper melius Latine sonat
The American Academy
http://www.theamericanacademy.net
The North American Reformed Seminary
http://www.tnars.net
Bible Translation Magazine
http://www.bible-translation.net

http://my.opera.com/barryhofstetter/blog

Karl W. Randolph.