Dear Trevor,The Jews living at Elephantine i.e. Aswan may well have lost their Hebrew language just like many migrant communities lose theirs in a melting pot. That doesn't mean that the people back home lost their language. Italian Americans may have to write letters in English, even to relatives in Italy; in America they have lost their language, but that doesn't mean it is no longer spoken in Italy.
You wrote:
You might want to do some reading on this subject. It has been
extensively discussed, and I think there's quite a bit of evidence
suggesting that Hebrew actually was a spoken language, side-by-side with
Aramaic.
What seems to belie this are the Aramaic papyri from Elephantine.
I"ve been trying to understand why Jews writing private letters to each
other
would be in Aramaic. One reason may be that the scribes they used only wrote
Aramaic, not Hebrew. Another reason tho may be that the people themselves
did
not speak Hebrew. Would we be able to tell the difference do you think?
Liz
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