Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Did you know that logomachy (pronounced: loh-gom-uh-kee) is a dispute  
about words? I did not know it until today.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 7, 2013, at 2:21 PM, Nir cohen - Prof. Mat. wrote:

> isaac,
>
>  you really outdid yourself this time!
>
> nir cohen
>
>
> On Tue, 7 May 2013 11:53:04 -0400, Isaac Fried wrote
> > .....But all this is of no interest to
> > Hebrew, and  will not be accepted, on emotional - ideological
> > grounds, by the  Europeans, the same way some people vehemently
> > reject the idea that  man evolved from ape. Will the English submit
> > to the idea that their  queen is speaking pidgin Hebrew?
> >
> > 2. The idea of Proto-Semitic was introduced into "Hebrew Studies" at
> >  the Hebrew University in Jerusalem by professors who were educated
> > in  Germany and Austria, where they picked it from the immutable
> >  prevailing belief in Proto-IE. They eagerly adopted it, I believe,
> >  to  sound scientific, and thus gain acceptance. We don't need
> > Germany's  academic approval any more, possibly the reverse.
> >
> > 3. Aramaic appears to me to be but bastard Hebrew, and the genetic
> > relationship between Hebrew and Arabic is a mystery, and so any
> > search for a common ancestral language is, in my opinion, futile. I
> > dismiss "Akkadian" and "Ugaritic" as they are but tentative
> > languages, and of which I know nothing (and I don't think they are
> > worth the effort to "study".)