Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <LBR AT sprynet.com>]

What I learned, Karl, was Biblical Hebrew, as we were studying the Torah, and we learned it by discussing it in Hebrew.  So we were learning both Biblical Hebrew and conversational Hebrew.  Since we learned the medieval commentaries, I suppose one might say that we learned medieval Hebrew as well.  They seemed to me far more alike than Shakespearean and modern English, as I’ve said,

 

Lewis Reich

lbr AT sprynet.com

 

From: K Randolph [mailto:kwrandolph AT gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, April 28, 2013 1:38 AM
To: Lewis Reich
Cc: b-hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] בעדי

 

Lewis:

 

On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 8:25 PM, Lewis Reich <lbreich AT alum.mit.edu> wrote:

Modern Hebrew is, I think, closer to Biblical Hebrew than modern English is to Shakespearean English; my elementary school study of the Torah was a perfectly effective foundation for modern conversational Hebrew.

 

Was what you learned really Biblical Hebrew, or medieval Hebrew? Especially elementary school study? Was your elementary school learning based on modern Hebrew, or at least medieval Hebrew, using modern grammar, modern vocabulary, etc.?

 

From what I can tell, Masoretic Hebrew was early medieval Hebrew, which is one reason why their dots are sometimes off. Further, it’s pretty much a given that Masoretic pronunciation differed from Biblical pronunciation. You mention Torah, and Torah is on the whole simpler Hebrew (because of the nature of its content) than some of the prophets and writings.

 

But my experience with modern Hebrew is mostly connected with written Hebrew, not spoken, and modern written Hebrew is so different that I can’t understand it.

 

Lewis Reich
lbr AT sprynet.com

Please excuse brevity and misspellings in messages sent from my phone.

 

Karl W. Randolph.

 

On Apr 27, 2013 1:00 PM, "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:

 

Modern Hebrew is a very different creature from Biblical Hebrew—different grammar, different vocabulary, different spelling, different expressions, etc. I don’t know modern Israeli Hebrew, nor other cognate languages, hence my understanding of Biblical Hebrew is uncontaminated from such sources.

 

Karl W. Randolph.