uri, my interest in linguistics is basically diachronic, and at times i use a reflection of the present use as a possible clue to understanding its past use. clearly i do not imply them to be equal, but often there is a clear evolution between them.
some people may disagree, but i assume that diachronic arguments are not banned in this forum. [though in the case of X$ML=electricity i fully agree with you. this term was re-defined in the late 19th century (by ben yehuda, i assume, given this new technology), so that it can give almost no clue as to earlier uses, in spite of isaac's protests.] but there is a more relevant argument here. when one is discussing not the text itself but its modern translators [and this was the original question about )NW$], one cannot avoid considering possible biases they have introduced, for example, by consulting the modern dialect. here i was pointing at exactly such a possible bias. the translator, influenced by the meaning "incurable" of "XWLH )NW$", may have been led to translate the isolate )NW$ as equally "incurable", when this was not necessarily the original meaning. nir cohen >> De: Uri Hurwitz <[email protected]> Para: [email protected] Data: Wed, 10 Oct 2012 09:15:06 -0700 (PDT) Assunto: [b-hebrew] Jeremiah 17:9 Perhaps somebody can explain what is the purpose of citing in this list modern usage of Hebrew, sometimes totally different from the one used well over two thousand years before in biblical texts? >> To give just one example : what is the use of citing the modern Heb. term Hashmal (electricity), with with its source in Ezekiel? It may be of interest to those who study the development of the modern language, but this is outside the realm of this list. And, of course, most users of this list do not know, and need not know modern Hebrew. Uri Hurwitz _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
