I would be very interested in any counter-arguments, from those who are actually aware of the differences between dead and living languages. I presume that the changes between BH and Mishnaic Hebrew are not in dispute (although their dating may be in dispute cf. your pilot project). Has anyone given evidence of analogous changes happening in dead languages?As I recall (and I have no doubt that Ken is more familiar with this issue than I am), Qimron argues that in BH, QH, and RH, we are not dealing with three chronological stages of a single linguistic stream; rather, the evidence is best explained in terms of three different Hebrew dialects, each with its own history. I don't recall whether the idea is that they represent the dialects of three different regions, or literary vs. spoken, or exactly what picture he envisions. Perhaps it is not a settled issue, even for him. Nevertheless, I agree with Ken that it doesn't seem like there is consensus in the field on how the three dialects relate to one another.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.