History of the Hebrew Language

History of the Hebrew Language
David Steinberg
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrewtoc.htm

History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language
By David Steinberg
David.Steinberg@houseofdavid.ca

Home page

http://www.houseofdavid.ca/
http://www.adath-shalom.ca/history_of_hebrew.htm

Biblical Hebrew Poetry - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience

Table of Contents

1. Survey of the Semitic languages;
2. History of Hebrew from its pre-history to the present

2.1. Biblical Hebrew

2.2. Mishnaic Hebrew

2.3. Between the Mishnah

and the Revival of Hebrew in the Late 19^th Century

2.4. Modern or Israeli Hebrew

2.5. The “Feel” of Biblical vs. Israeli Hebrews

2.6. Israeli Hebrew and Modern Arabic – a Few Differences and Many Parallels

3. Select Bibliography

4. Tables and Excurses

Illustration - The Semitic Family of Languages

Box 1 - Scripts and Scripture

Excursus 1 - Evolution of Pronunciation and Stress Patterns

Table 1 - History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Pronoun

Box 2 - Third Person Masculine Pronominal Suffix: A Problem of Timing

Table 2 - Stressed Noun Suffixes in Biblical Hebrew

Table 2a Locative ה

Table 3 - History of Stress and Pronunciation of the Hebrew Verb

Excursus 2 - Phonemic Structure of Hebrew

a. What is a Phoneme?

Table 4 - Consonantal Phonemes in Biblical, Tiberian Masoretic and Israeli Hebrew

Table 5 – Vowel System of Tiberian Hebrew

b. Ancient Hebrew Orthography Provides Some, But Not Much, Guidance Regarding the Placement, and Nature of Vowels

Box 3 - Diphthongs

Box 4 - Matres Lectionis (Vowel Letters) 1

Box 5 - Matres Lectionis (Vowel Letters) 2

Box 6 - Matres Lectionis in the Biblical Text

The Three Orthographic Elements in the Masoretic Text

Table 6 - Proto-Semitic Phonemes (Consonants) Exhibiting Sound Shifts in Hebrew and Their Equivalents in Aramaic and Classical Arabic

Table 7 - Biblical Hebrew Phonemes (Consonants) of Multiple Origin and their Equivalents in Proto-Semitic, Classical Arabic, Aramaic and Ugaritic

· Consonants that Were Distinct and Phonemic in the First Temple Period that Have Merged in Modern Pronunciation

· Consonants that Exist in Modern Pronunciation but were absent in Hebrew of the First Temple Period

Excursus 3 - Bi-literal Origin of Many Tri-literal Hebrew Roots

Table 8 - שׁכח In Ps. 137:5 Possible Proto-Semitic Origins of the Root

Table 9 - Consonantal Phonemes in Biblical, Tiberian Masoretic and Israeli Hebrew

Table 10 - Some other Key Phonemic Distinctions in Biblical, Tiberian Masoretic and Israeli Hebrew

Box 7 - Was Vowel Quantity Phonemic in Biblical Hebrew?

Table 11 - Original Typical Semitic 3 Way Opposition in Biblical Hebrew Reduced to 2 Way in Israeli Hebrew with Loss of Emphatics

Table 12 - Voiced, Voiceless and Emphatic Consonants in Biblical Hebrew

Table 13 - Some Impacts of Phonemic Change Between Biblical and Israeli Hebrew

Table 14 - Verbal Stems (Binyanim) in Biblical (above slash) and Israeli Hebrew Using GDL as example

Excursus 4 - Growth in the Number and Range of Israeli Hebrew Verbs

Excursus 5 - Changes in the Meanings of Tenses

Box 8 - The Origin of the “waw conversive"

Table 15 - Tenses Used for English Translations of Some Verb Forms in the Psalms

Table 16 - Psalms – Perfect and Imperfect Used in the Same Verse

Excursus 6 - New Word Formation

Excursus 7 - Changes in Syntax

Excursus 8 - Is Israeli Hebrew Unique in Being a Western Language (semantics, use of tenses etc.) Under a Semitic Skin (grammar, vocabulary, semantics, syntax)?