Wait... wait... I am somewhat redeemed!
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew.htm 2.1 Biblical HebrewAs stated earlier, Biblical Hebrew (see Steiner and Encyclopedia Judaica) is the literary form of the very conservative dialect of Jerusalem. It crystallized in Jerusalem about 900 BCE and showed little change until the Babylonian Exile in the 6th century BCE. From then on it became more and more an archaic literary vehicle radically different from the spoken Hebrew. As a literary dialect it was used until the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
Biblical Hebrew can be divided into:
� a poetic form, used in e.g. Job, Psalms;
� a semi-poetic form of rhythmic speech used in e.g. Isaiah which may be compared to blank verse; and,
� a prose form which was probably fairly close to spoken Hebrew of the early First Temple period.
The poetic form is more archaic, uses a special vocabulary and the poetry written in it is highly stylized (see references in the Selected Bibliography below). The earliest poems may date from 1100 or 1200 BCE and the latest from about 450 BCE.
The prose form is much more straight-forward. It is divided into:
� a standard form used from about 900-500 BCE e.g. Genesis, Samuel, Kings; and,
� a later form influenced by spoken Hebrew and Aramaic
The Wisdom Books, such as Proverbs, are written with a special vocabulary where ordinary words may have special meanings.
2.2 Mishnaic HebrewWith the destruction of the First Temple (587 BCE) the scribal schools and royal patronage of writers ended, Jerusalem was depopulated, the country was ruined and much of the population was exiled to Babylonia where the common language was Aramaic. Later, a small number of Babylonian Jews, probably mainly Aramaic speaking, returned to Judah where they provided the leadership, under Persian imperial patronage, for a slow restoration of Jerusalem and a much reduced Judah known as the province of Yahud.
When written sources again give us a look in, the linguistic situation of the country was:
� Greek was widely spoken in (see map of Hellenistic and Herodian Cities):
o Coastal plain;
o Decapolis (Jordan Valley north of the main Jewish area in Trans-Jordan);
o Greek cities within Jewish areas in Galilee;
o Greek cities within Samaritan populated areas of central and northern Samaria;
o Greek cities within Idumean areas in the northern Negev i.e. what was formerly the southern section of the territory of the tribe of Judah.
� Aramaic was the majority language of the country. Probably it was the only language, other than Greek, spoken throughout the country except for some areas of Judea between Lod and Jericho. It seems to have been the language of the upper classes in Jerusalem; and,
� A proto-Mishnaic form of Hebrew was probably spoken, along with Aramaic in some areas of Judea between Lod and Jericho;, and
� Late Biblical Hebrew which was a literary language, along side Greek and Aramaic for the Jewish population. There were no speakers of this artificial tongue. This is not dissimilar to the situation of Modern Literary Arabic today or Church Latin in the middle ages.
<<< meaning it was spoken in Church ceremony but not by the populus in general -ray>>
<< next we deal with common Hebrew -ray>>>
Spoken Hebrew underwent great changes of three kinds:
� Natural developments internal to the language (see Segal, Kutscher, Bendavid);
� A mixing of dialects due to the political upheavals, exile etc.; and
� The profound influence of Aramaic in vocabulary, semantics and grammar including inflection.
Christian scholars have, at times, claimed that Hebrew was completely replaced by Aramaic during this period. However, Segal, Greenfield and Levine have demonstrated that this was not the case. Modern linguistic study, research on contemporary sources, the Bar Kochba letters in a popular spoken Hebrew all show that Hebrew was <<at least>>a spoken language of southern Palestine until at least 135 CE when, in the wake of the Bar Kochba rebellion, the Romans evicted or killed the Jewish population in the areas in which Hebrew was still spoken. At that point, Aramaic and Greek became virtually the only spoken languages of the whole of what is now Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. An early form of Arabic was already spoken on the desert fringes of this area.
The Roman suppression of the first Jewish revolt against Rome (67-70 CE), including the destruction of Jerusalem led to a social-cultural-religious collapse. This included the disappearance of the priestly aristocracy and Jewish groups such as the Sadducees and Essenes <<last traces of Biblical Hebrew??>>. The earliest Rabbinic literature dates from the period 70-200 CE and it is written in the spoken Hebrew of the time, called, after the most famous literary product of the time, Mishnaic Hebrew.
I will say a few words about Mishnaic Hebrew.
In 1st century BCE-first century CE Judea many native Hebrew speakers would have been able to speak, or at least understand, Aramaic. It must be remembered, that Aramaic and Hebrew are about as different as Spanish and Italian. For example,
<<< a few lines deleted>>>
As I mentioned, Mishnaic Hebrew is very different from Biblical Hebrew - certainly more different than present day English is from the language of Shakespeare though less different than that of our language from that of Chaucer. It differed from Biblical Hebrew in the use of tenses, syntax, grammar and vocabulary. It was not used for poetry, prophecy or high prose. However, what it lacked in grandeur, grace and dignity it made up in precision. Mishnaic Hebrew probably preserves many words for work-a-day objects and activities that were never mentioned in the Bible due to the subjects discussed in the Bible or, more accurately, not discussed. Examples might include kevesh (preserves); gaHar (jetty) and zol (cheapness).
2.3 Between the Mishnah and the Revival of Hebrew in the Late 19th Century
All forms of Hebrew used in this period consisted, in varying portions, of 4 elements:
� Biblical Hebrew
� Mishnaic Hebrew
� The writers� native language
� Literary models that the writer was imitating consciously or unconsciously
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Unless I read this with wishful eyes - it semms to say that there did exist a Late Biblical Hebrew (used by Temple) a commonly spoken Hebrew (much diluted by local influences) and that common Hebrew was kin enough to current Aramaic so as to be understood.
yes?
-ray
