Isaac writes: > precisely because it is all unnecessary. > Hebrew functions perfectly well > without these theoretical fantasies.
Languages function pretty well without a LOT of things that many cultures somehow found rather necessary to include in their language. English (mostly) no longer has noun cases nor gender. Hebrew lacks many of the untranslatable niceties added within a sentence found in Cantonese that give the context of why the speaker is speaking what he is speaking (such as in answer to a question, or summing up what he had been discussing for the past 15 minutes). Sign languages are stripped of even more things not found in their host languages. Just because you don't see why it was necessary now doesn't mean that 2500 years ago it was likewise thought so. Most English speakers can't fathom why anyone would need nor want noun case, but a speaker of Old English wouldn't fathom why or how anyone could go without noun cases. The same would apply with Hebrew. If you were to be interested in Arabic and those other Semitic languages you brush aside as having no relation to Hebrew, you might see why vowel and consonant length were important. Your attitude reminds me of those King James Version only adherents (kind of a "this is what I am use to, so this is what it has always been and always will be" outlook). Is there something we are missing that, to you, clearly indicates that there was never any consonant length? -- Ratson Naharädama Denver, Colorado _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
