So, Reinhard, you feel that no answer can be truly given to my original question, namely (a little changed now):
*Which is/are the pair/s of today current languages whose relation to each other would be similar -at least at, say, an extent of 80 %-- to the relation between biblical Hebrew and biblical Aramaic?* Would you deny that French/Italian is a suitable pair? Or, as Yigal suggested, French and Catalan? Kind regards from Pere Porta (Barcelona, Catalonia, Northeastern Spain) 2011/6/5 R. Lehmann <[email protected]> > Not at all. > There is sufficient evidence that at least Old Testament times Hebrew and > Aramaic were incompatible foreign languages to each other, and in my opinion > it is well-proven that the phonemic repertory of both languages was well > distinct and different throughout Old Testament times. > However, the tricky point is the specification "Biblical", and the question > whether we deal with "languages" at all. Is there "a" Biblical Hebrew > language, or are there some and more Biblical Hebrew languages, and, what is > more, is Biblical Hebrew a language at all (? See for the last question the > important papers of the late Edward Ullendorf, Is Biblical Hebrew a > Language?, in: Is Biblical Hebrew a Language? Studies in Semitic Languages > and Civilizations. Wiesbaden 1977.3-17, > and Ernst Axel Knauf, War "Biblisch-hebräisch" eine Sprache? Empirische > Gesichtspunkte zur linguistischen Annäherung an die Sprache der > althebräischen Literatur: ZAH 3 (1990) 11-23. > The same can be debated with Biblical Aramaic. > > BIBLICAL Hebrew and BIBLICAL Aramaic look so similar and contiguous only > because they both were, as being "Biblical", encoded by the same system (the > masoretic) and in a time (9th-10th century CE) when both languages in Jewish > tradition had melted to a certain extent. > > > ¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨ > Dr. Reinhard G. Lehmann > Academic Director > Research Unit on Ancient Hebrew & Epigraphy > FB 01/ Faculty of Protestant Theology > Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz > D-55099 Mainz > Germany > [email protected] > http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de > http://www.ev.theologie.uni-mainz.de/297.php > Subsidia et Instrumenta Linguarum Orientis (SILO): > http://www.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/182.php > 10th Mainz International Colloquium on Ancient Hebrew (MICAH): > http://www.micah.hebraistik.uni-mainz.de/204.php > > > > > Message: 1 > > Date: Sat, 04 Jun 2011 12:42:34 -0400 (EDT) > > From: Will Parsons <[email protected]> > > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Similar to...... > > To: [email protected] > > Cc: [email protected] > > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > > Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii > > > > On Fri, 3 Jun 2011 10:30:35 +0000, George Athas < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> French and Italian. Clearly related, and yet still morphologically and > >> phonetically different enough to sound very distinct. > > > > That's probably a reasonable comparison with respect to morphology and > > vocabulary, but is it true on a phonetic level? I rather think that once > > Hebrew became replaced by Aramaic as a native tongue, it is unlikely > there > > could have survived a native Hebrew phonemic system distinct from that of > > Aramaic. So, in this respect Hebrew and Aramaic would be closer to each > other > > than to even such closely related languages as Spanish and Portuguese (or > > since the original question came from [I believe] a Catalan speaker, > Spanish > > and Catalan). > > > >> From: Pere Porta <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> > >> Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 11:39:50 +0200 > >> To: B-Hebrew <[email protected]<mailto: > [email protected]>> > >> Subject: [b-hebrew] Similar to...... > >> > >> Dear b-hebrew listers, > >> > >> I need to know some answer to this question: > >> > >> The relation between the biblical Hebrew and the biblical Aramaic.... > what > >> is it like, compared with today languages? > >> > >> Is it similar to the relation, say, between English and German? > >> Is it similar to the relation between Spanish and Portuguese? > >> Is it similar to the relation between French and Italian? > >> Is there a better comparison than these? > >> > >> What do you think? > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > b-hebrew mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew > -- Pere Porta _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
