Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Dear Dave:

I changed the subject because it appears that this is another thread.

On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 10:55 AM, Dave Washburn <davidlwashburn AT gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, May 29, 2013 at 10:18 AM, K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com> wrote:

Even with modern languages, the only way to become really fluent in another language is to immerse oneself in that language. Academic studies can carry one only so far.

But we can't do this with biblical Hebrew, because we have a seriously limited corpus. So it's not possible to "immerse oneself" in the language, because we have so little of it. for that reason, we have to find other ways to understand it.

No we can’t in the full way as with modern languages.

But what is the closest we can get to that with the corpus that we have? Is it not just reading the text we have over and over again? And memorizing whole chapters? 

…

How many times someone has read the whole book has little or nothing to do with a mistake like this. This is just a matter of not doing one's homework. I've only read it through once, but I know enough to do a search with all the resources at my disposal before making statements like this.

Had your teacher told you a simple error like this, would you have trusted your teacher, or made your own search to verify your teacher? How many of your fellow students would have questioned your professor, had he made a simple mistake like this?

I probably spent more time trying to get the Biblical Hebrew verbal system to fit the aspectual model than I would have had my professor not recommended that this is the way to go.

 

… I'm not just talking about this one example, but an overall approach to the academic pursuit of BH. Sometimes it's counter-productive. I'm just sayin'.

Okay, I’ll bite.

Unless I’m mistaken, the biggest difference I have with the academic pursuit of BH is the importance of studying the cognate languages. Especially the cognate languages of Mishnaic and modern Israeli Hebrews. Unless a person has a really firm grasp of Biblical Hebrew, the cognate languages will influence how a student understands Biblical Hebrew. That influence can be so strong as completely to distort how one understands Biblical Hebrew.

An example of such cross-influence was the claim made by someone on this list that the default pattern for present referent, simple action spoken sentences is subject, verb in participle, optional object. That’s the pattern of modern Hebrew. But is it Biblical? There are a few verses that seem to point that way, but the majority of recorded spoken sentences with present reference and simple action have a different pattern, namely subject, verb in Qatal, optional object. So which is the default pattern? Given that pattern, would one have even considered the modern Israeli Hebrew pattern had he learned only Biblical Hebrew and only read Tanakh for learning?

So how does one protect against such distortion?

How would you prevent such cross-influence? 

--
Dave Washburn

Check out my Internet show: http://www.irvingszoo.com

Now available: a novel about King Josiah!

Karl W. Randolph.