Dear Peter,
As the voice of moderation where you can see the evidence from both sides,
let me ask you this question.
It seems that the disagreement over the "shin," "sin," West Semitic,
Biblical Hebrew, etc. is on what presuppositions come to the table?
For
example, If I believe that text of the Tanakh (the Law of Moses) was written
during the period of the Exodus of 1446-45 to 1407-1406 BC, then I believe
that Biblical Hebrew began at THAT time. If I believe that Tanakh (Law of
Moses) was not written until sometime later (usually after Rameses II), then
I will include Biblical Hebrew as part of he West Semitic dialects including
Ugaritic. Furthermore, whichever view I go with, these presuppositions will
be reflected in the discussion of the comparative historical linguistics.
It seems that Yitzhak and Karl need to step back and stop the name calling,
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