Comments on: A Different Angle on the Hebrew Question

By: Biblical Studies Carnival XXV at Targuman

Biblical Studies Carnival XXV at Targuman — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 05:48:16 +0000

[...] James Getz at Ketuvim continued the discussion of the origin of the Hebrew language with a most interesting post, “A Different Angle on the Hebrew Question.” [...]

By: jimgetz

jimgetz — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 15:32:50 +0000

Duane, you’re of course correct that any adoption would need to be shown on a case-by-case basis, and I’m only providing one glaring and obvious data point, but I think this would be a good way to prove or disprove Rainey’s ideas.

I’m glad you brought up the east/west split in Northwest Semitic. I’ve wondered about this as well: a distinct set of eastern isoglosses found in Hebrew, Moabite, etc. and a western set found in the Phoenician cities on the coast.

By: Duane

Duane — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 21:20:32 +0000

Very interesting. I think adoption needs to be shown on a case-by-case basis just as I think language migration needs to be shown on a case-by-case basis. So, I’m not so sure about the analogy, but it is interesting. By the way, on a quick reading of the Ekron inscription, one might think that ‘dth, “his lady,” is diagnostic of Phoenician. But see the PN ‘dt’ in Reifenberg Seal 7. If forced to bet, I’d bet Rainey would think it “Canaanite.” On a related subject, it might be instructive to study the Canaanite stuff in the Amarna letters from east to west rather than from north to south as is normally done. I do worry that the north-south isoglosses might swamp out any east-west isoglosses. But if one could isolate “eastern” elements that were more Hebrew like and “western” elements that were more Phoenician like it would be most interesting.